Mirage (isaac asimov's robot mystery)

by Mark W. Tiedemann

  What was the point…? he wondered hollowly.

  He stopped in the middle of the gallery and turned slowly, gazing across the unoccupied expanse. It was rare to see so much room on Earth unpeopled. Everywhere in the warrens and metal caverns, people crowded each other. Standing here seemed a luxury for the moment, a pleasantly eerie feeling, a prescй vu, different from "outside," different from standing in a similar place on a Spacer world where crowding was a bad dream and an incomprehensible myth.

  He saw no robots now. Union Station had been a robot-saturated environ, unique on Earth. They had provided comfort and security for the offworld travelers that came through constantly, created a familiar environment for Spacer visitors, and facilitated the services of the RI. It had been a showpiece and a diplomatic necessity, something for the proponents of robots on Earth to hold up as an example of how it might be. To see none here now made it stranger yet.

  Derec continued to the exit, down the empty tunnel, and out onto the broad apron. A few personal transports still occupied the cordoned-off space. Beyond, the boulevard ran by, and across from that the express strips started. The few people riding past gave the Union Station faзade uncomprehending stares, as if the place had suddenly become something other than it had always been, revealing a shocking reality long hidden.

  He climbed into his vehicle and closed his eyes. Weariness, disbelief, and stress combined to fog his mind. He gave himself a few minutes before engaging the drive and pulling onto the boulevard.

  The com light winked at him. He pressed the contact.

  "Derec."

  "This is Rana, Derec. What is going on?"

  "You heard, didn't you? Special Service is assuming control of the investigation-"

  "I heard, but it doesn't make any sense. I just got an official request to turn over any and all documents and copies of the RI, with an address to forward it. What is this? They don't know how to handle this kind of thing. They'd have to hand it over to us anyway."

  "I doubt they're going to 'handle it. ' I think they'll just sit on it, conduct their investigation their way, and then leave the RI matrix as an unopened file. They're covering themselves. A major miscalculation happened here today and, since it's their job to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen, it's only reasonable that they don't want to compound their embarrassment."

  "Reasonable? People are dead and they're worried about reputations?"

  Derec did not know what to tell her. It made sense to him, he grasped the kind of venality in play here. So, for that matter, did Rana, given five minutes' reflection, but comprehension did not make it any more acceptable.

  "It's out of our hands," he said. "Comply with the request. I'll be there shortly. I have another stop to make first."

  "Already done. Do we continue surrogate monitor for Union Station? Thales is already online."

  "Yes, we do."

  "Okay. How long before you get back here?"

  "I don't know. I'm going to check the med facilities. Bogard was on site during the massacre."

  "Our Bogard?"

  "The very same. I want to find it and check it over. I'll let you know. Oh, and wake up that lawyer we have on retainer and find out if there's anything we can do to get around this injunction. We're supposed to have a contract, and I'm really uncomfortable having amateurs shut me out of it."

  "This is Special Service, though-" Rana began.

  "I don't care if it's the second coming of Susan Calvin. A contract is a contract, and Special Service has no roboticists."

  He could practically hear the grin on Rana's face as she said she would tend to it. The link closed and Derec touched the contact again.

  "Location," he ordered the onboard computer. "Emergency medical facilities, this district. List." As he pulled into the garage of the fourth medical facility, Derec felt a chill of success. Several black vehicles occupied spaces near the entrance. A man and woman in dark clothes lounged by the doors, watching the lot.

  Derec approached the entrance and the man stepped forward to block his path. Derec swallowed dryly and displayed his ID.

  "Oh, good," the agent said. "Phylaxis. Mr. Avery? I'm Agent Sathen, Special Service. The robot is inside. We can't get it to move, maybe you can do something."

  "Um… has it caused any problems?"

  "Other than scaring the staff, no." The man grinned. "Come on, I'll show you."

  Slightly puzzled, Derec followed the agent through the wide main doors into the brightly-lit reception area. The air smelled of disinfectant, a piquant odor universal to hospitals, even on Spacer worlds. People rushed about intently amid a constant babble of com chatter and urgently-spoken instructions. At the nurses' station, a woman looked up, frowning at Derec, then nodded at the agent.

