A Change of Plan - Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer Science and Other Improbable Things - page 82

Chapter 16. A Change of Plan
SECOND , the package's directions read, DELIVER TO BRUTO FUERZA, LOOKOUT HILL
LIGHTHOUSE . Laurie and Xor couldn't see any lighthouse, but there was a cloud of dust
rising from the hill.
“You work for Winsome, eh? Right on time,” said Bruto when they arrived. “I'm sorry to say
we're behind schedule. Our lighthouse isn't finished. We've been working double-time, day
and night.”
“Are you going to put the lighthouse on top of that castle?” Laurie asked.
“Castle?” asked Bruto. “That is the lighthouse.”
Dozens of Green-Shelled Round machines were busy all around the enormous structure.
They looked just like Tinker's turtle, but they were the size of a large truck. Instead of draw-
ing dots on paper, these turtles were laying bricks on top of bricks, making WALLs, STAIRs,
and WINDOWs right before Laurie's eyes.
“What are all those things coming out from the wall?” she asked, pointing to a forest of sup-
ports and buttresses on one side of the tower.
“We've had no end of problems,” said Bruto, shaking his head and spitting. “The south wall
was falling outward. So we had to shore it up. Then it started falling inward .”
“Is that why you're behind schedule?” she asked. There was something about the scene that
bothered Laurie, but she couldn't put her finger on it. It looked . . . messy.
“Things are always going wrong,” Bruto said. “Big ideas come with big risks. But we can fix
any problem with more power and hard work!”
“You certainly have a lot of both,” Laurie said, with just a teensy tiny bit of envy. The things
she could do with all those turtles! “How do you teach the turtles to build a tower?”