"I want a deeper background."
"Yes, sir."
"Also…also, display crime scene image from Sipha Palen's data."
The view spread across the screen. He stared at the bodies as the view rotated slowly through three-hundred-sixty degrees. Fifty-two people.
"Give me a copy of this, too, " he said. One more disk extruded from the slot.
He ran down the list of instructions just given and tried to think of anything overlooked. Nothing came to mind but he could never quite shake the feeling that he had missed something. Without Jeta Fromm or the dockworker Pocivil, all he had was Nyom's collapsed robot.
There's never enough time to do this right… The Spacer Embassy occupied a huge area on the eastern edge of D.C., in the heart of the government districts. Embassies, really, as the structure contained the missions for all the Spacer Worlds. Most had one set of offices, usually unoccupied. Of the Fifty Worlds, only a dozen maintained full-time staffs on Earth, Aurora and Solaria being the largest.
Just living on Earth marked these people as unique. Most Spacers disdained other worlds, especially the one that spawned them so long ago. But no group is completely homogeneous, and Spacers proved no exception. The total Spacer population on Earth never exceeded a few tens of thousands-a handful compared to populations in the many millions-but their presence made a powerful impression on Terrans.
Of them all, Coren reflected as he entered the main gallery of the Embassy, he preferred the Aurorans-they were the most approachable, the least defensive, compared to the xenophobic Solarians. To be sure, those Solarians living here did not share the degree of paranoia exhibited by most of their people in dealing with outsiders, but they still came across as standoffish and mistrustful.
Coren signed in at the reception desk and patiently received directions to the Auroran arm of the embassy building. He then retraced his path from the previous day.
Hofton met him in the reception lounge of Ambassador Burgess's offices. "The Ambassador is expecting you, Mr. Lanra. Mr. Avery is here as well. I trust this is acceptable."
"Completely."
Hofton escorted him into Burgess's office and closed the doors.
Ariel Burgess looked tired, with the beginnings of dark circles under her eyes. Derec Avery seemed much the same as he had yesterday.
"Mr. Lanra," Burgess said, rising from her seat and coming around the desk to clasp his hand. "Thank you for giving us a second opportunity to discuss your problem with us."
"Thank you, Ambassador. I have to tell you, I'm a little dismayed. "
"I'm a little surprised myself. It seems we have a parallel interest in your situation."
"Parallel interest…quid pro quo, then."
"If that's satisfactory."
"I don't have the luxury of time, Ambassador. What I need is a roboticist to see if anything can be salvaged from a collapsed positronic brain-the robot I told you about yesterday."
"It allegedly witnessed a mass murder," Derec Avery said. "Which would probably have precipitated the collapse."
"Possibly. "
"Let me guess," Burgess said. "You think the robot itself committed the crime. "
"A robot, certainly."
"Why?"
"We have no other viable suspect," he said. "Everyone who boarded the cargo bin used to shuttle the victims to Kopernik is accounted for-all dead. There was no way for a human to get out of it without breaking the internal seals in place inside the bin. So we're left with a suicide-murderer, or…" He pursed his lips. "I saw another robot board the bin with the victims. It was…unusual."
"A second robot," Ariel said. "You didn't mention this yesterday. "
"I didn't know if you'd be helping me or not."
"That might have changed our minds sooner." Coren held up his hands apologetically.
"You said it was unusual," Derec said. "How so?"
"It didn't register through my surveillance equipment. I could see it, as I see you, but through an optam it was invisible. Masked-what they used to call 'stealthed.' "
"We don't make robots like that," Ariel said. "That function is useless except for military or criminal purposes, and we don't-can't-use robots for either of those things."
"Nevertheless, I witnessed just such a robot."
"And when the bin was opened?" Derec asked. "Was it there?"
"No. Only Nyom Looms' robot was present. Here." He handed the disk containing Sipha's reports. "Go to the crime scene."
In a moment they huddled around Ariel's desk, gazing at a full holographic image of the interior of the cargo bin.
"This is what the security people on Kopernik found when they opened it up," Coren explained.
"What is that the robot is working on?" Derec asked.
"A rebreather unit. It contained a poison that caused neurological damage and paralysis."
"Who is this?" Ariel asked, pointing to the body hanging from the bin ceiling.
"Nyom Looms. She wasn't poisoned. She had her own rebreather. Her neck was broken, instead."
"Fifty-one others," Hofton said. "How did she get attached up there?"
"The bin was cracked. The air leaked out fairly quickly-not all at once, but in a vacuum it must've created a current. We think it drew her to it. Her clothing was pulled through. "
"Cracked," Ariel mused. "Big enough for your robot to slip through?"
"Hardly. You can see the dimensions for yourself."
Ariel frowned and gave Derec a look Coren could not read. "It would be unlikely, I think," she said. She sighed. "You still haven't given us a convincing argument to indict a robot." She pointed to the image of Coffee. "What do you think, Derec? A modified DW-12?"
"Looks like it. But it's not possible, Mr. Lanra. There is no way to modify a positronic brain to subvert its Three Law constraints. Tampering at that level would destroy the brain. The fact that it's collapsed proves that its programming was consistent with its original protocols. It witnessed the deaths of humans ostensibly in its charge. It failed to protect them. It collapsed."
"As I recall," Coren noted, "a positronic brain was modified at Union Station to cause the deaths of a good number of people."
Derec stiffened. "That's…inaccurate. It was modified to ignore a lethal situation. It caused nothing. And it collapsed shortly after it realized what had happened." He frowned thoughtfully. "What was this robot doing at the rebreather controls?"
"As far as we can tell, trying to shut it off."
"You've said 'we' a few times now. Who else is involved in this investigation?" Ariel asked.
"Kopernik Station's chief of security is working with me on this," Coren replied.
"How are you keeping it out of the newsnets, then?"
"The bin was delivered to a Settler dock. She has an arrangement with the Settler security people. It's isolated, outside the usual legal channels. For the time being, it doesn't exist. That won't last long."
"And the robot?" Derec asked.
"Stored."
"Still in the Settler section?"
"In Chief Palen's morgue."
"We need to have it."
"There's no way I can bring it down here. Not in time, anyway. I need someone to go to it."
Ariel looked at Derec. "What do you think?"
Derec shook his head. "A risk. I'm still not sure what my status is."
Ariel looked at Coren. "Our…range of free movement may be somewhat curtailed. Especially Mr. Avery's."
"Mine isn't," Hofton said. "I could accompany Mr. Avery up to our embassy branch on Kopernik." He glanced at Derec. "You'd be in the diplomatic pouch, so to speak."
Derec grunted, smiling thinly.
"Excuse me," Coren said. "There's no question here, is there? You're going to help me."
"You wouldn't be talking to us otherwise, Mr. Lanra," Ariel said.
"Why."
Ariel looked thoughtful. "Before I answer that, let me ask you something. Where was Nyom Looms taking this group of baleys?"
"Nova Levis."
"Why there? I can think of at least a dozen other Settler colonies that would accept baleys that aren't under blockade."
"I don't know. Nova Levis is…romantic."