“NONE,” said the central computer. “PLEASE IDENTIFY YOURSELF AND YOUR DUTY TASK.”
“What is the current assignment of active Hunter robots?” Mandelbrot guessed that he could risk one suspicious question before the central computer would start a trace on his transmission.
“IDENTIFY YOURSELF AND YOUR DUTY TASK,” the central computer repeated.
Mandelbrot broke the link. “I can’t get any significant information without endangering our position,” he said to Wolruf. “Since no general alert has been made, only the Hunters are a danger to us.”
“To uss?” Wolruf asked. “Or only to the ‘umanss?” She looked back toward the Compass Tower. “Ssee Hunterss now. Going away from uss to Tower.”
“We’ll have to assume that the alert is for our entire group. If Derec and Ariel have been identified, then we certainly were included. If they have only been identified as intruders, we may not have been.” Mandelbrot picked up Wolruf and placed her on his back, where she clung by herself.
“Now what?” Wolruf asked.
“I must take one more risk,” said Mandelbrot. He attempted to reach the terminal in the Compass Tower office. No response came back of any kind. “Puzzling,” said Mandelbrot.
“What?”
“I think Derec and Ariel must have left the office Even so, I would normally receive an acknowledgement of contact from the terminal and a request for a message.”
“Perrhaps the offiss is different,” said Wolruf. “Special arrangement forr Averry.”
“That is probable,” said Mandelbrot. “In any case, they are not answering. They have probably fled, which is fortunate. We have no way to reach them through my comlink, however, and no way of knowing where they are.”
“Follow Hunterss,” Wolruf said softly. “Iss only way.” Mandelbrot nodded agreement. “As long as they do not become aware of us. “
Mandelbrot took Wolruf to a slidewalk and they rode up to an overpass near the Compass Tower. It gave them a view of the front of the Compass Tower and several of its many sides. They could not watch every side, but this was a reasonable start.
Before long, five Hunter robots appeared from the front entrance of the Compass Tower. Two of them immediately headed for the tunnel stop that Mandelbrot and Wolruf had just used. Another pair mounted a slidewalk and took a path roughly at a right angle to the previous pair. The last Hunter remained on the stationary sidewalk, within the right angle formed by the routes of the two pairs.
“Good news,” said Mandelbrot. ‘They have not caught their quarry, nor are they confident of doing so immediately.”
“Bad newss,” hissed Wolruf. ‘They know what direction to look in. We musst ‘urry, or will lose them.”
“Granted.” Mandelbrot was already back on the moving slidewalk, keeping as many of the Hunters in sight as long as he could. The first pair was soon out of sight, down the tunnel stop. The second pair was moving quickly on the slidewalk and was intermittently visible between various buildings. Mandelbrot and Wolruf had now descended the overpass and were coming around a curve. Not too far ahead, the last Hunter was just mounting the same segment of slidewalk.
“‘Ope ‘e doessn’t come thiss way,” said Wolruf.
The Hunter did not. It was going away from them and was clearly in a hurry. Instead of just standing, it was walking forward even as it rode and Mandelbrot had to keep pace.
“Not too close,” Wolruf said.
“Nor can we afford to lose it. Further, I speculate that other Hunters may have left the Compass Tower from exits out of our sight. We must remain on the alert for others. As we approach the humans, the Hunters will all begin to converge.”
“Then what do we do?” Wolruf asked.
“I don’t know.”
Chapter 7. The Hunters
Derec was hobbling painfully, slowed to a walk, as Ariel finally dragged him to her destination. It was a depot of the vacuum tube cargo transportation system. He stopped when he saw it, pulling back on her arm.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “They had humanoid robots staffing these depots. They’ll report where we’ve gone.”
“Not if no one asks. Come on.” She pulled harder than he had, and he allowed himself to follow.
As they came up on the loading dock, he saw that he was wrong. A small function robot was alone here now, loading cargo without supervision.
“What if it doesn’t let us get in?” He asked.
“Ignore it.” Ariel pushed a small container aside, out of the reach of the function robot’s extended pincers.
The robot itself was a small ovoid shape with six tentacles ending in various gripping tools. Without a positronic brain, it would not interfere deliberately, or respond to the Laws of Robotics, either. As it rolled forward after the small box, Ariel climbed into the open, transparent capsule and reached out to help Derec climb in.
Reluctantly, he stepped over the side of the capsule, in extreme pain, and slowly stretched out inside it.
“We have to go somewhere,” he said. “This thing doesn’t have a console inside it. It has to be programmed on the dock console, over there.” He pointed.
Ariel hesitated while the function robot placed the small box inside the capsule between her feet and Derec’s head. She squatted down quickly and stretched out just as the function robot closed the trapdoor.
“We’re going wherever this box is,” she said. “The good thing is, we haven’t left any kind of trail. That programming is completely independent of us. “
“Yeah-”
His comment was cut short by the sudden acceleration of the capsule. It moved forward on rollers to push through a door that gave under the pressure. Then they were in the vacuum tube itself, and the capsule really picked up speed.
As before, the momentum pushed both of them back against the rear of the capsule. Derec was too sore to brace himself with his arms, so his head and shoulder were jammed against the back surface. They were rushing through darkness, blasted by the air that swept over them from unseen vents.
Before, the flight from their pursuers had kept his adrenaline flowing, and he had experienced some remission of his stiffness. Now even the excitement of riding the vacuum tube was not enough to keep the symptoms from recurring. His legs continued to throb painfully, and the shooting pains in his back seemed to settle in with the increasing stiffness he felt.
His one relief was that she was right. They had not left a trail.
The tube curved upward. He closed his eyes in anticipation of light, and brilliant sunlight flooded the capsule. Opening his eyes slowly so they could adjust, he took in the new scene around them.
This section of the transparent vacuum tube rose high above the ground and used the existing supports of various buildings to wind over the city. At this altitude-and it was still rising-it would not interfere with earthbound priorities. Their capsule was shooting along the tube at high speed over what should have been a spectacular view. He was in too much pain to enjoy it.
Suddenly a thought struck him.
“Ariel,” he said, with effort. “That entire staff at the Key Center has been reassigned. But it was the Key Center that provided the vacuum to run this vacuum tube system. That means the Key Center itself is still working. What’s going on around here, anyway?”
She didn’t answer.
“Ariel?” He called louder over the rushing air, but he knew what her silence meant. With a sinking feeling, he turned his head to look at her, feeling more snappings in his neck.
She lay on her back, holding herself in position by pushing against the rear of the capsule with both hands. Her face, turned to the side, showed exhilaration and excitement as she gazed at the panorama of the city. She did not seem to see him at all.
Derec guessed that she was reliving their first wild ride in the vacuum tube, long ago. It was a happier period in some ways, though they had felt burdens at the time. At least he had been healthy, and she had been functionally so before her disease had really struck.