Steve hiked back up the road with Hunter and Marcia, relieved that Hunter had given in. The mountain air had grown very sharp, and by the time they returned to the inn, he was even more ready than before for a warm bed. Hunter stepped up to the front door, preparing to open it.
“I should do it,” Steve said quietly. “If those guests are awake, they may react to seeing you.”
Hunter moved back to make room for Steve.
Steve found the front door of the inn barred. That was certainly normal for this hour. He rapped on it sharply.
“Who’s there?” The innkeeper’s voice was cautious and fearful, but clearly wide awake.
“Three of your guests,” Steve called. “We are well. Please open.”
He heard the bar slide to one side. The innkeeper opened the door a crack and glanced at them all before opening it wide and stepping back. He bowed to them repeatedly, expecting them to come right inside.
“Are your other guests awake?” Steve stayed where he was, with Hunter and Marcia behind him.
“Eh?” He gestured for them to enter.
“Your other guests, who took our woman friend. They came running back here, didn’t they?”
“Oh, yes. They were all very excited about something when they first came back. Now they have all gone to sleep up in their rooms.”
“We would prefer not to be seen by them.”
“Of course. Please come in. Your friend is not with you?” He glanced past Steve.
“No. But we are not blaming you. In the morning, we will remain in our rooms until you tell us they have left. Is this agreeable?”
“Of course.”
Steve turned to Hunter. “I really think we’ll be okay. In the morning, we’ll stay in our rooms until he tells us the others have hit the road. They won’t bother us.”
”All right. But I am concerned that you will take unnecessary risks.”
“There shouldn’t be any risks,” said Steve. “We’ll just let the others get a head start on us in the morning. Then during the day we’ll make sure we don’t catch up.”
“Is it okay?” Marcia asked. “I’d like to do this. I’m really cold.”
“It is fine,” said Hunter. “I will go prepare my horse. I will take Jane’s, too.”
“Good night,” said Steve. He stepped aside for Marcia to enter first, as Hunter left for the stable.
“Night,” Marcia muttered, yawning as she turned and went inside.
Steve followed her. Behind them, the innkeeper barred the door again.
Several minutes later, Hunter forced his weary horse into a canter; the reins of Jane’s mount were tied to his saddle. He was not comfortable with the further splitting of his team, but he could also see that Marcia badly needed rest. Even Steve, though he was more accustomed to physical activity than Marcia, would quickly become too tired to act efficiently unless he slept for the remainder of the night.
In the absence of a more pressing emergency, Hunter had to let them sleep in the relative comfort and safety of the inn. He accepted that Steve and Marcia would be reasonably secure at the inn as long as the other guests did not see them. He also trusted Steve to act wisely.
At the same time, he felt he he’d failed to take proper care of his team. Wayne had already succeeded in interrupting their search for MC 5. Now Hunter had to prevent him from taking full advantage of the situation.
As Hunter rode down the moonlit mountain road, he slowed the horses to a walk to preserve their energy. With his vision on maximum light receptivity, he identified the fresh tracks that matched the sounds he had heard earlier. The most recent donkey tracks leading south were much deeper than the same ones Xiao Li’s animal had made riding north; the horse tracks with them were deep enough to have been made by the horse whose heavy hoofbeats he had heard.
Hunter had to plan his approach to his quarry. He chose not to radio Ishihara with any sort of threat or argument, since Wayne clearly had become more persuasive in making his case to Ishihara. Any such transmission would merely reveal to Ishihara that he was chasing them and give Ishihara some fix on the. distance between them. Hunter’s best chance to rescue Jane and apprehend Wayne would be to sneak up on them.
Hunter did not know if Ishihara’s hearing ability was fully equal to his own. Since Hunter had been designed specifically to search for MC Governor, he had been given some abilities greater than most robots, but he had never specifically compared his hearing to Ishihara’s. However, he was certain that Ishihara’s aural sense was greater than any human’s. That lessened his chance of making an unheard approach.
Obviously, Hunter’s pursuit would become obvious if he simply cantered up behind them, since even Wayne would hear that. Hunter could, however, draw closer slowly. When he heard the first faint sounds of hoofbeats up ahead, he could pace them at a distance until he formed a specific plan.
If Ishihara’s hearing equaled his own, however, then Ishihara might hear Hunter’s horses at the same time. The question of stealth might in fact turn on uncontrollable variables, such as the direction of the wind or the echo pattern off the surrounding slopes. He would have to remain aware of those as he continued on his way.
Now that he had identified the tracks, however, he did not have to study each hoofprint carefully. He could see the trail plainly enough. Instead, he turned his attention to the condition of his mount. The tired animal kept slowing down, and had to be prodded forward.
Aftermore than a mile, the tracks of his quarry still followed the road. Hunter had expected more effort at evasion, but postulated that Ishihara, under the First Law, could not take the risk of allowing the humans to flee through the mountains in the darkness. Another possibility was that Wayne had simply decided to forget about evasion. He might be taking his companions as far as they could go straight down the road before their mounts wore out.
Hunter still expected that the two mounts ahead of him would tire more quickly than his own. All of them had traveled a long way earlier in the day, but the mounts ahead of him were, by his calculation, carrying two riders each; one was merely a donkey, whose short legs had to take many more strides to keep up with the horse. Maybe they were gambling that Hunter’s substantial weight would tire his horse first, instead.
He considered that possibility unlikely, but the burden on his horse was real. To minimize it, he moved to Jane’s mount in order to rest his own. Wayne did not have that option.
In the lobby the innkeeper gave Steve a small brass oil lamp before sleepily returning to bed. Leading Marcia upstairs, Steve was relieved to find the corridor quiet. He turned to Marcia to say good night. She stopped at the door to her room, looking at him uncertainly in the shifting light.
“What’s wrong?” Steve asked quietly. “Everybody else here is asleep. We’ll be okay.”
“I know,” she said softly. “But…”
“What?” He could see that her arrogance had vanished. “What is it?”
“I was thinking about your other missions. Were they like this?”
“Like this? What do you mean?”
“Well, how dangerous were they? When you talk about buccaneers and dinosaurs and everything else, were you really in serious danger?”
“Yes. We were.”
“I don’t think the risk became real to me until Hunter was kidnapped.”
Steve nodded. “I know. All of you who live in cities in our own time have robots around you constantly.”
“Yes. I never even thought about it before because I was so used to it.”
“I think we’re in less danger now than usual. Hunter is between us and Wayne and Ishihara.” He gestured toward the rooms around them, “We should keep quiet and just go to sleep, so we don’t wake up the kidnappers.”
Marcia nodded and opened the door to her room. “Of course. Sorry.”
“Make sure you bar the door behind you,” he added. “Light your candle with this.” He carefully handed her the brass lamp and waited while she took it into her room. A moment later, she brought it back out, silhouetted by the candle flame flickering behind her on a small table.