Late in the afternoon, Jane could see men riding toward the column from different directions, sometimes along small paths or intersecting roads and sometimes overland. Some rode singly or in small groups; others arrived in large troops, lined up in a military column themselves. The new arrivals moved onto the road ahead of the baggage train.
The baggage train finally reached the spot where the rest of the column had stopped to make camp, in a forest just past a wide stretch of open country. Other troops whom Jane had not seen had also arrived at this rendezvous point, making the camp much larger than it had been the night before. Ishihara led Wayne into the forest and stopped where they could see the baggage train through the trees.
“Have you seen Hunter?” Wayne asked quietly.
“Not yet. The visibility is poor, of course, here in the forest.” Ishihara helped Jane down.
Wayne dismounted. “That’s good. Hunter will have trouble seeing us, too.”
“That is true,” said Ishihara. “We must decide exactly what our move will be.”
Jane knew that the men in the baggage train could hear her clearly enough if she shouted for help again. However, she had no way of knowing where Hunter was, or if he could hear her. He might be so far up the column that her voice would be drowned out by the sounds of men setting up the camp, yelling orders, and by the hoofbeats of hundreds of horses hobbled for the night. Hunter’s failure to respond last night worried her. She decided not to anger Wayne any further by another shout unless she really had reason to think Hunter could help.
17
“All right, Ishihara,” Wayne said firmly. “The chance we’ve waited for is coming up. No more delays. We have to find a way to get MC 6 now.”
“Then what will we do with him?” Ishihara asked. “We must plan our approach based on our escape.”
“We’ll jump a safe distance away-maybe back to the hills near Emrys’s hut, early tomorrow morning. I can open up MC 6 and finally start my investigation into what went wrong. As we’ve discussed during past missions, I can’t go back to Mojave Center until I have information that will work to my advantage with the Oversight Committee.”
“I understand. We will simply have to apologize to Emrys for losing the mule.”
“Yeah. But when we talked about what to do before, you said you could approach MC 6 alone. Go ahead and see if you can find him. We’ll wait right here.”
“Don’t leave us,” Jane said quickly.
“Shut up,” said Wayne. “She’s just trying to interfere with your thinking, Ishihara.”
“The camp followers are coming up behind the baggage train again,” said Jane. “If you can’t take us to the baggage train, you can’t risk leaving us here. If those scavengers come toward us, Wayne can’t protect us.”
“Nonsense,” said Wayne. “Why would they bother us? We don’t have anything of value. Go on, Ishihara.”
“We have the mule,” said Jane. “They could ride it or eat it.”
“She has a point,” said Ishihara. “In addition, she may escape from you.”
“Not if you’ll tie her. You refused before. How about just tying her to a tree trunk for a few minutes?”
“I cannot. The First Law-”
“All right, all right. I know what it says.” Wayne paced angrily among the trees. “Then all three of us can go look for him. You can protect us.”
“Among all those men? Even a robot could be overwhelmed,” said Jane.
“That is true,” said Ishihara.
“Then you stay here with her,” said Wayne impatiently. “I can go find MC 6 on my own, without the mule. Nobody will have any reason to bother me.”
“I cannot allow that under the First Law, either,” said Ishihara.
“Why not?” Wayne demanded.
“When Hunter approached the baggage train twenty-four hours ago, he was stopped by a group of men willing to commit violence. I cannot allow you to risk that.”
“That’s true,” said Jane. “That’s another risk.”
“Shut up, “ Wayne repeated. “Ishihara, I instruct you to suggest a plan that you can accept. At this point, even a fairly low chance of success is better than total inaction. Think of something!”
“Maybe there is no safe way to do this,” said Jane. “Too much risk is involved, Ishihara. How about a new approach? Talk to Hunter about working together.”
“Don’t listen to her, Ishihara,” said Wayne. “I gave you an instruction.”
“I have a plan,” said Ishihara.
“Yeah? What is it?” Wayne folded his arms. “This better be good.”
“You take Jane in a slow but deliberate ride on the mule away from the camp and the road. If any riders approach you, ride slowly away from them, but do not appear to flee or they may pursue you to find out why, You can outdistance any camp followers who approach you on foot, so they probably will not try. At the slightest sign of danger to you, shout for me and ride back in my direction. I should be able to reach you quickly. If no trouble develops, then keep riding away from the camp. I will catch up to you, with or without MC 6.”
“Exactly what are you going to do?”
“I will attempt to solicit MC 6’s aid through a ruse. However, my use of the Second Law depends entirely on his belief that I am human. As we discussed, if he detects that I am a robot, he will not only refuse to obey, but he will flee, alerted to our pursuit.”
“You can’t leave us like that,” Jane insisted. “We’ll still be in potential danger.”
“This will be acceptable,” said Ishihara. “In the event of immediate danger, I will use the belt unit to take us away from here.”
“You won’t have time to set it,” said Jane. “If we’re riding away from someone and you’re running to meet us, we won’t have much time.”
“I will set it now.” Ishihara reached inside his tunic, opened his abdomen, and brought out the unit. He looked around in the distance, then changed the settings. “In the event we have to use it, we will jump only a few hours into the future, after dark, to a spot half a kilometer away. That will be close enough for us to consider future moves.”
Jane could not think of any more arguments. Ishihara, after all, made the final interpretation of what he could accept under the First Law. She sighed and looked at Wayne.
“Mount up,” said Wayne.
Ishihara waited until Wayne and Jane had ridden twenty meters away from the camp, out of the trees into open country. Because Ishihara could see they were alone there, he felt he could leave them for a short time. He walked through the trees toward the baggage train.
Moving slowly, Ishihara studied the wagons as he approached them. Because Artorius had stopped to make camp in a forested area, the wagons remained lined up on the road or just off of it, where space permitted. Last night, the wagons had bunched together at the rear of the camp, and the wagon crews had mixed together freely. Now the crews were strung out along the road as they unloaded their wagons.