“We have contacted all three of you through your comlinks,” one robot was saying. “We believe all three of you responded, but we wish to speak aloud with you as well.”
“Identify,” said another.
“I am Drainage Foreman 31. I am temporarily suspended from my regular duties. At the present time, I am leading this team of three robots in search of a human with the physical body of a robot. This is the purpose of our questions.”
An extended moment of silence followed. Jeff understood what was happening. The search team was matching up comlink communication with eye contact and spoken words so that they would have no chance of letting him through by mistake, or by his getting lost in the crowd.
“I am going to repeat my answer to you aloud,” Drainage Foreman 31 said to another robot. “This human had his brain successfully transplanted into the body of a robot. For this reason, he has the strength and appearance of a robot, but the authority of the Laws of Robotics. I am going to ask you a question aloud now. Please respond through your comlink.”
Another moment of silence followed, then more talk of a similar kind.
Jeff stepped back onto the slidewalk to ride away. He was convinced that he could not fake having a comlink. That one robot was being very thorough in his testing, and he was backed up by two more robots. Jeff couldn’t win a wrestling match with three robots, each with a strength equal to his own.
He was still wary as he approached a tunnel stop. If the robots did not shut down the system entirely, they would at some point stake it out, perhaps with checkpoints down in the tunnels themselves. They could not be careless enough to have forgotten it. However, they might not yet have set up their search there.
“This block is clear so far,” he muttered to himself, looking toward a tunnel stop. “And no one’s standing at the opening. All right, then. Casually, like before-and watch out for a checkpoint down in the tunnel itself. Right? Of course you’re right. So am I. I know you are. Shut up and let’s go. Okay, okay…”
He went on muttering to himself, seriously now, as he sauntered toward the stop. Several humanoid robots passed him on the way, as well as the normal crowd of function robots of all sizes and types, but he was not worried about any of them. The search teams had so far all been teams of threes, and they had stopped every humanoid robot they met. They did not just walk around normally, like this.
At the open tunnel stop, he paused to glance around. Everything seemed fine so far. He got on the ramp and rode down into the tunnel. “Maybe your luck will hold, Jeffrey ol’ friend. Of course it will; why wouldn’t it? Well, just don’t get overconfident.”
They were after him. He knew they were after him. They had no right to stop him; he hadn’t done anything wrong and he hadn’t hurt anyone, not even a robot. They were only robots, anyway. They had no reason to be after him.
What if something had gone wrong with them? What if they didn’t have to obey the Laws any more, either? They ran this city by themselves, didn’t they? They could change the rules. Surely they manufactured their fellow robots right here. What if they were making positronic brains that didn’t obey the Laws? They must be. Otherwise, how could they be chasing him at all? Trying to capture him had to break some Law or other.
That’s why they wanted him. He had the same freedom from the Laws, but he wasn’t one of them. They had just been pretending to obey the Laws before.
At the base of the ramp, he peered around suspiciously. Nothing appeared out of order around the siding loop. He stepped into one of the booths and punched the keys on the console for his destination.
Nothing happened.
Then a green instruction light appeared, reading, “Temporary adjustment in control system requires use of robotic comlink. Give standard destination code to activate booth.”
He sprang out of the booth, then looked around in embarrassment. If a searching robot had seen him fail to activate the booth, he would be identified on the spot. Fortunately, no one had noticed.
So, they had taken his beloved tunnel system away from him. All right. That didn’t mean he was finished. After all, they were just robots. He was human-”Right?” He spoke aloud. “Of course you’re right. Now shut up before you give yourself away.”
He rode up the ramp slowly, glancing in all directions when he reached the surface. “We are still in disguise, still in disguise. Let’s approach the enemy’s lair and see what we can see. Very good, very good.”
Newly resolved to keep quiet for as long as he could remember to do so, he started again for the residence of Derec and Ariel. He knew that they lived near the center of the city, certainly in the central area, and he was guessing that the pattern search was ultimately closing in on that spot. That meant he could escape detection the longest there, and, if he was lucky, he just might overhear something that would let him make a successful getaway.
“Just remember,” he said to himself. “Don’t let them actually lay eyes on you. They don’t seem to tell us robots apart too well, but they just might recognize you, ol' buddy. Right? Right. Shut up; you’re talking out loud again.”
He recognized the building and the entranceway to their residence easily enough, but he had no plans for what to do next. Since robots did not normally loiter, he could not very well just hang around watching the place.
One of the reasons he had been safe from detection in the tunnel system was that he had been isolated in the booths. Another was that the very act of moving made him appear occupied, like all the legitimate residents of Robot City. He got onto a slidewalk and started walking purposefully, hoping that this would work as an adequate substitute for the time being.
As usual, he set up a route that carried him in an irregular, jagged rotation, now using the human residence as a central reference point. He used the first two circuits to look for search teams, but he didn’t see any here. Then he relaxed somewhat and altered his route so that he passed within sight of the human residence more often.
Derec and Ariel did not appear while he was watching. He wondered if he might do better talking to Derec than to Ariel, though she had said she was at least interested in the transplant. She had not been so optimistic about Derec, but maybe she was wrong.
He would not want to talk to Derec yet, since she might be right. If he could talk to her again first, maybe she would have the transplant and understand why it was so desirable. Then they could both convince Derec to join them.
He would just have to wait and watch.
By the time he had lost count of the number of circuits he had made, boredom was setting in. Maybe those two hardly ever came out of their lair. Or maybe they weren’t in there at all, but out roaming around the city-looking for him, probably. He laughed-giggling, really-at the idea. If they would just come home, their search would be over.
“No, it wouldn’t,” he said aloud, sobering suddenly. “I would still have to hide from them. I’d have to be careful, wouldn’t I? Of course you would. Now be quiet.”
He got off the slidewalk in view of their entranceway, just because he was tired of riding around and around. “ A real robot wouldn’t get tired of it,” he said. “A real robot would just do it over and over until the job was done. But not you. That’s why you’re still human, isn’t it? Huh? Of course it is.”
He stood on the shoulder of the slidewalk, wondering what he should do next. “You forgot to tell me to shut up,” he added. “All right, shut up. Thank you.”
A humanoid robot came riding up on the slidewalk. As he neared Jeff, he stepped off and walked up to him. “Identify,” he said. “Use your comlink, please.”
“Uh-” Jeff stared at him in shock. This guy was alone, without any search team. Apparently they had altered their policy. Jeff was caught totally off guard. “I, uh-what do you want?”
“I am not receiving you,” said the robot. “Please accompany me. I am under instructions to escort all robots without functioning comlinks to a location nearby.”