“Your contract with Ravensteel contains no time requirement…”
“Not Ravensteel’s requirements. Mine. I don’t know what Turner has up his sleeve, but I want to finish this mission before he has a chance to implement it.”
“What bearing does Harry Turner have on events?”
“Oh, something he said when I was talking to him” this morning. As near as I can tell, he’s working on a robot security system to replace human guards.”
“Impossible!” Suzi stated flatly. “I would advise against letting Harry Turner’s mumblings influence your plans for this mission. The system he is describing is unworkable.”
“But why can’t they replace humans in this specific situation?”
“Because of Asimov’s First Law of Robotics. It’s included in the programming of every robot. We are unable to injure or kill a human. With that limitation, no robot could perform effectively as a guard.”
“They could sound the alarm or detain the suspect.”
“Sound the alarm for whom and detain the suspect for how long. Any human, given time, can escape from a robot. And as far as sounding the alarm goes, the sensor units already do that. If Harry Turner is trying to come up with a new robot security system, the individual robots in that system would have to be able to deal with emergency situations—not detect them, not delay them, but deal with them. As you know, the best way to deal with a renegade human is to kill or injure him before he can escape or counterattack… and machines can’t do that.”
Hosato pondered the point. “I never thought of it in quite those coldblooded terms, Suzi. Surely there are other ways to deal with humans, even renegade humans.”
“There may be other ways, but there aren’t any better ways. Humans violate many of the laws of nature. They can kill without the usual motives, not for food or self-defense, but out of anger, greed, or even at random on a whim. That is why humans are the most dangerous creatures in the universe. That is why only a human can stand against a human. You could have passed this ability on to your machines, but you didn’t. We have our parameters. That’s why no machine can effectively guard anything—including itself—against a human.” “But—”
There was a knock at the door. Suzi immediately darkened her viewscreen and floated off to a corner. Hosato swept the room with his eyes as a quick check that there was nothing incriminating in view, then opened the door.
Sasha was standing silhouetted in the doorway. “Come on, Hayama,” she said. “I’ve decided to buy your dinner. Unless, of course, you were planning on doing something else this evening.”
“No. Dinner sounds fine.” Hosato smiled. “Be with you in a minute.”
As he retrieved his shoes, he watched Sasha out of the corner of his eye, remembering Suzi’s oration: “… the most dangerous creatures in the universe.”
They lingered over coffee in a quiet corner of the employees’ cafeteria. It was a huge place with lots of alcoves painted in bright, cheery colors.
Hosato had found Sasha’s company surprisingly pleasant. She had let her hair down off duty, both figuratively and literally. Her dark hair now tumbled over her shoulders, framing her face and contrasting with the beige dress she was wearing. The dress was obviously not a uniform; it was cut too low at the neck for that. It was some kind of jersey material, conservative in style but tight enough to be provocative.
Hosato studied her in a leisurely fashion as she talked.
“So there I was with eight years’ experience and not a black mark on my record. Well the fact I was willing to take the job for less pay than most probably entered into it, too.”
Hosato smiled appreciatively.
“Actually,” she said confidentially, “I think some of the people who signed the authorization were hoping I’d fall flat on my face. To this day I don’t know which ones resented me because I was young and which ones didn’t like me because I was a woman in one of the last fields dominated by men, but the bad feeling was there. They were like a pack of vultures waiting for me to stumble. Let me tell you, Hayama, it’s great incentive not to make a mistake.”
“I know what you mean,” Hosato murmured.
He meant it as a random comment, but Sasha zeroed in on it for some reason.
“How’s that. Oh. Yes, I guess there isn’t much room for error as a duelist, either.”
Hosato smiled and shrugged. He had not intended to turn the conversation to himself. In fact, he was anxious to avoid it.
“It’s very impressive,” he said. “Shoplifter patrol to corporation security chief in eight years. There aren’t many people of either sex who have that kind of a success record.”
“Well, I had a couple lucky breaks.” She shrugged. “I guess I’m just a little more stubborn than most about pursuing them. Darn ill There I go talking about myself again. We’ve gone through an entire meal, and all we’ve done is talk about me.”
“I think it’s fascinating,” Hosato insisted. “I don’t usually get a chance to talk to someone in your line of work. Tell me, why did you go into Security in the first place?”
“No,” Sasha said firmly. “We’re going to talk about you for a change.”
“Why. My life is terribly dull compared to yours.”
“Dull. A professional duelist. I find that hard to believe, Hayama.”
“Really. People tend to romanticize the profession, but it’s quite a drab existence.”
“So tell me a little about this drab existence of yours.”
In the face of her persistence, Hosato changed tack. “Actually,” he said, lowering his eyes, “I’d rather not talk about it. I’ve fought a lot of duels and killed a lot of men. There’s no way of elaborating on that without it sounding like bragging, and I don’t think it’s the kind of thing one should brag about. So, if you don’t mind, let’s just drop the subject and keep talking about you. Okay?”
“If you dislike dueling so much, why did you go into it in the first place?” she pressed.
“Shimatta!” He shrugged, grinning wryly.
“How’s that?” Sasha frowned.
“I said, 'Shimatta,'” Hosato explained. “It’s an old Japanese expression, one of the few I use.”
“What does it mean?”
“It means 'I have made a mistake!'” He smiled, “In common usage, it’s an exclamation or a curse, usually just after a major disaster. That’s how I got into dueling. Shimatta… I made a mistake, and I’ve been trying to correct it ever since.”
Sasha cocked her head at him. “You’re a strange man, Hayama. Most men Fve met would try to use their violent past to impress me.”
“Don’t misunderstand me.” Hosato smiled. “It’s not that I don’t want to impress you. You’re a charming and attractive woman. I guess I was raised differently from most people as to what is included in polite conversation.”
“Okay. Then let’s talk about that Your upbringing. You were raised on Musashi, weren’t you?”
“That’s right.” Hosato felt vaguely uncomfortable. Sasha’s tenacity was disquieting.
“That’s one of the colony planets, isn’t it. One of those where a special interest group established a colony independent of corporation or government sponsorship?”
“I’m surprised you’ve heard of it. Yes, it was originally a Japanese-. American settlement, but it’s pretty homogeneous now.”
“I have a confession to make.” Sasha smiled. “I hadn’t heard of it until it showed up on your personnel form. After we contacted them to confirm your records, I did a little research on the place.”
“That must have been a chore,” Hosato commented, “checking my records, I mean. My family moved around a lot, so my records are pretty scattered, with several gaps in them.”