“That’s him,” said Marcia, folding her arms.
“Yes, it is,” said Hunter.
Xiao Li stopped in front of Hunter and bowed politely. He started to speak, but nervously fumbled for words. His face was flushed and he glanced uncomfortably around the table.
“May I help you?” Hunter asked. “I am surprised to see you here, so far from Khanbaliq.”
“My family followed you up here from the city,” Xiao Li said carefully. “They captured the man you wanted.”
“Really? Where are they now?” Jane asked. “Are they outside?”
“They are down the road,” said Xiao Li, turning to address her. “At first we told the man to come with us and he did. Then someone must have said something he did not like, because he tried to run away. My family has grabbed him, but he is much stronger than he looks. I rode up here on my donkey to find you.”
Hunter noticed that the boy’s speech was slow and very mannered, as though he was repeating something he had memorized. That would make sense if the villagers had sent him on ahead with this message. Further, his explanation fit the Laws of Robotics. Initially, if MC 5 had understood he was being ordered to cooperate and come with the villagers, he would have been required to obey. Later, he might have made an interpretation under the First Law from something he saw or heard that gave him the freedom to flee.
“Let’s go,” said Steve, getting up from the table. “We’ll ride down there, grab him, and be done with it.”
Xiao Li’s eyes widened. “I can’t wait for the hostler to prepare your horses. Your friend might escape.” He looked at Hunter with large, hopeful eyes. “Please come right away on my donkey with me. Your friends can ride down after their mounts are saddled.”
“Good idea,” said Hunter, rising also.
“You sure?” Jane asked, as she and Marcia left the table to join him.
“Yeah, what about not splitting up?” Steve grinned as they walked out of the inn with Xiao Li.
“The situation has changed. We are no longer conducting a random search. Now the necessity of apprehending MC 5 while I can is critically important.”
“What about our horses?” Jane asked, as they stepped outside into the chilly darkness. “Are we just going to leave them up here?”
Hunter paused. “No. We will give them as gifts to the villagers. They will not return the horses to the city, I realize, but the horses will be back in the same vicinity.”
“You better go,” said Jane. “We’ll ride right down after you as soon as the horses are ready.”
“Do not bother,” said Hunter. “You will be safer here than riding down this rough mountain road in the moonlight. I will come back with MC 5 and the villagers.”
“Whatever.” Steve shrugged.
“Our mission appears to be nearly complete,” said Hunter. “I suggest that you move up to one of the rooms together and switch on your lapel pins. That way I can communicate with you freely without our being overheard by anyone else.”
“That’s a good idea,” said Steve. “Let’s get this finished and go home.” He turned and went back into the inn with Marcia and Jane.
9
“You’re very big for my donkey,” said Xiao Li shyly, “but he can carry us both for a short distance.”
“We need not burden your donkey further,” said Hunter. “I can jog alongside him down the road.”
Xiao Li faced his donkey’s flank with both hands on the animal’s back. He jumped and vaulted forward, landing on the donkey’s back with his abdomen. Then he expertly swung one leg around the donkey’s rump and sat up, straddling his mount. He kicked it a couple of times and rode off at a trot.
Hunter fell into step alongside Xiao Li and his donkey, concerned that neither the boy nor his donkey could see the road well enough in the moonlight to ride safely at this pace. Since speed was a legitimate concern, Hunter did not suggest slowing down. Instead, he magnified his vision to maximum light receptivity and watched the uneven ground for anything that could trip the donkey.
Hunter and Xiao Li moved down a gently sloping section of road, around a bend, then down a steeper slope. With Hunter’s hearing set at a sensitivity in the range of sharp but normal human ability, the only sounds were the donkey’s hoofbeats, Hunter’s own footsteps, and a light breeze rustling the leaves on the trees as the road took another bend and leveled off.
“I like my donkey,” said Xiao Li suddenly. “He’s nice. I don’t think he’s too old. Sometimes I get to ride my uncle’s donkey in the village, but not very often. He has to carry tools and crops all the time.”
Beneath the boy’s unexpected chatter, Hunter heard a sudden crackling of twigs and snapping of branches near him from the side of the road. He turned to look and saw the dark shapes of adult humans leaping out at him. Before he could judge how to avoid them without harming them, they tackled him. Rather than resist and risk hurting them under these unknown conditions, Hunter allowed himself to be knocked to the ground with a thump.
Hunter immediately understood that he had been trapped. Xiao Li’s chatter had been intended to cover the sound of the ambushers. Even as the humans who had tackled him grabbed his arms and legs, now shouting among themselves, he surmised that Xiao Li had been given very specific instructions about what to do and say, and that the boy had followed them precisely.
Hunter felt himself lifted off the ground. He discerned seven different voices around him and recognized them all. Each of these humans had been sitting at the tables in the inn near the fire just a short time ago. Hunter did not know what this meant, but he called his team on his internal transmitter.
“Hunter here. Emergency.”
Steve said, “What’s wrong?”
“I have been attacked by seven men who were in the inn near us during dinner. They are carrying me into the trees near the road. I do not know what they want, but Xiao Li drew me into a trap. Please be very careful.”
“Can’t you get away,” Jane asked, “just by wrestling free of them?”
“Yes, but not without revealing my robotic strength,” said Hunter. “I prefer not to do that, since you three remain safe and I am unharmed.”
“What should we do?” Jane asked. “Or, rather, what are you going to do?”
“I am undecided,” said Hunter. “But I can hear Xiao Li riding away. If you see him, do not trust anything he says.”
“Got it,” said Steve. “Look, shouldn’t we ride down after you? You’d have to protect us and you’d have First Law permission to break free.”
“Do not come down here,” said Hunter. “I cannot estimate the level of danger to you yet.”
“We’ve survived worse,” Jane said. “Remember the fights on the pirate ships? Or the battle between the ancient Germans and the Roman soldiers?”
“Those were different circumstances,” said Hunter. “Right now, I have no reason to believe that your endangering yourselves will help find MC 5.”
“We still have to get you free,” said Steve. “That will definitely help the search, so it should satisfy your objection.”
“Please remain where you are,” said Hunter. “Entering danger will simply force me into greater First Law dilemmas. It will not help us.”
“All right,” said Jane. “Steve, he knows more about this than we do. But listen, Hunter. We’ll stay here where we can receive your messages freely. Keep us informed.”
“Agreed. For now, I must find out what my captors want with me.” He broke the connection.
In one of their rooms at the inn, Steve leaned against the door and looked at Marcia and Jane. No one spoke. The only light flickered from a candle flame inside a glass cylinder.
“I can’t believe this,” Marcia whispered. “What are we going to do now?”
Steve glanced at her, surprised by her anxious tone. A light sheen of sweat covered her face, despite the cool mountain air. She folded her arms across her middle as though her stomach hurt.
“What is it?” Steve asked. “Is dinner bothering you?”
“No.”
“You okay?” Jane asked her.
“Of course not! None of us are,” Marcia snapped. “What’s wrong?” Steve asked.
“Well-I just-can’t you see?” Marcia wailed.
“No,” said Steve.