“Derec, what is it now?” She wailed.
He whirled and leaned back into the platform booth. After a quick glance down the way they had come, he entered a series of further coordinates, punching codes as fast as he could remember them.
“Derec, let’s go.” She looked down the main tunnel anxiously herself. “What are you doing?”
“That’ll help.” He stepped out of the booth and it immediately took off down the siding.
“What did you do?” She asked as they stepped onto the moving ascent ramp.
“They’ll have to check all the destinations I entered.” He grinned, then winced at the pain in his legs. ”Maybe we got off here; maybe we rode on. They can’t know.”
“Do you think it’ll matter? Won’t they just call out more Hunters to cover every stop?”
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “If nothing else, it’ll spread out their resources some.”
They rode up into the sunlight and stepped out onto the street. He looked around, feeling totally exposed. As the only humans on the planet except for Avery, they could be spotted instantly virtually anywhere they were.
“Our only chance is if the Hunters are the only ones alerted to the chase,” he said, eyeing an approaching humanoid robot suspiciously. It was alone, with a number of varied function robots moving about on the street near it.
Ariel followed his gaze and lowered her voice. “When we were looking for Jeff, the whole planet cooperated in the alert, didn’t they?”
“They had the First Law giving them an extra push in that case,” said Derec. “In this case, I don’t know what they’ll do. If even the Supervisors have been reprogrammed, then new priorities may be in effect for the entire population.”
The humanoid robot walked past them without interest. Down the block, a couple of others were crossing the street away from them. They just didn’t react to Derec and Ariel’s presence.
“Shouldn’t we get out of here?” Ariel looked back down the tunnel stop. “We’re just standing around.”
“I’m thinking!” Derec whispered hoarsely. His legs were throbbing painfully. “We have to know where we’re going. We can’t just run down the sidewalk. I won’t last. “
“I’ve got it. Come on!” She grabbed his hand and started pulling him again.
He clenched his teeth at the shooting pains in his back and his legs as he hurried after her.
Mandelbrot was walking briskly down the sidewalk toward the Compass Tower with Wolruf trotting alongside. They were coming from the regular tunnel stop closest to the pyramid. Suddenly, ahead, the distinctive forms of two tall, powerful humanoid robots with multiple sensory apparati crossed an intersection in the distance on their way toward the Compass Tower. They were Hunter robots, programmed with a particularly high sensitivity to pattern recognition and detail.
Mandelbrot stopped abruptly.
“What iss the matter?” Wolruf asked as she came to a belated halt and looked up at him.
“Hunters,” said Mandelbrot. “Unless other intruders are present, our group is certainly their quarry. And they are going right to the Compass Tower.” He accessed the central computer. “Please inform me of any general alert that has been issued.”
“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.