JIMMY WATSON - His mother, Marion, teases her son about his dreams to build a large robot ant with a drawing of her son riding on the ant's back. Then it comes true.

CHAPTER 15 - IT MOVES PROMPTING SECRET SERVICE MI6 PM BUCKINGHAM PALACE REVIEW

The Ministry of Defence had chalked Jimmy Watson's experimental project down to fanciful at best. But when the programming genius boots up his programs and they make a successful handshake, the Dinobot moves for the first time. Somewhat shocked, the Secret Service panic, MI6, the British Secret Service made famous by James Bond movies, change their minds, issuing an emergency Memo to the Prime Minister and the King, at Buckingham Palace. In some small way, hoping the PM and His Majesty might overlook the message, with so much on his mind.

But that was not to be the case. 

King Charles III reached for his desk phone. "I say Penny, could you get me the Prime Minister, and then Field Marshal Sir Rodney Dunbar - will you." Speaking to his private secretary. "Make it a scrambled conference call. Thank you." The King smiled gratefully.

Of course your Majesty. Penny (Penelope), Lady Moneysworth, had been on the Kings staff for long enough to know when something important had cropped up.

"Call for the Prime Minister." "Right away please." The receptionist at Number 10, was exceptionally efficient also.

Prime Minister, Edward Thomas, answered. "Thomas here." 

"Hold the line please. The King would like a word with you, and Sir Rodney. A security conference call."

"Righto, Ms Moneysworth. Holding the line."

Lady Moneysworth called the MI6 hotline. "Hello, call for General Dunbar."

Calls of this kind from Buckingham Palace, were high priority, 24/7, 365 days of the year. They were also very rare occurrences.

"Dunbar speaking. 

A call from the King, with the PM included."

"Thankyou Ms Moneysworth."

The King heard the connections making. "Gentlemen, what am I to make of the Jimmy Watson, Memo? Speak plainly please."

"Sorry, your Majesty," said Edward Thomas, "did you say the Jimmy Watson Memo?"

"That I did."

"You Majesty, pardon me for interjecting, the PM may not have had the opportunity to read the document. I'll ping it over to him." The Field Marshall, sent the email. A few moments silence followed, during which the PM scanned the document.

"Okay, seen it. Perhaps Sir Rodney might take point?"

"With your permission, your Majesty?"

"Please do proceed Sir Rodney, my curiosity is aroused."

"Your Majesty, the MEMO is to advise, that what was thought to be a far-fetched aspiration of a schoolboy, seems to have taken a big step forward. Catching our boys in white coats off guard, so to speak. In that they believed the vehicle project would stall."

"Vehicle?"

"Yes, your Majesty. It is a vehicle, called a hexapod. Basically, a robot that walks on six legs, much like an insect."

"And the chaps in white coats?"

"Your Majesty, these are the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, or EPSRC for short, and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, or DSTL for short. They maximise the impact of Science and Technology. S&T for short, for the defence and security of the UK, reporting of course, to the Ministry of Defence and wider government. They operate from three main sites at Porton Down, near Salisbury, Portsdown West, Portsmouth, and Fort Halstead, near Sevenoaks. Then there is the Alan Turing Institute, operating out of the British Library, 96 Euston Road, London. They work to combat cyber crime; cyber security."

"Hmmm. Not so in this case?"

"No, your Majesty. The boffins were caught out, in turn alerting the MOD and Secret Service out, with the originating Memo."

"How so?"

"Well, nobody believed the programming would work, the way this boy had arranged his processors."

"Boy?"

"Yes, your Majesty, the boy is Jimmy Watson, the subject of the Memo."

"I see. And the boy where is he?"

"He is a pupil at a Secondary school in Hailsham, East Sussex. Er, their Community College, to be precise."

"Is he a good boy?"

"Well, your Majesty, it seems he is an exemplary student. There is though a complication."

"Complication?"

"Yes, your Majesty. His father is a General in the British Army, working for the Secret Service, sort of, in Germany."

"Ah. And you are saying Jimmy's father is a security risk?"

"Well, um, not exactly. Clean as a whistle. But he could be, and we cannot take the risk. Perhaps we should arrest them both. And the boy's mother, and interrogate them. Or, hold them and sweat them for a while?"

King Charles did not like that thought. A bit Draconian, unless, there was a smoking gun.

"Your Majesty, might I interject?"

"Please do so Prime Minister."

"If the boy is a good student, and his father is clean. Why would we want to ruin their lives, and make them potential enemies of the State, by being so blatantly unfair? If Sir Rodney investigates and finds there is something amiss. For example, a breach of the Official Secrets Act. Then perhaps we might sanction action. Presumably, a prosecution. But even so, the boy should not be treated so shamefully."

"I tend to agree. There are too many cases of heavy handed local authorities I won't stand for that. They make a mistake, and it ends up costing the taxpayer. Costing the realm. We don't want another mistake, that might ruin the efforts of a good student. I should like a full report on Jimmy Watson, and his father please. Do not wade in mob handed. By all means take all the usual precautions, as it appears you already are. But, under no circumstances stifle the obvious creativity of the youngster, without my express permission. Is that clear?"

"Yes, your Majesty." Both the PM and Sir Rodney answered in unison.

"Okay then. Thank you gentlemen." The phone went dead.

Secretly, the King was livid. A Memo like that may have slid past him, giving the secret service the green light. He made a mental note to do something about it. When the Kingdom was less challenged, perhaps. He did not want to make trouble, where there was none.

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