  "It came in with Agent Daventri five hours ago," Agent Sathen explained as he led the way past open doors to examination rooms and patient chambers. "Then it took a position just inside her room and refused to leave."

  "Why here and not Reed Hospital with all the other wounded?"

  The agent shrugged. "Our dispatcher sent her here. It is closer than Reed, and with the robot…"

  "I see. Did the robot give an explanation?"

  "Says it's here to protect Agent Daventri. We can't convince it that she's safe."

  "First Law obsessing."

  "It's what?"

  "Apparently, it has locked on defending Agent-Daventri, is it? -defending Agent Daventri as its primary imperative. Unless you can present it with another First Law condition that would override this one, it won't leave until it knows she's safe."

  "Safe from what?"

  Derec gave him a shrug.

  "Robots," the agent said in disgust. "Well, I'm surprised this one is still functioning after what happened today. I saw a lot of braindead robots after the incident. This one was supposed to protect Senator Eliton and it failed. Aren't they supposed to shut down after something like that?"

  "It depends. A positronic brain doesn't have the same capacities as a human brain, but in many ways it's just as complex."

  "Uh-huh. Here it is." The man stopped before a closed door and knocked. "Bogard, this is Agent Sathen. I'm coming in. I have someone with me."

  "Enter," came a firm voice from the other side of the door.

  Sathen gave Derec a crooked smile. "First couple of us that walked in without identifying ourselves, Bogard tranked."

  "Were you armed?"

  "Yes. After that, we got it to modify its defense protocols."

  Inside, Derec saw first the patient bed and the array of biological support gathered around it. Looking small in the midst of the masses of equipment lay a woman with sickly-pale skin and short, dark hair.

  "She's still in rehab coma," Agent Sathen said.

  "How bad?"

  "Two holes in her right leg, one in her arm, a lot of bruises. A broken rib. Mainly they're worried about shock."

  He turned away from the bed. "And this is Bogard." The robot stood against the wall, in a position to watch the patient and the door and within easy reach of both. It towered over the two men by nearly half a meter. Derec noticed that its hands showed six fingers. Through anyone of them it could deliver a fast-working tranquilizer to a bare patch of skin. The white line of its optical array seemed to pulse at them.

  "Hello, Derec," it said.

  "Bogard, hello. I'm told you refuse to leave Agent Daventri."

  "That is correct, Derec."

  "Explain."

  "I have been given specific instructions to safeguard Agent Daventri until such time as she releases me to return to initial priorities."

  "Agent Daventri gave you those instructions?"

  "Yes, Derec."

  "Are you aware that she is presently out of danger but incommunicado?"

  "Yes, Derec. However, I am instructed to maintain watch until released."

  "What were the circumstances of these instructions?"

  "Agent Daventri commanded me to pursue and apprehen
d two subjects involved in the assassin-assassin-assass-"

  "Reset and continue."

  Bogard paused for a moment, then proceeded. "Agent Daventri left me to pursue a third subject. I fulfilled her instructions by locating and tranquilizing the targets. When I brought the two subjects back to find her, she had been injured during a confrontation with her subject. I experienced a dilemma. Protocol dictated that under instruction to apprehend I must secure and deliver subjects to proper authority. However, Agent Daventri's injuries indicated immediate need to bring her to proper care. She instructed me to commandeer transport drones to carry the subjects, to personally bring her to proper care, and to guarantee her safety in the event that she should lose consciousness. I procured the transports and picked up Agent Daventri. She then fell unconscious. I will not leave her until she gives further instruction."

  "Touching," Sathen said cynically. "You're Service property, Bogard. Your presence is required at headquarters for debriefing."

  Derec glared at the agent. "If you please." Sathen gave him a surly look and walked away. Derec turned to Bogard. "Alpha-Zed override. Command sequence-"

  "Rejected."

  Derec blinked. "Explain."

  "Specific instructions take precedence over all secondary protocols."

