“What’s happened?”
Derec did not stand around long enough to respond to her question. He was several steps farther on, his eyes nervously inspecting another building, a small sloping structure that thrust upward into the sky, ending in a spire.
“Look up there!” he cried.
He meant the spire. As she peered at it, she realized that there was something just slightly out of kilter about it.
“It’s tilted a bit,” she said.
“Right,” he said. There was an offensive tone in his voice, as if he were condemning her for verifying the obvious.
“No Supervisor robot would allow such a deviation from the norm.”
“I don’t know. I seem to remember something I read about Earth and a leaning tower there. It was quite a tourist attraction.”
“Well, I’ll refer your observation to our Tourist Board.”
“Don’t be sarcastic. I’m trying to help.”
Again he didn’t respond. He was now running, eager to examine another building. Ariel clapped her hands twice as a signal to the floater. The pair of claps made the vehicle rise from the ground and follow her as she walked to Derec.
He stood in front of the building’s entrance and stared at it.
“Anything wrong with this one?” she asked.
“Nothing I can see. I’m sorry I snapped at you. I just feel at-”
“Forget it, buddy. I ragged you pretty hard back on Aranimas’s ship when we first met. We’ll just consider your present mood a paying back.”
“Thanks.”
As his eyes scanned the wall in front of him, his concentration was broken by a loud thumping sound.
“What was that?” Ariel asked.
“I don’t know. Let’s go in and find out.”
“Every time I turn around, you’re being brave. Okay, you lead.”
The building’s entrance was situated in a corner of the street facade. Next to the door was a handplate that could identify both human and robot personnel. This meant it was considered a security area, and only registered individuals would be allowed into the building. That didn’t worry Derec. His handprint was automatically registered with all Robot City identity systems, so he placed his hand against the handplate confidently and casually, expecting the door to pop open immediately. It did not. He pressed his hand harder against the plate. Again nothing happened.
“What’s wrong?” Ariel asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe it hasn’t been connected yet.”
“Here. Let me try.”
Brushing past him, she placed her hand on the plate. Derec was again impressed by the thin angular look of her fingers and would have been willing at that moment to take her hand and lead her to someplace dark, comfortable, and quiet where they could concentrate on kissing and making up.
The door wouldn’t open for her, either. Irritated, she slammed her fist against the door itself, and it slowly, creakily, came open. The sound was especially disconcerting. It was another anomaly. No door in this Robot City should squeak.
“Well, fancy that,” Ariel said, “it was already open. Shall we?”
She gestured toward the dark interior.
When they entered the building, they should have triggered a force field that would immediately switch on the lighting. But after a few steps, they still stood in what seemed like absolute darkness, broken only by the light streaming in from the doorway. That light was soon lost as the door slowly swung shut. The air seemed stale, and Derec wondered if the circulation systems had broken down, too. Instinctively, he reached for Ariel in time to feel a shudder go through her body.
“You’re right,” she muttered. “Something’s wrong here.” She hugged him tightly. “Derec, let’s inspect some other building.”
“I’m with you on that. The doorway should be-”
She suddenly screamed, not a scream of fear so much as of startlement. With her head so close to his, the sound of it nearly deafened him.
“What happened?”
“Something brushed against my leg.”
“What?”
“I couldn’t tell. Felt like an animal. Like a rat or something.”
“What kind of animal could it possibly be? You’re imagining things. There’re no animals in Robot City. They-”
“There it is again! It just slammed into my calf.”
“Maybe it’s a robot. A delivery or cargo-”
“Didn’t feel like a robot. Too soft, too-”
Derec felt a forceful nudge against his ankle. Ariel was right. It did feel like an animal. Must be the power of suggestion.
“Ariel, everything is all right. We’ll just make our way to the door and get out of-”
To his left there was a faint animal-like noise. It sounded like a subdued cackle. An elf or tiny demon pleased with his or her work. There was another small cackle on the other side of him. A third behind Ariel. In a moment there were cackles all around them, and they had become louder. Whatever was inside this building seemed to like chattering to each other.
Taking Ariel’s hand, Derec fled backward toward the door that was faintly outlined from outside daylight. Near the door, before the two of them had flung it open and fled from the building, he nearly tripped over something, something that screeched back angrily at him.
Chapter 4. The Watchful Eye
There was no such thing as an all-seeing eye in Robot City, but the Watchful Eye believed it must come close. Even though it usually sat safe in its haven, its rudimentary body drawn snugly inside, it could observe and examine whatever happened in the city.
Since the time it had arrived in the city through an underground tunnel that had originally been meant for human sewage (of which there had so far been so little that the sewer’s walls were brightly pristine and its clear water smelled fresh and pleasant), it had gradually taken over all Robot City systems.
The Watchful Eye had no idea how it had arrived on the planet. After coming suddenly to awareness in a field outside the city, it had molded itself into simple but functional form. Searching the countryside, it located the sewer tunnel. At first it had transported itself by the kind of carts used for supply and passenger transport through the intricate network of tunnels, and eventually found its way to the lair of the central computer. It had taken a while to learn that the computer was merely a machine and not a living being. It took some more time to discover how to operate it. For one period it roamed at will around the inside of the computer and absorbed random bits of knowledge. Now it had collected a considerable amount of the computer’s information, much of which it was not certain how to use. The only way to find out, it had discovered, was to practice.
First it practiced on the numerous robots that roamed the huge city’s streets. Although it had not yet seen a robot up close, it knew about them from studying the view-screens set up in the underground computer center. As it became more computerlike itself, it began using the computer to communicate with the robots. It convinced the robots that it was human and, according to Second Law, should be obeyed as a human. (As long as they could not see it, the Watchful Eye was able to carry off the illusion convincingly. It had forbidden the highest ranking robots to come into its presence or have any sight of it.)
Although it had accessed much information about humans -visual data, anthropological studies, physiological and anatomical maps, psychological data-it believed it hadn’t yet reached an understanding of what a human really was. It yearned to see one.
There had been no problem in making working models of humans, no difficulty in creating thousands of computer visualizations of human beings. Where it had failed, however, was in really knowing what a human was. All the information files had been entered by humans who already knew what they were. Essential things had been left out, and the Watchful Eye needed to fill in those blanks.