To read a document effectively, RPA typically relies on two key supporting technologies:

"Arthur, what the hell?" Jenna shouted, reaching for the emergency stop.

Some popular RPA reader tools include:

Then it did something not in the manual. It ejected the page. Not into the "completed" bin, but onto the floor. A single, deliberate flutter.

His supervisor, a relentlessly cheerful woman named Jenna who wore sneakers with her suits, explained the transition. "Arthur, the RPA Reader is going to handle the backlog. All those boxes from the '50s, the '60s, the unsorted military pensions from the Panama era? It’ll eat them for breakfast. You, my friend, are on 'quality assurance.'"

He fed it another page. This one was a personnel file from the Panama Canal Zone, 1964. The RPA Reader’s lens flickered. The claw reached out, not to the paper, but to Arthur. It paused an inch from his chest, then retreated. On the screen, a single line appeared:

The RPA Reader accepted it. And then it spat it out again.