He stepped to the desk, dialed a number and stepped back.
"That's him," he said.
In the screen a man was sitting before a chess table. The pieces were in mid-game. Across the board stood a beautifully machined robotic.
The man reached out a hand, thoughtfully played his knight. The robotic clicked and chuckled. It moved a pawn. Benton's shoulders hunched forward and he bent above the board. One hand came around and scratched the back of his neck.
"Oscar's got him worried," said Herkimer. "He always has him worried. Mr. Benton hasn't won a single game in the last ten years."
"Why does he keep on playing, then?"
"Stubborn," said Herkimer. "But Oscar's stubborn, too."
He made a motion with his hand.
"Machines can be so much more stubborn than humans. It's the way they're built."
"But Benton must have known, when he had Oscar fabricated, that Oscar would beat him," Sutton pointed out. "A human simply can't beat a robotic expert."