  "I see… very well, Bogard. Continue according to instruction."

  "What?" Sathen grabbed his shoulder. "We need this tinhead for interrogation, not standing here guarding someone who doesn't need guarding."

  Derec shrugged Sathen's hand off. "Come outside with me." In the hallway, the door closed, Derec rounded on the agent. "If you don't stop, you could precipitate a positronic collapse, and you won't have anything to debrief."

  "Don't give me"

  "I'm not giving you anything. Did you hear it stutter?"

  "Yes, when it tried to say-"

  "Assassination. Exactly. Now my understanding of what happened is that Senator Eliton died in that attack. Bogard was assigned to protect him."

  "It did a good job of that, didn't it?" Sathen said with a sneer.

  "Do you know why it failed?" Derec asked, holding his temper.

  "No."

  "Then I suggest you don't speculate. Robots follow a very strict set of guidelines in the commission of their duties and usually any failure that results in injury or death of a human causes positronic psychosis and collapse. The robot shuts down. You saw it happen to the staff robots at Union Station."

  Agent Sathen frowned but clearly was listening. "Go on."

  Derec drew a breath and tried to decide how much to tell Sathen. Bogard was not a standard positronic robot-Derec had built it differently so that it could function in the role of bodyguard without being continually conflicted. It could do a kind of rough triage with priorities, but even Bogard could not circumvent the onset of collapse under these conditions for long.

  Derec gazed back at the door thoughtfully. "For some reason," he said finally, "Bogard is still functioning. Barely. I'd bet it has to do with Agent Daventri's instructions. If that's the case, it must follow them to the letter or lose its hold on sanity and function. It's traumatized by the death of Senator Eliton. It's further traumatized by Daventri's wounds. It may feel responsible. If you want Bogard in any condition to give you information about what happened, then leave it alone for now. When Agent Daventri regains consciousness, she can release it verbally and you may be able to move it. Till then, it's standing guard."

  "You know all this just from that little bit of conversation?"

  Derec glanced at the door. "Mainly from its rejection of my override command. That only happens when it's locked in a Three Law conflict. It has to resolve the dilemma from within."

  Sathen drew a deep breath, looking thoughtful. "So there's no getting it out of here?"

  "Not till your agent wakes up. How long will that be, do you know?"

  "A day, maybe two. Like I said, she's suffering shock more than anything."

  "Call us when she comes to."

  Sathen nodded. "All right. Look, I apologize for getting hot with you. It's just-"

  "I understand. This has been a very unusual day."

  Sathen grunted. "That's an understatement."

  Derec walked away. He had given Bogard only one of the possible override commands available, as much to see if it would reject it as to keep Agent Sathen from learning the other codes. 'He had no idea how high up Sathen's clearances went. Besides, Derec hoped he could get his hands on Bogard before anything completely unexpected occurred.

  Derec returned to his transport. As he started away, another black vehicle pulled into the lot. Derec slowed and watched until he saw Agents Cupra and Gambel get out and head for the entrance. command override omega-five catalogue reset, shunt to auxiliary buffer, fourth tier conditional oversight, primary function precedent pending direct release by command subject Daventri Mia, generate report, send to log buffer coded Interrogatory, analyze priority, diagnostic protocols initiated-

  – I follow infrared markers, referenced against architectural schema, select for optimal pattern of flight and pursuit. I lock on to infrared bloom, two subjects, waiting now. I see one approach with raised weapon. It commands "Halt, you are ordered to back off!" Assessment negates Third Law priority under higher imperative, potential First Law violation assessed negligible, Second Law potential assessed highest probability through unintended consequence of weapons-use, collate with instructions, match against situational protocols, command negated. I advance on subject, take weapon, and administer tranquilizer through skin below right eye. Delivery good. Subject tranquilized. Second subject steps from cover, weapon raised, and fires. Immediate Second Law potential prompted by possible ricochet of projectiles injuring tranquilized first subject. I approach, redirect weapon, and administer tranquilizer to skin at point below left ear. Delivery good. Subject tranquilized. I secure weapons, unfold carryall configuration, and return with target subjects to Daventri Mia

