Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 1598186302, Paperback)

The Holden Electromechanical Educator made its inventors' five-year-old son the mental equal of most adults. It also made him an orphan. For someone wanted it badly enough to kill Jimmy Holden's mother and father brutally, while the boy watched.

The only one he had left to turn to was his guardian, Paul Brennan. But Paul Brennan's was the face he had seen when his parents' murderer was struck. . . .

The first time Jimmy ran away, he was caught easily. The next time as well. The third time, he had a plan -- and the means to carry it out. He would be safe now from Paul Brennan -- but not from the one thing he lacked: the fourth "R."

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George O. Smith, ground-breaking author of Venus Equilateral, is at his best in this gripping thriller, which is at the same time a stimulating novel of ideas.