Circus of Prodigy — Mark Morris

When adolescents attending the School for the Masterful Application of Robotic Technology display their talents in the annual Circus of Prodigy, their parents find they are the victims of a massive identity theft. The brilliant inventor who founded the school is put in jail. His elaborate plot is set in motion. In the year 2035, students design autonomous robots, programming them to compete underwater, on the ground, and through the air of a massive dome teeming with wildlife. Their state-of-the-art design tools center around Chumi, an artificial intelligence that also serves as administrator of the school.

When the founder of the school is discovered to have evolved the students through a virus that connects their minds to the Internet, the children are placed under quarantine, enforced by the government's robotic soldiers. Some of the children plot an escape, forcing the President to choose between the slaughter of innocent children and acceptance of the superhuman homo conexus.