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positive nuisance. This was not the best time or place to receive a
confidential document.  Hell. The lecture s about to start. Read it, Donald,
and tell me if it will keep until after the lecture.
 Yes, sir. One moment. Donald stared off into nothing at all for several
seconds and then came back to life.  Sir, I believe you had best read it at
once. It is a raw transcript of the first interview with the robot
Horatio. Robopsychologist Patras appears to have been successful in pulling
the robot out of catatonia.
 What s in the transcript?
 Sir, I think you should read it for yourself. I would not wish to color your
reactions, and I must admit that I find the contents rather--disturbing.
I would find it most unpleasant to discuss them.
Kresh grunted in annoyance. It seemed as if Donald s mental state was getting
to be more and more delicate. Well, police robots had to be on the lookout for
that, but it was getting to be an all-too-frequent inconvenience.
 All right, all right, he said.  Print me out a hard copy and maybe I can get
through it before Leving starts her talk.
There was a soft whirring noise from inside Donald, and a door slid open on
his chest, revealing a slot. Paper started to feed out from the slot, a page
at a time. Donald caught each page neatly in his left hand and transferred it
to his right. He handed the pages to Kresh.
Kresh began to read, absently handing each page back to Donald as he was done.
And then Kresh began to swear.
 Most disturbing, as I said, sir.
Alvar Kresh nodded. He dared not discuss this openly with Donald, not here in
public, not with the other members of the audience all around. Best not to say
anything direct at all. Clearly Donald had come to the same conclusion.
No wonder Donald had found the transcript upsetting. No wonder this
Horatio robot had come unhinged. If the very clear implications in this
transcript were accurate, then there was a robot out there that did not have
the Three Laws.
No. He could not believe it. No one would be insane enough to build a robot
without the Laws. There had to be some other explanation. There had to be some
mistake.
Except Caliban, the robot in question, had been built by the woman up on the
stage, who had used her first lecture to say how robots were no good for
humans. So why the devil was she shielding the rogue robot who had attacked
her? Alvar Kresh handed the last page to Donald, and the robot slipped the
pages of the document into a storage slot on the side of his body.
 What are we to do, sir? Donald asked.
Do? That was an excellent question. The situation was a tinderbox. In theory,
he now had the evidence to move against Fredda Leving, but not now.
What could he do? Clamber up on the stage and arrest her in the midst of her
speech? No. Doing so could easily upend the entire intricate arrangement with
the Settlers. Fredda Leving fit into that somehow, that much was clear. How,
he had no idea. Besides, he had the very strong impression that he would need
hear what she had to say if he was going to pursue this case.
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But there were other avenues open to him besides the arrest of Fredda
Leving.
 We can t take Leving in, Donald, much as I d like to, Kresh said at last.
 Not with the Governor and Welton with her. But the moment this damned talk is
over with, we are picking up Terach and Anshaw. It s time we sweated those two
a little.
As for Fredda Leving, maybe he could not arrest her tonight. But he had no
intention of making her life easy. He glared up at the stage, waiting for the
curtain to open.
AT long last, and far too soon, Fredda could hear the sound she had been
waiting for--and dreading. The gong sounded, and the audience began to settle
down, grow quiet. It was about to begin. A stagehand robot gave Governor Grieg
a hand signal and he nodded. He came over to Fredda and touched her forearm.
 Ready, Doctor?
 What? Oh, yes, yes of course.
 Then I think we should begin. He guided her to a seat behind a table at one
side of the stage, between Tonya Welton on one side, and Gubber and
Jomaine on the other.
All had their attendant robots hovering nearby. Gubber s old retainer
Tetlak, with him since forever. Jomaine s latest updated, upgraded unit. What
was the name? Bertram? Something like that. The joke around the lab was that
he changed his personal robot more frequently than he changed underwear. Tonya
Welton with Ariel.
A strange, slight irony there. Tonya was here on Inferno to preach
against reliance on robots, and here she was with the robot Fredda had given
her in happier days. Meanwhile, she, Fredda, had no robot with her at all.
With a start, she realized that the curtain had opened, that the audience was
applauding the Governor politely--with a few boos from the back of the
house--and that the Governor was well launched into her introduction.
In fact, he was finishing up. Hells and heavens! How could her mind wander
that much? Was it some aftereffect of the injury, or the treatment, or just a
subconscious way of dealing with stage fright?
 ...not expect you to agree with all she has to say, Governor Grieg was [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]