Do you think this could have contributed to its later breakdown?
Possibly. How can you say in a one-of-a-kind situation like this? K you want a guess, I'd say, 'Yes.' But its just a guess.
Uh-huh, he said, and what were its physical capabilities?
Anthropomorphic design, I said, both because it was originally telefactored and because of the psychological reasoning I just mentioned. It could pilot its own small vessel. No need for a life-support system, of course. Both it and the vessel were powered by fusion units, so that fuel was no real problem. Self-repairing. Capable of performing a great variety of sophisticated tests and measurements, of making observations, completing reports, learning new material, broadcasting its findings back here. Capable of surviving just about anywhere. In fact, it required less energy on the outer planets, less work for the refrigeration units, to maintain that supercooled brain in its midsection.
How strong was it?
I don't recall all the specs. Maybe a dozen times as strong as a man, in things like lifting and pushing.
It explored Io for us and started in on Europa.
Yes.
Then it began behaving erratically, just when we thought it had really learned its job.
That sounds right, I said.
It refused a direct order to explore Callisto, then headed out toward Uranus.
Yes. It's been years since I read the reports ...
The malfunction worsened after that. Long periods of silence interspersed with garbled transmissions. Now that I know more about its makeup, it almost sounds like a man going off the deep end.
It seems similar.
But it managed to pull itself together again for a brief while. It landed on Titania, began sending back what seemed like appropriate observation reports. This only lasted a short time, though. It went irrational once more, indicated that it was heading for a landing on Uranus itself, and that was it. We didn't hear from it after that. Now that I know about that mind-reading gadget I understand why a psychiatrist on this end could be so positive it would never function again.
I never heard about that part.
I did.
I shrugged. This was all around twenty years ago, I said, and, as I mentioned, it has been a long while since I've read anything about it.
The Hangman's ship crashed or landed, as the case may be, in the Gulf of Mexico, two days ago.
I just stared at him.
It was empty, Don went on, when they finally got out and down to it.
I don't understand.
Yesterday morning, he continued, restaurateur Manny Burns was found beaten to death in the office of his establishment, the Maison Saint-Michel, in New Orleans.
I still fail to see ...
Manny Burns was one of the four original operators who programmed, pardon me, 'taught', the Hangman.
The silence lengthened, dragged its belly on the deck.
Coincidence ... ? ! finally said.
My client doesn't think so.
Who is your client?
One of the three remaining members of the training group. He is convinced that the Hangman has returned to Earth to kill its former operators.
Has he made his fears known to his old employers?
No.
Why not?
Because it would require telling them the reason for his fears.
That being ... ?
He wouldn't tell me, either.
How does he expect you to do a proper job?
He told me what he considered a proper job. He wanted two things done, neither of which requires a full case history. He wanted to be furnished with good bodyguards, and he wanted the Hangman found and disposed of. I have already taken care of the first part.
And you want me to do the second?
That's right. You have confirmed my opinion that you are the man for the job.
I see. Do you realize that if the firing is truly sentient this will be something very like murder? If it is not, of course, then it will only amount to the destruction of expensive government property.
Which way do you look at it?
I look at it as a job, I said.
You'll take it?
I need more facts before I can decide. Like, who is your client? Who are the other operators? Where do they live? What do they do? What ... He raised his hand.
First, he said, the Honorable Jesse Brockden, senior Senator from Wisconsin, is our client. Confidentiality, of course, is written all over it.
I nodded. I remember his being involved with the space program before he went into politics. I wasn't aware of the specifics, though. He could get government protection so easily ...
To obtain it, he would apparently have to tell them something he doesn't want to talk about. Perhaps it would hurt his career. I simply do not know. He doesn't want them. He wants us.
I nodded again.
What about the others? Do they want us, too?
Quite the opposite. They don't subscribe to Brockden's notions at all. They seem to think he is something of a paranoid.
How well do they know one another these days?
They live in different parts of the country, haven't seen each other in years. Been in occasional touch, though.
Kind of a flimsy basis for that diagnosis, then.
One of them is a psychiatrist.
Oh. Which one?
Leila Thackery is her name. Lives in St. Louis. Works at the State Hospital there.
None of them have gone to any authority, then, federal or local?
That's right. Brockden contacted them when he heard about the Hangman. He was in Washington at the time. Got word on its return right away and managed to get the story killed. He tried to reach them all, learned about Burns in the process, contacted me, then tried to persuade the others to accept protection by my people. They weren't buying. When I talked to her, Doctor Thackery pointed out, quite correctly, that Brockden is a very sick man.
What's he got?
Cancer. In his spine. Nothing they can do about it once it hits there and digs in. He even told me he figures he has maybe six months to get through what he considers a very important piece of legislation, the new criminal rehabilitation act ... I will admit that he did sound kind of paranoid when he talked about it. But hell! Who wouldn't? Doctor Thackery sees that as the whole thing, though, and she doesn't see the Burns killing as being connected with the Hangman. Thinks it was just a traditional robbery gone sour, thief surprised and panicky, maybe hopped-up, et cetera.
Then she is not afraid of the Hangman?
She said that she is in a better position to know its mind than anyone else, and she is not especially concerned.
What about the other operator?
He said that Doctor Thackery may know its mind better than anyone else, but he knows its brain, and he isn't worried, either.
What did he mean by that?
David Fentris is a consulting engineer, electronics, cybernetics. He actually had something to do with the Hangman's design.