“I seek a new courier working in the palace,” said Polo. “My friend, here, is also from Europe and wishes to speak with him.”
“Ah.” Kublai Khan glanced at Hunter without interest. “Come tomorrow, Marco. We will visit over tea at midday.” He walked away, followed by his retainers.
Polo bowed again. The others followed his example once more. When Polo straightened, he grinned at them.
“I am relieved that he is not angry because I failed to announce my presence. I did not expect to see him today.”
“Bowing is the acceptable response?” Hunter asked. “What about kneeling and touching one’s forehead to the floor? I heard this was the proper posture in the presence of the khan.”
“That is true if we are summoned to the throne room for a formal appearance,“ Polo said. “Here on the palace grounds, that is much too impractical.”
“I see.”
Marcia nudged Steve’s arm and whispered in Chinese, pointing surreptitiously. “That first guy Marco spoke to is coming through the crowd with somebody. Is that MC 5?”
Steve looked through the crowd. He recognized MC 5, whose appearance was identical to that of the other component robots. MC 5 had somehow acquired a plain black robe and black cloth shoes.
“Hunter,” he said quietly.
“I see him,” Hunter said, also in Chinese. “Remember, he does not know we are from his time or that we have come for him. We must not reveal ourselves before we can apprehend him, or he will flee.”
“What are we going to do, then?” Marcia asked. “We have too many witnesses here just to pounce and disappear with him-unless we want to wind up as a vanishing wonder in Polo’s memoirs!”
“And we don’t have Jane,” said Steve.
Hunter switched back to Italian. “I must speak to this man alone, outside the palace walls. I hesitate to ask you for another favor, but can this be arranged?”
“I believe I may be able to help,” said Polo. “I will have to speak to-”
Suddenly Steve glimpsed Jane through a crowd of people pursuing their daily business. “Hunter,” he interrupted quickly, in Chinese. “Look.” He jumped up and pointed through the crowd. Now he could see Wayne and Ishihara, too.
“Be cautious,” said Hunter. “We must get MC 5 away from witnesses and we cannot appear to be kidnapping him. Our other disappearance in front of local people during other missions occurred during and prior to battles, among people distracted by immediate, life-threatening situations. We cannot avoid being noticed here.”
“But we have to save Jane,” said Marcia, standing up next to Steve. “What are we going to do?”
“Vanishing from court could alter the beliefs and expectations regarding religion and court policy, maybe even influence the khan himself,” said Hunter. “I cannot take that risk.”
Jane spotted Hunter sitting in the shade in a small garden at a distance, between a European man and Steve. Even through the crowd of people walking through the palace grounds between them, Hunter was too big and distinctive to miss. Wayne and Ishihara, on each side of her, had not seemed to see Hunter. However, she could not decide what to do.
A few moments before, Ishihara had spotted MC 5. Now he and Wayne were walking quickly to catch him. MC 5, wearing black, approached Hunter, Steve, and Marcia in the company of a young man. She could see that Hunter must have arranged to have MC 5 brought to him, and she did not want to do anything that would interfere.
“Be ready,” Ishihara said. “We cannot just grab him and try to run out of the palace grounds. We must apprehend him together and then instantly trigger the belt unit.”
In another few moments of fast walking, however, Jane saw that Ishihara had almost come with an arm’s reach of MC 5.
“Hold onto Jane,” Wayne ordered.
Ishihara took Jane’s wrist.
“Hunter!” Jane screamed as loud as she could.
Hunter, Steve, and Marcia suddenly ran forward toward MC 5. At the same moment, Ishihara pulled Jane toward the component robot, with Wayne next to her. Jane braced her feet against the paving stones under her, and bent her knees, pulling against Ishihara. Her feet merely skidded on the stones; she did not slow him down noticeably.
Steve ran toward MC 5, but he could see that Ishihara nearly had a hand on the component robot already. Suddenly, however, MC 5 saw Steve, Marcia, and Hunter charging toward him. He first shoved his human companion, the other courier, out of the way; then MC 5 darted in the other direction. Even Ishihara, reaching out with one hand, failed to grab him.
“Hunter, you get MC 5!” Steve shouted as he threw himself on Ishihara.
“Get him!” Jane called, pulling back harder on Ishihara’s other arm.
Steve collided bodily with Ishihara and clung to him. “Stop! I order you to stop moving. Let go of Jane.”
Ishihara neither released Jane’s wrist nor spoke. He grabbed the firmly-tied sash of Steve’s robe with his free hand and pulled. Steve lost his grip, stumbled, and fell to the ground. He understood that some First Law imperative had overrode his instructions to Ishihara.
Steve glanced over at Hunter. MC 5 had turned to flee, but Hunter snatched him up off the ground and held him high, kicking and flailing. Steve scrambled to his feet.
“Stop struggling,” Steve ordered MC 5 in English. «Keep quiet and don’t try to get away.”
The small robot obeyed. Hunter set him on his feet again, but held one arm firmly in his grasp. He turned toward Jane.
Wayne had halted in front of Hunter, seeing that he was too late to get MC 5. Ishihara still held Jane’s wrist tightly as she struggled against him. Marcia had stopped, uncertain what she should do.
“Steve!” Jane pleaded.
Suddenly Steve leaped forward, this time aiming at Ishihara’s outstretched arm as Jane pulled away from him again. Before Steve made contact, however, he saw Ishihara, Jane, and Wayne vanish. He landed hard on the paving stones.
Polo strode up quickly, speaking Italian in a low, urgent tone. “What happened here? Where did they go? What…happened?”
Steve looked up, glad he supposedly could not understand Italian.
Hunter and Marcia said nothing.
A small crowd of people had surrounded them, gasping and murmuring.
Polo glanced quickly back over his shoulder. “I do not know what this is about, but the khan saw this incident. He is coming this way. Be very careful how you speak to him.”
Quickly, Steve got to his feet. Marcia moved close to him. Hunter, still holding MC 5 in his arms off the ground, turned to look. Kublai Khan and his small entourage hurried up in front of them.
Steve bowed low from the waist again. Since the khan did not bid them to rise, or say anything else right away, he remained in that position. So did Polo and Marcia. Hunter, as he held MC 5’s arm, also bowed and held the position, as did MC 5.
All Steve could see were the paving stones below him and the khan’s feet, in leather boots that curled up at the toe. For a long moment, no one spoke or moved. Suddenly Steve wondered if they would all lose their heads.
“What is this magic?” The khan finally demanded in Mongol. “Marco, who were those foreigners who disappeared? Who has cast spells here in my presence?”
Steve thought he could detect an element of fear in the khan’s voice, but if so, it was very subtle.
“I do not know,” said Polo.
“Rise, all of you. I want to see your faces.”
Steve straightened, his heart pounding. Before, all the jumps in time had either taken place away from local people, or else had happened in the middle of chaotic situations where other people’s attention had been diverted. If any situation could change history, though, he suspected that having Marco Polo and Kublai Khan witness a disappearance into time might do it.
Kublai Khan looked up into Hunter’s eyes. “Stranger, explain this.”
Hunter said nothing.
Startled, Steve looked at him in amazement. Always before, Hunter had offered an effective response to any difficult situation. Steve realized that for Hunter, refusing to answer meant that he could not think of anything to say that he considered safe under the Three Laws of Robotics.