Robertson shook his head. "It would represent an enormous loss for the company."
"I'm afraid it would," said Eisenmuth, unmoved. "I understand the company has been in poor financial condition for several years now."
"Largely because of government imposed restrictions, Conserver."
"You must be realistic, Mr. Robertson. You know that the climate of public opinion is increasingly against robots."
"Wrongly so, Conserver."
"But so, nevertheless. It may be wiser to liquidate the company. It is merely a suggestion, of course."
"Your suggestions have force, Conserver. Is it necessary to tell you that our Machines, a century ago, solved the ecological crisis?"
"I'm sure mankind is grateful, but that was a long time ago. We now live in alliance with nature, however uncomfortable that might be at times, and the past is dim."
"You mean what have we done for mankind lately?"
"I suppose I do."
"Surely we can't be expected to liquidate instantaneously; not without enormous losses. We need time."
"How much?"
"How much can you give us?"
"It's not up to me."
Robertson said softly. "We are alone. We need play no games. How much time can you give me?"
Eisenmuth's expression was that of a man retreating into inner calculations. "I think you can count on two years. I'll be frank. The Global government intends to take over the firm and phase it out for you if you don't do it by then yourself, more or less. And unless there is a vast turn in public opinion, which I greatly doubt-" He shook his head.
"Two years, then," said Robertson softly.
2a.
Robertson sat alone. There was no purpose to his thinking and it had degenerated into retrospection. Four generations of Robertsons had headed the firm. None of them was a roboticist. It had been men such as Lanning and Bogert and, most of all, most of all, Susan Calvin, who had made U. S. Robots what it was, but surely the four Robertsons had provided the climate that had made it possible for them to do their work.
Without U. S. Robots, the Twenty-first Century would have progressed into deepening disaster. That it didn't was due to the Machines that had for a generation steered mankind through the rapids and shoals of history.
And now for that, he was given two years. What could be done in two years to overcome the insuperable prejudices of mankind? He didn't know.
Harriman had spoken hopefully of new ideas but would go into no details. Just as well, for Robertson would have understood none of it.
But what could Harriman do anyway? What had anyone ever done against man's intense antipathy toward the imitation. Nothing-
Robertson drifted into a half sleep in which no inspiration came.
3.
Harriman said, "You have it all now, George Ten. You have had everything I could think of that is at all applicable to the problem. As far as sheer mass of information is concerned, you have stored more in your memory concerning human beings and their ways, past and present, than I have, or than any human being could have."
"That is very likely."
"Is there anything more that you need, in your own opinion?"
"As far as information is concerned, I find no obvious gaps. There may be matters unimagined at the boundaries. I cannot tell. But that would be true no matter how large a circle of information I took in."
"True. Nor do we have time to take in information forever. Robertson has told me that we only have two years, and a quarter of one of those years has passed. Can you suggest anything?"
"At the moment, Mr. Harriman, nothing. I must weigh the information and for that purpose I could use help."
"From me?"
"No. Most particularly, not from you. You are a human being, of intense qualifications, and whatever you say may have the partial force of an order and may inhibit my considerations. Nor any other human being, for the same reason, especially since you have forbidden me to communicate with any."
"But in that case, George, what help?"
"From another robot, Mr. Harriman."
"What other robot?"
"There are others of the JG series which were constructed. I am the tenth, JG-10."
"The earlier ones were useless, experimental-"
"Mr. Harriman, George Nine exists."
"Well, but what use will he be? He is very much like you except for certain lacks. You are considerably the more versatile of the two."
"I am certain of that," said George Ten. He nodded his head in a grave gesture. "Nevertheless, as soon as I create a line of thought, the mere fact that I have created it commends it to me and I find it difficult to abandon it. 1f I can, after the development of a line of thought, express it to George Nine, he would consider it without having first created it. He would therefore view it without prior bent. He might see gaps and shortcomings that I might not."
Harriman smiled. "Two heads are better than one, in other words, eh, George?"
"If by that, Mr. Harriman, you mean two individuals with one head apiece, yes."
"Right. Is there anything else you want?"
"Yes. Something more than films. I have viewed much concerning human beings and their world. I have seen human beings here at U. S. Robots and can check my interpretation of what I have viewed against direct sensory impressions. Not so concerning the physical world. I have never seen it and my viewing is quite enough to tell me that my surroundings here are by no means representative of it. I would like to see it."
"The physical world?" Harriman seemed stunned at the enormity of the thought for a moment. "Surely you don't suggest I take you outside the grounds of U. S. Robots?"
"Yes, that is my suggestion."
"That's illegal at any time. In the climate of opinion today, it would be fatal."
"If we are detected, yes. I do not suggest you take me to a city or even to a dwelling place of human beings. I would like to see some open region, without human beings."
"That, too, is illegal."
"If we are caught. Need we be?"
Harriman said, "How essential is this, George?"
"I cannot tell, but it seems to me it would be useful."
"Do you have something in mind?"
George Ten seemed to hesitate. "I cannot tell. It seems to me that I might have something in mind if certain areas of uncertainty were reduced."
"Well, let me think about it. And meanwhile, I'll check out George Nine and arrange to have you occupy a single cubicle. That at least can be done without trouble."
3a.
George Ten sat alone.
He accepted statements tentatively, put them together, and drew a conclusion; over and over again; and from conclusions built other statements which he accepted and tested and found a contradiction and rejected; or not, and tentatively accepted further.
At none of the conclusions he reached did he feel wonder, surprise, satisfaction; merely a note of plus or minus.
4.
Harriman's tension was not noticeably decreased even after they had made a silent downward landing on Robertson's estate.
Robertson had countersigned the order making the dyna-foil available, and the silent aircraft, moving as easily vertically as horizontally, had been large enough to carry the weight of Harriman, George Ten, and, of course, the pilot.
(The dyna-foil itself was one of the consequences of the Machine-catalyzed invention of the proton micro-pile which supplied pollution-free energy in small doses. Nothing had been done since of equal importance to man's comfort-Harriman's lips tightened at the thought-and yet it had not earned gratitude for U. S. Robots.)
The air flight between the grounds of U. S. Robots and the Robertson estate had been the tricky part. Had they been stopped then, the presence of a robot aboard would have meant a great set of complications. It would be the same on the way back. The estate itself, it might be argued-it would be argued-was part of the property of U. S. Robots and on that property, robots, properly supervised, might remain.