Mum rested her chin on her interlocked fingers.

‘That’s true, up to a point, Aiden,’ she said. ‘But it does depend on the programming and, most importantly, physical design. This dog does not have opposable thumbs, so it’s going to have real difficulty moving a chess piece, let alone picking up a paintbrush. Its vocal cords and all the physical stuff associated with sounds are based on a dog’s anatomy, so it won’t be able to speak, even if it becomes super-smart.’ She smiled. ‘I made you a dog. If you want to play chess and talk, that’s what your sister’s for. She’s just not as cute and adorable.’

‘Ha, ha,’ I said. ‘Anyway, I don’t want this dog to talk. I want it to be a dog.’

Mum told us a number of other things about our present, like how it would find a patch of sun when its energy levels started to fall, so that it could recharge. I picked him up from the table and placed him carefully on the floor. He licked my hand and I nearly died with pleasure.

‘What’s his name?’ I asked.

‘It’s your present,’ Mum said. ‘You and Aiden will have to work that out between you.’

‘Was it expensive to make?’ asked Aiden.

Mum pursed her lips and shook her head.

‘I’m not saying,’ she replied. ‘Not because I don’t want to tell you – and I do know, down to the dollar, how much Fido here cost to manufacture.’ She paused. ‘I just don’t want to say the figures out loud. They’d scare your father half to death and I know this because they sure as hell scare the living daylights out of me.’

That was fine by me. I didn’t care.

You couldn’t put a price on this present.

8

‘Oh, my God,’ said Charlotte. ‘He’s adorable. What’s his name?’

‘Zorro,’ I said. ‘Z for short.’

‘That’s a strange name.’

Aiden had suggested it. He pointed out that the dog had a dark patch over both eyes and there was a kind of zigzag pattern on his back where black fur was mottled in with grey. According to Aiden, Zorro was a really old fictional character, a bit like a superhero. He always wore a mask and he’d slash a ‘Z’ into things with a sword, like a sort of old-time tag. So Zorro it was.

It had only taken the dog a day to learn the sound of his name and it was incredibly cute when he jumped up and looked at you. He was also sitting on command, though sometimes he wouldn’t bother if he didn’t feel like it. I thought that was brilliant and just the way a real dog would behave. I didn’t always feel like doing what I was told, so why should a dog?

‘How does he get his power?’ asked Charlotte.

‘You see his fur? Each strand is a tiny fibre optic cable. All together they act like about a zillion solar panels.’