“Help me up, Ishihara,” said Jane, to stall him further. She remained on the ground.
Ishihara hurried toward her and knelt down. “Are you injured?”
Jane decided that telling extreme lies would be a mistake; teaching him not to trust her could backfire if she was in real trouble. Stalling, on the other hand, seemed safe enough. she said nothing. Behind Ishihara, Wayne came riding back, scowling. MC 6 had escaped him.
“Ishihara! Go get him!” Wayne yelled.
“Are you injured?” Ishihara repeated.
“Not seriously. Please help me up.”
“Of course.”
“Ishihara, she’s faking!” Wayne dismounted near them. “Track that robot now, before he gets back to the wagons! I couldn’t ride fast enough in this stupid forest to keep up, but he hasn’t gone far.”
Jane remained passive as Ishihara put one arm under her shoulders and raised her up. Then he shifted his position and helped her stand. She took a deep breath and leaned on Ishihara’s shoulder.
“I’ll take care of her!” Wayne yelled. “Ishihara, go get him!”
“You seem unharmed,” Ishihara said to Jane.
“Yes, I’ll be all right.”
“Now!” Wayne grabbed Ishihara’s arm and pushed after MC 6. “I’ll watch her!”
Ishihara finally turned and jogged in the direction MC 6 had gone.
Wayne watched him go.
18
As soon as Wayne turned away, Jane ducked under a branch and ran.
“Hey!” Wayne yelled behind her. “Oh, no, you don’t! Come back here!”
Jane darted around a sapling and bent down to avoid another low-hanging branch, but she felt Wayne grab her hair from behind. He yanked, pulling her head back. She threw her arms around the branch and hung on, but could not move her head.
“Ishihara!” Jane yelled. Then she let out a loud, long, scream, much more exaggerated than the situation really warranted.
“Shut up!” Wayne put his other hand over her mouth and tried to pull her away from the tree branch.
Jane struggled, but she was not really angry or scared. She was still deliberately provoking Wayne and forcing Ishihara to protect her instead of catching MC 6. She bent her knees, dropping to the ground as she thrashed in his grasp. Wayne had to fall, too, in order to hang onto her.
Neither of them spoke. Jane let go of the branch, but tried to pull his hand away from her mouth. In a moment, she heard footsteps running toward them. Then suddenly Wayne released her. She let herself fall back onto the grass, looking up.
Ishihara had pulled Wayne away and now held him firmly as they both stood over her.
“I told you to catch MC 6,” Wayne growled, but he did not sound as angry as before.
“You know I cannot allow this,” said Ishihara. “If I release you, will you remain calm?”
“Yeah, yeah, all right. But you’ve been manipulated. She’s done it to both of us.”
Ishihara let go of him. “You didn’t have to grab me,” said Jane, remaining where she lay. “You could have let me go.” That, too, was for Ishihara’s benefit
“Are you harmed?” Ishihara asked.
“Not really. But I didn’t like it much.” She looked at Wayne. “Keep your hands to yourself from now on.”
“She’s fine,” Wayne wearily. “And I’m not going to hurt her. You still might have a chance to get MC 6, if you hurry. You can track him.”
“No, you can’t,” said Jane. “As soon as you leave again, I’m running away. And Wayne will try to stop me again and we’ll wind up wrestling around again. Ishihara, you either have to stay here and protect me from Wayne or let me go.”
“I won’t hurt her,” said Wayne. “I’ve never wanted to hurt her. But we can’t let her tell Hunter where we are-or where MC 6 has gone, either.”
“You can’t trust him,” said Jane. “You just saw him grab me and pull me down.”
“If you promise not to run away, I can trust him,” said Ishihara.
“I refuse to promise,” said Jane. “In fact, I promise to run away every chance I get from now on.”
“Ishihara, can’t you see what she’s doing?” Wayne demanded. “This whole argument is set up to stop you from getting MC 6, and that’s all it is.”
“The First Law has no exceptions,” said Ishihara. “I must make my own interpretation of priorities. Unless you decide to let Jane go find Hunter on her own, I must remain with both of you.”
Wayne sighed with resignation. “I can’t do that. We might as well give up as do that.”
“Then I suggest we move somewhat farther from the camp and make our own camp for the night,” said Ishihara. “The sun will go down soon.”
“All right,” said Wayne. “But if you’re staying here instead of chasing MC 6, make sure that she stays, too.”
Jane indulged in an impish grin, relieved that she had foiled the capture of MC 6. “Why, of course, Wayne. Anything you want.”
Steve rode up and down a route roughly parallel to the road with Hunter. Neither of them spoke. Steve could hear the men and horses of the baggage train and occasionally saw them through the trees.
Finally Hunter reined in and turned to Steve.
“I have heard and seen no sign of MC 6. While I grant that he may not be speaking, I should be able to hear his footsteps, which are of a distinctively light weight among grown men. If he was helping others, I should hear them talk about him as they work, if they do not address him directly.”
“You think he figured out that we came from his time to get him?”
“I must consider it possible. He may have studied my skin with magnified vision while we spoke with Gaius last night. Also, he may have been approached by Wayne and Ishihara, in which case they could have revealed their purpose.”
“I guess if you’d heard any sign of them, you would have told me.”
“I have not. As we discussed before, I expect that after Jane shouted for my help, Wayne and Ishihara took her a safe distance away from the column.”
“If they know MC 6 came with the column, they must have followed. Let’s go look for tracks.”
Hunter looked through the trees at the position of the sun. “I do not estimate we have enough light to pursue any tracks for long.”
“Wait a minute. Didn’t you say a while ago that if we couldn’t find MC 6, we could look for Jane?”
“We have taken more time than I expected in searching for MC 6. I cannot allow you to miss dinner. Nor can we wander too far from the camp before darkness falls.”
“I can miss a meal if I have to. Besides, we don’t have to be gone long. Let’s look around.”
“Agreed.”
Hunter rode back up the route they had taken before, but now he examined the ground. Steve said nothing. He felt trapped by their need to perform duties in the column.