“Good idea.” Steve glanced around. “I guess it will work again. But I hope we don’t need another shelter. If we keep sneaking out of every place we can spend the night, then pretty soon we’ll use up all the public housing.”
As Hunter had said, the overhead lights were turned out shortly; leaving only a small table lamp burning in the front. Steve and Jane worked their way across the crowded room and flipped the circuit breaker, while Hunter opened the rear door in the sudden darkness and held it. The procedure worked just as well this time as it had before. In a few moments, the team again ran up a back alley out in the cold, clear, night air.
When they were sure no one was chasing them, Hunter stopped to allow his team members to put their coats on and catch their breath.
“Are you both all right?” Hunter asked. His appearance had now returned to normal.
“Yeah,” said Jane, as she buttoned her coat. “Wow, it’s cold out here.”
“I’m fine,” said Steve. “Which way do we go?”
“Please simply follow me. It will be faster and quieter than explaining.”
Hunter led them at a brisk walk through the darkened city. He kept to alleys and side streets as much as possible, ducking into shadows on the rare moments when vehicles appeared nearby. When they reached the school Judy had told him about, Hunter knocked on the door.
A tall, stocky man opened the door and looked at Hunter coldly. “We are full, comrade. Sorry.” He started to close the door.
“We are not seeking shelter.” Hunter grabbed the edge of the door in one hand and held it fast. His tone was firm and authoritative. “Please tell Judy Taub to come to the door.”
The guard made one more attempt to jerk the door shut. His eyes shifted to Hunter in surprise when he realized that he could not move it even slightly. He turned and called Judy’s name over his shoulder.
Judy, with a big smile of relief, was already hurrying to the door.
“We shall relieve you of your overcrowding,” Hunter said, as Judy slipped out past the guard. “Thank you.”
The guard slammed the door loudly.
20
Hunter led his team away from the door, then he turned to Judy.
“You are well?” Hunter asked. “Sure, I’m fine.”
“Good. Since you radioed me, have you gained any additional information about MC 4?”
“No.”
“From what you said, it appears that MC 4 is heading for the German lines. Do you agree?”
“Well, I don’t know,” said Judy. “I saw him running straight west across the steppe, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t double back later.”
Hunter turned to Jane. “As our roboticist, what do you think?”
“Judy, was he running away from you personally?” Jane asked.
“No. He couldn’t have been. I didn’t reveal myself in any way as someone from our time. Actually, I never even got very close to him.”
“Then I think he must be leaving the Soviet lines for reasons of his own,” said Jane. “Some new interpretation of one of the Laws of Robotics must have dictated his actions. Otherwise, the Third Law would force him to take care of himself with shelter, which the work brigade offered.”
“So something unknown caused him to leave the work brigade for the German lines,” said Hunter.
“Yes, that’s my best guess.”
“I agree,” said Hunter. “He may have learned that radio transmission was in use here. If so, he may have monitored the same NKVD radio traffic that I heard. It has told him that he is being sought, though he cannot possibly know why.”
“He will find all sorts of humans in the German lines to save from harm if he can,” said Judy. “Behind the lines, the Nazis have prisoners of war and political prisoners they have gathered during their campaign.”
“The First Law could keep him busy there, then,” said Jane. “Hunter, what are we going to do? He could start interfering with history as soon as he reaches those prisoners.”
“Those lines are a long way from here, aren’t they?” Steve asked. “And he’s on foot.”
“Yes,” said Judy.
“A robot of his type can walk that distance in a night without stopping, though,” said Jane. “He would be very low on energy by the time he arrived, but he can count on the sun to recharge him at dawn.”
“So, without a vehicle of some kind, we don’t have a chance of catching him,” said Steve. “He had a head start out at the ditches and now he’s been hiking for a couple of hours already.”
“I dare not steal a vehicle, as Wayne and Ishihara did,” said Hunter. “I fear it could cause a significant disruption in events.”
“Well, we have one more problem now,” said Judy. “If my memory serves, the Soviet counterattack will begin at dawn. Anything we do now will happen during actual battle conditions.”
“I see,” Hunter said stiffly. “That eliminates any choice of crossing the neutral zone between the armies. I cannot risk that much harm to you.”
“You have a plan?” Steve asked.
“Once again, I must make a concession I do not like,” said Hunter. “We shall have to return to our own time and then come back to this time, but behind the German lines. Please stand close to me. Steve, please give me the belt unit.”
As his team members crowded around him, Steve pulled the unit out of his shirt and offered it. Hunter glanced around to make sure that no local people could see them. Then he triggered the unit.
Wayne finally began to relax as Ishihara drove through the smallest back streets in Moscow to reach their destination. For the first time, they had a real lead on MC 4. Then, without speaking, Ishihara slowed down and stopped the car by the curb.
“Something wrong?” Wayne felt a sinking sensation.
“Yes,” said Ishihara. “A new report has just gone out on the NKVD band.”
“What did it say?”
“MC 4 is not at the location where his work brigade is spending the night. Some other agents who interrogated people in the work brigades got a lead on MC 4 by using his description, at about the time the brigades got on the trucks to go home. The agents figured out which work brigade he had worked in and reached them ahead of us. I fear that our need to take evasive measures delayed our arrival until it was too late.”
“What happened to him?”
“They do not know for sure. Those agents questioned people in the work brigade and reported that MC 4 never got on the truck back at the antitank ditch. They think he may be hiding out in the ditch tonight.”
Wayne thought a moment. “Just spending the night there? That doesn’t make sense. They’ll all be back tomorrow.”
“Of course, they believe he is limited by human abilities.”
“So we came all the way back to Moscow for no reason? He stayed out there all along?”