  – I receive com signal Daventri Mia requesting aid. First Law violation probable, Second Law violation assigned tertiary priority due to initial command protocols. I follow signal trace. Daventri Mia is injured and unconscious. Target subject deceased. Two maintenance-type drone robots model KS-5t, in vicinity. Imperative clear, protect Daventri Mia, protect Daventri Mia, protect Daventri Mia (reset, shunt corrupted nodes to auxiliary buffer)

  – I override command interlock of maintenance robots and secure subjects in transport accessories, cradle-carry Daventri Mia, return to main theater of operation, secure ambulance service. Condition alert, primary security Daventri Mia termination upon command of primary subject

  End report.

  Six

  Mia opened her eyes to darkness. Not absolute-she could see shapes and a few details, enough to tell her that she was in a small room. She felt nothing, and for a few seconds she panicked, groping in memory for the cause.

  "You are anжsthetized."

  She heard the words but did not immediately recognize their meaning. Still, she felt herself calming down, and gradually she understood.

  "I'm in hospital," she croaked, her throat dry and mouth cottony. She coughed, which came as a sound with no sensation in her chest. She hated this. "Water…?"

  A tube touched her lips and she took it and sucked. Cool liquid filled her mouth. She saw a large shape, shadow on shadow, to her left, looming, a thin line of white light marking its head.

  "Bogard?"

  "Yes, Agent Daventri." The robot came closer to her bed.

  "What are you doing here?" she asked.

  "Performing required service. I am protecting you."

  Mia hesitated. For a moment she did not remember. She drew on the tube and riffled through her memory. "How long?"

  "You have been here for fourteen hours."

  "Fourteen hours. Hospital?"

  "Yes."

  Then she remembered. "Prisoners-"

  "Secured and turned over for processing."

  "I was�
��hurt…"

  "Multiple projectile wounds, right leg, right arm, left fourth rib. Healing vectors are positive, prognosis excellent. Rehabilitative coma is withdrawn. Full function should return in three to five days."

  "I instructed you to protect me. "

  "Yes."

  Mia blinked and looked away, remembering the last moments at Union Station. She had lain bleeding while a transport drone chattered helplessly at her side about assisting her. The pain-it had been difficult to think, to decide. She had passed out, a wholly new experience, one she hoped never to repeat. Then Bogard had arrived, two unconscious people in its grasp, and the concern in its voice had brought her focus. Bogard was already on the edge, having failed to protect Senator Eliton. Following her orders had kept it functioning; it needed another purpose to keep it from collapsing. Bogard was resilient, more so than any robot she had ever heard about, but it was still a robot with a positronic brain restricted by the Three Laws. She remembered-vaguely-issuing a series of specific instructions to commandeer transport drones for the prisoners and see that she was safe…

  Her arms tingled. The anжsthetic was slowly wearing off.

  "Could we have a little more light, Bogard?"

  "I recommend against it."

  "Explain."

  "There are irregularities. I think it prudent not to alert the staff that you are awake."

  "I-"

  And that fast she lost consciousness, as if dropped into a vat of nonawareness, floating in a place with no boundaries, no form, no light, no darkness.

  When she opened her eyes again, the room was still dark, and Bogard stood on the other side of her bed.

  "I have made modifications to the link between your monitors and the external systems. I apologize for the abruptness of returning you to coma. We will not alert the staff again."

  Mia started. "You reinstated coma? Bogard, I don't-"

  "I am monitoring you now. I have routed these systems through my own. It was necessary in order to fulfill my instructions."

  "I'm not thinking as clearly as I should, Bogard. You have to give me more explanation."

  "I understand. After bringing you here, several attempts were made to remove me. I rejected all contravening instruction as none of them engaged a higher priority. All of this was anticipated as a normal response to circumstance. I will be required to provide data about the events at Union Station D. C. I could easily be debriefed here with the proper equipment, but no one considered that avenue. Therefore, other agents were stationed here to wait for you to regain consciousness in order to secure my release from your service."