97
Quintana drew a sigh of relief as she landed the air-car on a concrete slab suitable for the purpose. Two robots approached at once for the obligatory examination of the vehicle and for repowering if necessary.
She looked out to the right, leaning across Daneel as she did so. “It is in that direction, several miles up the Susquehanna River. It’s a hot day, too.” She straightened, with some apparent reluctance, and smiled at Daneel. “That’s the worst of leaving the City. The environment is totally uncontrolled out here. Imagine allowing it to be this hot. Don’t you feel hot, Daneel?”
“I have an internal thermostat, madam, that is in good working order.”
“Wonderful. I wish I did. There are no roads into this area, Daneel. Nor are there any robots to guide you, for they never enter it. Nor do I know what might be the right place within the area, which is a sizable one. We might stumble all through the area without coming upon the base, even though we passed within five-hundred meters of it.”
“Not ‘we,’” madam. It is quite necessary for you to remain here. What follows might conceivably be dangerous and since you are without air-conditioning, the task might be more than you could easily bear, physically, even if it were not dangerous. Could you wait for us, madam? To have you do so would be important to me.”
“I will wait.”
“We may be some hours.”
“There are facilities of various sorts here and the small City of Harrisburg is not far.”
“In that case, madam, we must be on our way.”
He sprang lightly from the air-car and Giskard followed him. They set off northward. It was nearly noon and the bright summer sun sparkled from the polished portion of Giskard’s body.
Daneel said, “Any sign of mental activity you can detect will be those we want. There should be no one else for kilometers about.”
“Are you certain that we can stop them if we encounter them, friend Daneel?”
“No, friend Giskard, I am by no means certain—but we must.”
98
Levular Mandamus grunted and looked up at Amadiro with a tight smile on his thin face.
“Amazing,” he said, “and most satisfactory.”
Amadiro mopped his brow and cheeks with a piece of toweling and said, “What does that mean?”
“It means that every relay station is in working order.”
“Then you can initiate the intensification?”
“As soon as I calculate the proper degree of W particle concentration.”
“And how long will that take?”
“Fifteen minutes. Thirty.”
Amadiro watched with an air of intensifying grimness on his face until Mandamus said, “All right. I have it. It’s 2.72 on the arbitrary scale I have set up. That will give us fifteen decades before an upper equilibrium level win be reached that will be maintained without essential change, for millions of years thereafter. And that level will make certain that, at best, Earth can maintain a few scattered groups in areas that are relatively radiation-free. We’ll have only to wait and, in fifteen decades, a thoroughly disorganized group of Settler worlds will be meat, for our slicing.”
“I will not live fifteen more decades,” said Amadiro slowly.
“My personal regrets, sir,” said Mandamus dryly, “but we are now talking of Aurora and the Spacer worlds. There will be others who will carry on your task.”
“You, for instance?”
“You have promised me the headship of the Institute and as you see, I have earned it. From that political base, I may reasonably hope to become Chairman someday and I will carry through those policies that will be necessary to make certain of the final dissolution of the by-then anarchic worlds of the Settlers.”
“That’s pretty confident of you. What if you turn on the W particle flow and then someone else turns it down in the course of the next fifteen decades?”
“Not possible, sir. Once the device is set, an internal atomic shift will freeze it in that position. After that, the process is irreversible—no matter what happens here. The whole place may be vaporized and the crust will nevertheless continue its slow bum. I suppose it would be possible to rebuild an entirely new setup if anyone on Earth or among the Settlers can duplicate my work, but if so they can only further increase the rate of radioactivity, never decrease it. The second law of thermodynamics will see to that.”
Amadiro said, “Mandamus, you say you have earned the headship. However, I’m the one to decide that, I think.”
Mandamus said stiffly, “You are not, sir. With respect, the details of this process are known to me, but not to you. Those details are encoded in a place you will not find and, even if you do, it is guarded by robots who will destroy it rather than allow it to fall into your hands. You cannot gain credit for this. I can.”
Amadiro said, “Nevertheless, getting my approval will hasten matters for you. If you were to wrest the headship from my unwilling hands, by whatever means, you will have a continuing opposition among other members of the Council that will hamper you through all your decades in the post. Is it just the title of head you want or the opportunity to experience all that comes of true leadership?”
Mandamus said, “Is this the time to talk politics? A moment ago, you were all impatience over the fact that I might linger fifteen minutes over my computer.”
“Ah, but we are now talking about adjusting, the W particle beam. You want to place it at 2.72—was that the figure?—and yet I wonder if that can be right. What is the extreme range you can handle?”
“The range goes from zero to twelve, but it is 2.72 that is required. Plus or minus 0.05—if you wish further detail. It is that which, on the basis of reports from all fourteen relays will allow a lapse of fifteen decades to equilibrium.”
“Yet what I think is the correct figure is twelve.”
Mandamus stared at the other in horror. “Twelve? Do you understand what that means?”
“Yes. It means we will have the Earth too radioactive to live upon in a decade or a decade and a half and we will kill a few billion Earthpeople in the process.”
“And make certain a war with an infuriated Settler Federation. What can you want of such a holocaust?”
“I tell you again. I do not expect to live another fifteen decades and I want to live to see the destruction of Earth.”
“But you would also be assuring the maiming—maiming, at the very least—of Aurora. You cannot be serious.”
“But I am. I have twenty decades of defeat and humiliation to make up.”
“Those decades were brought about by Han Fastolfe and Giskard—and not by Earth.”
“No, they were brought about by an Earthman, Elijah Baley.”
“Who has been dead for more than sixteen decades. What is the value of a moment of vengeance over a man long dead.”
“I do not want to argue the matter, I will make you an offer. The title of head at once I will resign my post the instant we return to Aurora and nominate you in my place.”
“No. I do not want the headship on those terms. Death to billions!”
“Billions of Earthmen. Well, I cannot trust you, then, to manipulate the controls properly. Show me—me—how to set the control instrument and I will take the responsibility. I will still resign my post on our return and will nominate you in my place.”
“No. It will still mean the death of billions and who knows how many millions of Spacers as well. Dr. Amadiro, please understand that I will not do it on any terms and that you cannot do it without me. The setting mechanism is keyed to my left thumbprint.”
“I ask you again.”