“Good night.” She yawned again and went into her room, closing the door behind her.
Steve waited in the hall until he heard her slide the bar into place. Then he went into his own room and did the same. In a few minutes, he was sound asleep.
As the hours passed, Hunter could feel Jane’s mount tiring. Both horses walked more slowly. He changed mounts again, but his horse now had to be kicked more often to keep up the pace. The moon was about to set. His magnified vision revealed that the tracks ahead of him remained on the road. However, his hearing no longer detected the sound of hoofbeats ahead.
This puzzled him. Considering the amount of weight the mounts ahead of him had to carry, he had expected that he would either have drawn close enough to hear them by now, or else he would have seen the tracks leave the road for the forested hills. Since Hunter had already concluded that Ishihara would not take that risk at night, he was not surprised to see the tracks continue on the road, but he had apparently missed something.
Hunter reined in and dismounted. He kneeled to examine the tracks. Even his magnified vision needed help now that the moonlight had faded.
Carefully, he studied the depth of the tracks and then compared them to those of his own horses. He also saw that the hoofprints his own mount made now, shuffling wearily on the road, were much shallower than the ones just a few feet back, when Hunter had still been in the saddle. Suddenly he realized that the horse and donkey in front of him were no longer carrying the amount of weight they had been when he had begun tracking them. From the saddle, in the waning light, the difference in the appearance of the hoofprints had been too slight for him to see, but it was clear now.
Somehow, those he was following had dismounted and left the road without leaving footprints. Hunter had been fooled, most likely by Ishihara lifting Wayne and Jane directly from their mounts into the trees. He had also miscalculated Ishihara’s interpretation of the danger that the forested hills would offer to his human companions at night.
That triggered his own First Law concern. If Ishihara’s judgment was questionable, then Hunter could not conclude that the humans with him were safe, as he had believed to this point. He hoped they were hiding in one spot, maybe for the humans to rest. That would be less dangerous than hiking through the mountains.
Hunter concluded that Xiao Li was probably riding the horse now and leading the donkey. His weight was slight enough not to alter these hoofprints significantly. Certainly the tired animals would not have continued down the road all night on their own. At least one rider had to be urging them forward.
Now Hunter had to decide how to investigate all these surmises. He had two essential problems: the near-exhaustion ofboth his horses and the deepening darkness. Both problems could be improved by waiting several hours.
Once his horses had rested, evenfor a short time, they would move a little faster. Daylight would allow him to follow tracks even in the forest. Now that Wayne, Ishihara, and Jane were on foot, he would have the advantage.
Hunter hobbled his horses and sat down by the side of the road to conserve his energy and wait for dawn.
13
Jane waited in the forest with Wayne and Ishihara. Neither of them insisted on holding her every moment. All three of them knew that she could not outrun Ishihara, so she did not bother trying.
A short time earlier, at Wayne’s suggestion, Ishihara had lifted Wayne and Jane from their mounts to sturdy branches of trees near the road. Then he had followed them. Once they had all jumped to the ground on the far side of the trees, in the darkness away from the road, they waited for Wayne to decide what to do next.
Meanwhile, Xiao Li had ridden on down the road with their mounts. Ishihara had allowed this because he knew that Hunter would not harm the boy. Since Xiao Li had followed them up here on his own, Ishihara felt he would be safe on this road a little longer.
“We can’t fool Hunter for long,” Wayne said. His voice was strained and anxious.
“What do you suggest?” Ishihara asked.
“Well…I don’t know. But our mounts were about to fall over from fatigue. We had to do something. And if Hunter grabs me, my hopes are finished.”
“You really don’t have that much to worry about,” said Jane. “I still think the Oversight Committee will handle their review of your robots responsibly.”
“Don’t bother; I’ve heard it before.” Wayne looked at Ishihara. “You have any ideas?”
“I have one.”
“Yeah? What is it?”
“We can use the time travel unit to move all the way forward to Khanbaliq, arriving tomorrow morning. Since we know Hunter is behind us, and has no lead on MC 5, Hunter cannot gain on us during the period we are skipping.”
“Say…that’s right.” Wayne nodded. “Before, I was always worried that Hunter would take the component robot during the interval we were jumping. This time we know where he is. And we’ll have the advantage.”
“What about Xiao Li?” Jane asked suddenly.
“What about him?” Wayne shrugged. “He’ll be all right. This is his time.”
“Ishihara, he’s just a child. And he’s only riding around the mountains in the middle of the night because of you two. How can you just abandon him?”
“I expect Hunter to catch him and protect him. With that likelihood established, my first duty is to you two, as humans from our time.”
“But you don’tknow he’s safe,” said Jane, wishing she had thought of this argument earlier.
“Hunter is tracking him,” said Ishihara.
“We’ll go back to the outskirts of Khanbaliq,” Wayne said firmly. “We’ll arrive tomorrow morning, back out by the village. Since they’ve already seen us appear like magic, we can do it again.”
“They’ll ask about Xiao Li,” said Jane. “What are you going to tell them?”
“That he’ll be fine,” said Wayne. “Besides, we didn’t bring him with us; he came on his own. He can find his way home if he has to.”
“That’s very callous,” said Jane.
“Let’s go now,” said Wayne, ignoring her.
“All right,” said Ishihara.
Steve slept late the next morning. Even when he woke up, he lay in bed listening to the sounds elsewhere in the inn. He heard doors opening and closing on his corridor; downstairs, footsteps clunked and a chair scraped on the floor, accompanied by muffled conversation.
None of the voices sounded excited. He had not heard Marcia’s door open. Quietly, in no hurry, he got up and dressed.
As the morning passed, Steve finally heard the other guests go outside one by one. Soon the clopping of horses’ hooves reached him as the other patrons rode away. Then a lone set of footsteps walked up the stairs and down the hall.
“Sir?” The innkeeper rapped quietly. “The other guests have taken their leave now.”
Steve opened the door. “Thank you. I’ll get my wife. We will have two breakfasts.”
“Of course.” With a quick bow, he hurried away.
Marcia opened her door, already dressed. “I’ve been listening. Everything’s okay, huh?”
“Yeah,” said Steve. “You okay?”
“Basically. I’m sore from all that riding yesterday.” She winced as she walked out into the hall.
“I’m afraid we have more of the same today. But before we go downstairs, I want to call Hunter.”
“All right.”
“Hunter, Steve and Marcia here. How are you?”
“I am well but have had no success. How are you two? And where are you?” Hunter’s voice was faint and almost drowned out by a great deal of static.
“We just got up at the inn. The other guests have left, so we’re okay. Where are you?”
“I am down the road but on my way back toward you,” said Hunter. “I waited for dawn to rest my horse and to have more light.”
“You’re coming back?” Marcia asked. “That’s great, but what happened to Jane?”
“Ishihara fooled me in the darkness. I followed the tracks of Xiao Li and the animals long after the others had left the road for the forest.”