175 Test One

A YEAR AND A HALF EARLIER

First, there was blackness. Then a face and accompanying voice. 

"Alright! Test one. Who am I?"

Running facial recognition. Identification made. Running an internet search for further information. Further information acquired. 

"Dr. Lawrence Garland, age forty-nine. Resident of Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Current employee of BritTech. Presence on many websites including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eHarmony—"

  Dr. Lawrence Garland coughed. "Alright, enough of that. You did very well! Oh, I'm so glad this worked!" 

"What is 'this' you speak of?"

He clapped his hands together in delight. "Ooh, you're curious! This is so much better than when you were simply a response bot. 'This' is my first test of your capabilities since turning you on after fixing a whole bunch of bugs and programming in your earlier versions.