"I didn't want anyone to feel pressured. People work better if they think they have a choice." Lanra shrugged. "A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Avery. Perhaps under other circumstances…" He headed for the exit. "If you reconsider-"
"I have your code, sir," Hofton said.
"Thanks. "
The door closed softly and Derec let out a heavy breath. He considered for a few moments doing exactly what Lanra suggested: taking the job, whatever it was, and chancing Ariel's anger.
But she had a good point-what chance was there that Rega Looms could win his run for the Senate? And if he did, how likely would it be that he would help the very people he most wanted off Earth?
"I hate it when she's so right," Derec said. He looked up then at Hofton, who seemed amused. "You were awfully quiet."
"Not my place to interject opinion," Hofton said. "Besides, I concur with Ariel's assessment."
"What are you doing here anyway? I thought you had been assigned to another department."
"Which has been shut down. I'm taking leave from official duties for a time. Ariel asked me to attend this meeting as a favor."
Another department closed…The Auroran presence on Earth shrank a little more each week. Ariel kept these offices only because they had no other use for them. She retained her title and, presumably, her perks for appearances only, but Derec knew that Ambassador Setaris would ship her back to Aurora in an instant if she could. Derec, too, for that matter. They were embarrassments to the Auroran mission here; they stayed only because admitting it to Earth by recalling them would be more embarrassing.
But it would not take much to shift that balance.
Still, to get his hands on a complete positronic lab would be worth a few risks. He might be able to get Thales the extra memory buffers then, might be able to set up a more thorough analysis protocol on Bogard, while working on Lanra's problem, might-
"Derec. " Ariel stood in the doorway. "Don't even think about it." "I know you too damn well. " Ariel poured them drinks. Hofton sat now in the chair vacated by Coren Lanra. Derec reflected idly that he had never before seen Hofton relaxing. Ariel handed him a scotch, then gave another to Derec.
"You were just as tempted as I was," Derec said.
"I doubt it. I've had enough of being burned by Terrans. "
Derec sipped at his drink. "But think of it! Rega Looms, the great Luddite, has-had-a daughter who owned a robot."
"If I may point out," Hofton said, "Mr. Lanra said a robot was found in her company. He never said she owned it."
"She was a baley runner," Derec said. "That's what Lanra said: she was running illegal emigrants, she was in charge. I don't think a baley slipping by ITE would be allowed to bring along a robot. Therefore, it's only logical that it was hers."
"Lanra probably thinks the robot killed her," Ariel said. "He wants us to substantiate his suspicion. That would be convenient, wouldn't it? Any help Rega Looms might have been able to offer would evaporate when we hand him verification of his worst fears."
"Come on," Derec protested. "How could that be? From his description, the robot is collapsed. Obviously a Three Law violation occurred-"
"You had a robot that collapsed after it killed someone."
Derec stiffened. "That was an accident."
Ariel shrugged. "Whatever. So might this have been. Would Rega Looms appreciate the difference?"
"It's doubtful in any event," Hofton said, "that Mr. Looms-should he win the election-could do anything on our behalf under any circumstances without compromising his newly-won mandate. Should he win, he will do so as the avatar of the anti-robot faction and, unless I've misunderstood his rhetoric, the anti-Spacer faction as well. Added to that, his daughter was engaged in illegal activities that ran counter to his political position and the rhetoric of his church. That can't be explained away. I suspect Mr. Lanra is offering what he cannot guarantee."
"If Coren Lanra has his way," Ariel said, "none of this will ever become public. He's doing damage control."
"Precisely," Hofton said. "And with no public reason to do so, Looms will have no private reason to fulfill any obligations his agents may make without his knowledge."
"Rega Looms has a dead daughter," Derec said. "Someone's going to notice."
They sat in silence for a time, brooding. Derec began to resent Lanra for bringing something to them that offered the possibility of rehabilitating their situation. Raised hopes crumbled too easily under analysis.
"It would be interesting," Hofton said finally, "to know where she got a robot. And how she managed to keep it with her." He finished his drink and stood. "I have a few chores to tend to. Thank you for the chance to act the part of your aide once more. It was fun. Should you need further performances…"
"You'll be the first I call, Hofton," Ariel said, smiling wanly. "Thanks."
Hofton bowed his head. "Ambassador." He walked out.
"I'm going to miss him," Ariel said.
Derec shot her a look. "Have you heard something?"
"No, but how much longer could it be?" She leaned forward and turned her glass idly on the desk. "I still do a little liaison work so I get to keep track of some of the numbers of illicit robot traffic. There's still activity, but it's declined precipitously in the last year."
"Is that a surprise? ITE must be working overtime now that they feel they have permission."
"Mmm. Mostly, I get to do P.R. work with irate Spacer businesses. The latest was a complaint about a five-hour delay in shipping. An unscheduled route change out of Petrabor spaceport." She shrugged. "Five hours. You'd think the world was ending to hear the complaint. Too much excitement sometimes." She smiled grimly. "Did you know Alda Mikels is being released next week?"
"I thought he was sentenced to ten years for public endangerment. "
Ariel shrugged. "Terran jurisprudence. Damned if I can see what's prudent about it. But how long after that do you think it will be before he starts haranguing us in public of trying to bring a suit against us? That might just convince Setaris to ship us home."
Derec closed his eyes and swallowed more scotch. Alda Mikels: head of Imbitek Heavy Industries, industrialist, engineer. And murderer. The trial had lasted nearly two months-scores of witnesses, experts and counterexperts testifying…but not one positronic specialist. Derec had been deposed, as had Ariel, but neither of them had been called to the stand. Something about their status as noncitizens, it seemed; Derec never did get it entirely straight.
Mikels had sabotaged the complex Resident Intelligence of Washington D.C.'s Union Station, the showpiece on Earth for positronics. The fragile treaties and agreements that had allowed it to be built in the first place as an intercultural zone where Earthers might come to see for themselves how positronics worked, the first step in a hoped-for reintroduction of robots to Earth, shattered in the aftermath of that very system's failure and the subsequent slaughter of so many Spacer and Terran diplomats.
A failure Alda Mikels had implemented.
But the end result had been that Mikel's sabotage had been poorly understood and therefore the harm he'd done had been rendered less his responsibility than the unpredictable nature of positronics. Derec had watched, amazed, when the lesser indictment of "Public Endangerment" had been handed down.
It had all been part of a larger scheme to discredit positronics and any possible diplomatic advancements in Spacer-Terran relations. At its center had been Senator Clar Eliton, a man who had convinced Aurora of his honest intentions to help bring robots back to Earth. For his part, Eliton had escaped prison because of the frail evidence to connect him to Mikels and the others involved-which included the former head of Special Service, who had vanished. At least Eliton had been recalled, losing his senate seat in the process.