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.
“I think I understand,” said Jane. “It’s Hunter being out of range to help us. isn’t it?”
Marcia nodded tightly. “Of course it is.”
“But we’re fine,” said Steve.
“We aren’t used to living without robots around like you are, Steve,” said Jane. “Remember? You made a few comments on our first mission about that. I’ve learned to improvise on these missions myself-and to get along without Hunter right next to me. That’s all it is.”
“Yeah?” Steve shook his head, looking at Marcia. “She’s panicking because Hunter is down the road and doesn’t want to reveal his strength?”
Marcia shrugged, glaring at him.
“Well, look,” said Steve, “I think we should consider riding down there after Hunter, no matter what he said. We can help him get free.”,
“I don’t think we should,” said Jane. “His reasons for waiting were clear. At least, we should call and talk about it with him again.”
“We’ve taken more risk and initiative than that on our own before.”
“It’s not just us. I’m arguing about this as a roboticist. Hunter doesn’tchoose the First Law; it governs his behavior whether he likes it or not, and he has given us his current concerns and interpretation already.”
“If we find him, the First Law will make him free himself to protect us, won’t it? Like I said to him?”
“Yes, probably. But there’s more to consider. During the last mission, Hunter finally allowed himself to take trips back to our own time in the middle of a mission in order to escape trouble. He’d never done that before. That was a real change in judgment for him.”
“What about it?”
“I’m worried that pushing him into a severe First Law dilemma might force him to take us back again. Every time we vanish and reappear, we increase our chances of being seen and we lose some continuity in our plans. In the long run, we might be better off cooperating with Hunter for now.”
“Well…you’re the expert on this stuff,” Steve said reluctantly…
“You mean we aren’t doinganything?” Marcia looked back and forth between them in disbelief. “We’re just going to sit and wait?”
“For now,” said Jane.
“Let’s get some sleep,” said Steve, straightening from leaning against the door. “We’ll need it tomorrow. You two stay here; I’ll go across the hall. Just make sure that your lapel pins are turned on. We don’t want to miss Hunter calling again.”
“You and Marcia are supposed to be married,” said Jane.
“Nobody’s going to notice how we divide the rooms,” Marcia muttered irritably. “I’ll stay with you.”
Steve watched her for a moment, tempted to tease her about refusing to play-act her role by sleeping in the other room with him. Then he decided she was already upset enough. With a brief nod to Jane, he left the room, closing the door behind him.
Across the hall, he entered his own room and found enough moonlight shining around the shutter on the window for him to see. Ignoring the unlit candle, he closed the door and undressed. The chilly mountain air also leaked into the room, but he could tolerate the temperature.
In the darkness, under the covers, he found himself tense and wide awake. He could hardly stand Marcia, but the uncertainty about Hunter bothered him, too, in a different way. Marcia felt vulnerable without a robot to protect her. Steve simply felt that he was wasting time, lying here doing nothing while Hunter remained a captive.