“Not very much, sir. The other guests came back in rather late and sat down by the fire to warm themselves. Then your friend came downstairs-”
“On her own?”
“Yes, sir. She just walked down here, and they got all excited and grabbed her. They ran outside with her. As I was saying, I had a sword to my throat, or else-”
“Yes, I understand that.” Steve thought for a moment. Freeing Hunter was now a necessity. If Hunter couldn’t break the chain holding him with his own strength, then Steve would have to help. He pointed to the poker leaning against the side of the fireplace. “I want to borrow that.”
“Eh? What’s that, sir?”
Steve walked over and picked up the poker. “I’ll need this. Do you mind?”
“Begging your pardon, sir, but of course I will be needing it, too.”
“Yeah, all right.” Steve pulled out a couple more coins and tossed them to the innkeeper. “I’ll bring it back when I’m finished with it.”
“Thank you.” The innkeeper bowed again.
“Let’s go,” Steve said to Marcia. They hurried outside into the cold mountain air and walked a short distance from the front of the inn.
“Are we going to get the horses?” Marcia asked.
“Uh, no. Too noisy. I’m not sure exactly what happened to Jane, but we have to stay out of everyone’s sight if we can, until we find out. We’ll have to find Hunter on foot.” Steve turned on his lapel pin. “Hunter, Steve here.”
“Yes, Steve.”
“Jane’s been kidnapped. From what the innkeeper said, I guess it’s the same bunch of people who jumped you.”
“I suspected something of the sort had happened to one of you-”
“What? Why didn’t you call and wake us up?” Steve was startled. “You’ve just been sitting there, even under the First Law?”
“I have been puzzling over how to respond. For only the last few minutes, I have been receiving static and the sounds of footsteps and breathing from someone’s lapel pin, but nothing more clear than that. I did not call because I fear, even now, that her captors are listening to our voices coming out of the air and will be even more fearful than before. Once you called me, however, the damage was done. I must have your help to free myself.”
“Where are you?” Steve asked. “Are you alone, for that matter?”
“I have been left alone, chained to a tree,” said Hunter. “I have no way to convey my exact location.”
“You can’t free yourself?”
“No. I have ascertained that I cannot break the chain on my own. Until I heard the unexplained static, I had intended to wait until after dawn to try again. At that time, my energy would be replenished, and I could awaken you three without disturbing your rest.”
“We’ll come get you,” said Steve. “I have a fireplace poker; maybe we can use it to pry open a link of your chain. How can I find you?”
“Follow the road back down the slope. When I hear you nearby, I will call to you.”
“Okay. But I’ll leave my lapel pin on.” He turned to Marcia. “Come on.”
“It’s freezing out here,” Marcia muttered.
“Well, it’ll help keep us both wide awake.”
Ishihara and Wayne had hidden themselves near the road about halfway between the place where Hunter was chained and the inn. Xiao Li stood with them, holding the reins of his donkey and also the horse Wayne and Ishihara had ridden from Khanbaliq. They had to stay far enough from Hunter so that he could not hear their voices.
Earlier, after Xiao Li had asked the other guests in the inn to come out and speak to them, Wayne and Ishihara had given them the same story that Xiao Li and his fellow villagers had accepted, that Hunter was a misguided spirit. Some of the guests had been skeptical about this, but the more superstitious men among them had convinced the others to consider it. Finally, Wayne had assured them all that Hunter was absolutely prevented by supernatural law from harming humans, but that he had to be restrained.
“We have to figure out what to do next,” said Wayne. “We have Hunter. He’ll probably radio his team to come get him, but maybe we can interfere with that, too-”
“I have an emergency,” Ishihara said abruptly. “I have been monitoring Hunter’s radio band to intercept his communication with his team members.”
“Yeah? What of it?”
“Steve has just reported to Hunter that Jane has been kidnapped from the inn by the same guests we convinced to take Hunter. They obviously saw them together and acted on their own.”
“But that’s good,” said Wayne enthusiastically. “It’ll keep the whole team busy. Why didn’t they grab the other two, while they were at it?”
“It was apparently a spontaneous move. However, I now feel that I am responsible for potential harm to Jane. Under the First Law, I must rescue her.”
“Well…wait a minute,” said Wayne. “Let’s think this through.”
“I cannot wait.” Ishihara turned and began working his way out of the trees to the road. “ A further consideration is that her captors will have overheard the voices of Steve and Hunter through her lapel pin, which seems to have remained turned on. This could endanger her even more.”
“We can still talk about it,” said Wayne. “This isn’t necessarily bad. At least, let’s consider the whole situation before we act.”
“The First Law will not allow me to wait,” said Ishihara, over his shoulder.
“Well…” Wayne plunged after him, crashing through the underbrush. “Then wait for me.”
“Please hurry,” said Ishihara. “The only transmission now is background static and the sound of humans breathing and walking. However, this tells me that they are coming down the road toward us from the inn.”
Wayne pushed his way through tree branches after Ishihara, panicked by the danger of losing his only ally. Certainly, Ishihara could rescue Jane, and Wayne did not object to that. However, as a roboticist, she might very well argue First Law interpretations with Ishihara that would convince him to stop cooperating with Wayne…
Behind him, he could hear the sound of Xiao Li following, bringing the horse and the donkey.
“Shut off your hearing,” said Wayne urgently to Ishihara, as he finally managed to come up next to him on the road.
“I dare not. My First Law imperative to rescue Jane requires all my efforts.” Ishihara strode quickly up the road in the moonlight.
“I don’t want Jane to trick you. She may argue that you should help Hunter instead of me.”
“If her arguments are valid, I will respond. If they are not, of course I will not be influenced.”
“Well…all right. But remember, Jane’s arguments about cooperating with me do not involve Jane’s personal welfare in this particular situation.”
“I accept your instruction.”
Wayne said nothing else as he hurried up the slope. He knew that while every robot had to obey the First Law, each one had some leeway to make independent interpretations. All Wayne could do now was try to influence him.
Since Jane’s captors did not speak as they carried her through the cold night air, she did not learn anything about what they had in mind. They were still taking her in the same direction Hunter had gone, so she was not really too scared. Before they had gone very far, however, the men carrying her suddenly stopped. Jane heard the voices of Hunter and Steve coming over her lapel pin, muffled slightly under a fold in her rumpled robe. Suddenly very frightened, she forced herself to cough and clear her throat, in the hope of covering the sound.
“What’s that?” One of the men asked fearfully.
“What’s what?” Another asked.
“Voices.”
“I hear them, too,” said a man near Jane’s left shoulder. “Voices from the air. No-from her!” He released his grip suddenly and she began to fall.
“Let her down! Let her down!”
Jane felt herself lowered; at least they had the decency to set her on her feet. When she found her footing, she looked up and saw all the men slowly backing away from her in the moonlight. Then another pointed past her, down the road.
“Look! Someone’s coming! Who are they?” He spoke in a hushed, worried voice.
“Maybe it’s the big spirit,” yelled a third, “coming back for her!”