“I ask you again.”
“You cannot be sane if you ask me again despite all I have said.”
“That, Mandamus, is a personal opinion of yours. I am not so insane that I have failed to send off all the local robots on one errand or another. We are alone here.”
Mandamus lifted a corner of his upper lip in a sneer. “And with what do you intend to threaten me? Are you going to kill me now that there are no robots present to stop you?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, Mandamus, I will if I have to.” Amadiro produced a small-caliber blaster from a pouch at his side. “These are difficult to obtain on Earth, but not impossible—if the price is right. And I know how to use it. Please believe me when I tell you that I am perfectly willing to blow your head off right now—if you do not place your thumb on the contact and allow me to adjust the dial to twelve.”
“You dare not. If I die, how will you set the dial without me?”
“Don’t be an utter fool. If I blow your head off, your left thumb will remain intact. It will even be at blood temperature for a while. I will use that thumb, then set the dial as easily as I would turn on a water tap. I would prefer you alive, since your death might be wearisome to explain back on Aurora, but it would not be more wearisome than I could bear. Therefore, I give you thirty seconds to make up your mind. If you cooperate, I will still give you the headship at once. If you don’t, it will all go as I wish, in any case, and you will be dead. We start now. One—two—three—”
Mandamus stared in horror at Amadiro, who continued to count and stare at him over the leveled blaster with hard, expressionless eyes.
And then Mandamus hissed, “Put the blaster away, Amadiro, or we’ll both be immobilized on the plea that we must be protected from harm.”
The warning came too late. Quicker than the eye could follow, an arm stretched out to seize Amadiro’s wrist, paralyzing it with pressure, and the blaster was gone.
Daneel said, “I apologize for having had to inflict pain on you, Dr. Amadiro, but I cannot allow you to hold a blaster pointed at another human being.”
99
Amadiro said nothing.
Mandamus said coldly, “You are two robots with, as far as I can see, no master in view. By default, I am your master and I order you to leave and not return. Since, as you see, there is no danger to any human being present at this moment, there is nothing to overcome your necessitated obedience to this order. Leave at once.”
Daneel said, “Respectfully, sir, there is no need to hide our identities or abilities from you, since you know them already. My companion, R. Giskard Reventlov, has the ability to detect emotion.—Friend Giskard.”
Giskard said, “As we approached, having detected your presence at quite a distance, I took note, Dr. Amadiro, of an overwhelming rage in your mind. In yours, Dr. Mandamus, there was extreme fear.”
“The rage, if rage there was,” said Mandamus, “was Dr Amadiro’s reaction to the approach of two strange robots, especially of one who was capable of meddling with the human mind and who had already badly—and perhaps permanently—damaged that of Lady Vasilia. My fear, if fear there was, was also the result of your approach. We are not in control of our emotions and there is no reason for you to interfere. We again order you to withdraw permanently.”
Daneel said, “Your pardon, Dr. Mandamus, but I merely wish to ascertain that we may safely follow your orders. Was there not a blaster in Dr. Amadiro’s hand when we approached—and was it not pointed at you?”
Mandamus said, “He was explaining its workings and he was about to put it away when you took it from him.”
“Then shall I return it to him, sir, before I leave?”
“No,” said Mandamus without a quiver, “for then you would have an excuse to remain here in order to—as you would say—protect us. Take it with you when you go and you will have no reason to return.”
Daneel said, “We have reason to think that you are here in a region which human beings are not allowed to penetrate—”
“That is a custom, not a law, and one which, in any case, holds no force over us, since we are not Earthpeople. For that matter, robots are not allowed to be here, either.”
“We were brought here, Dr. Mandamus, by a high official of Earth’s government. We have reason to think that you are here in order to raise the level of radioactivity in Earth’s crust and do grave and irreparable damage to the planet.”
“Not at all,” began Mandamus.
Here Amadiro interrupted for the first time. “By what right, robot, do you cross-examine us? We are human beings who have given you an order. Follow it now!”
His tone of authority was overwhelming and Daneel quivered, while Giskard half-turned.
But Daneel said, “Your pardon, Dr. Amadiro. I do not cross-examine. I merely seek reassurance, in order that I may know that I can safely follow the order. We have reason to think that—”
“You need not repeat,” said Mandamus. Then, in an aside, “Dr. Amadiro, please allow me to answer.” To Daneel again, “Daneel, we are here on an anthropological mission. It is our purpose to seek the origins of various human customs that influence behavior among Spacers. These origins can be found only here on Earth and it is here, then, that we seek them.”
“Do you have Earth’s permission, for this?”
“Seven years ago, I consulted the appropriate officials on Earth and received their permission.”
Daneel said in a low voice, “Friend Giskard, what do you say?”
Giskard said, “The indications in Dr. Mandamus’s mind are that what he is saying is not in accord with the situation as it is.”
“He is lying, then?” said Daneel firmly.
“That is my belief,” said Giskard.
Mandamus said, his calmness untouched, “That may be your belief, but belief is not certainty. You cannot disobey an order on the basis of mere belief. I know that and you know that.”
Giskard said, “But in Dr. Amadiro’s mind, rage is dammed only by emotional forces that are barely up to the job required of them. It is quite possible to slit those forces, so to speak, and allow the rage to pour out.”
And Amadiro cried out, “Why do you fence with these things, Mandamus?”
Mandamus shouted, “Do not say a word, Amadiro! You play into their hands!”
Amadiro paid no attention. “It is demeaning and it is useless.” With violent anger, he shook off Mandamus’s restraining arm. “They know the truth, but what of that?—Robots, we are Spacers. More than that, we are Aurorans, from the world on which you were constructed. More than that, we are high officials on the world of Aurora and you must interpret the phrase ‘human beings’ in the Three Laws of Robotics as meaning Auroran.
“If you do not obey us now, you harm us and humiliate us, so that you will be violating both the First and Second Laws. That our actions here are intended to destroy Earthmen, even large numbers of Earthmen, is true, but is, even so, utterly irrelevant. You might as well offer to refuse to obey us because we eat the meat of animals we have killed. Now that I have explained this to you, leave!”
But the last words turned into a croak. Amadiro’s eyes bulged and he crumpled to the ground.
Mandamus, with a wordless cry, bent over him.
Giskard said, “Dr. Mandamus, Dr. Amadiro is not dead. He is at the moment in a coma from which he can be roused at any time. However, he will have forgotten everything in connection with this present project, nor will he ever be able to understand anything in connection with it—if, for instance, you tried to explain it. In the process of doing this—which I could not have done without his own admission that he intended today’s large numbers of Earthmen—I may have permanently damaged other parts of his memory and his thinking processes. That I regret, but I could not help it.”