by Isaac Asimov
Chapter 12
THE THIRD LAW
THE QUADRANT #4 Extruder Station was less than ten minutes from the sealed room, with Wohler moving the emergency van along at the top speed possible that still allowed a safety margin for his passengers.
Derec watched the city speed past, its full-blown dance of thoughtless progress still continuing despite the gathering darkness, despite the fact that its course was suicidal. He feared for the city; he feared for Katherine, or whatever her name was. She was going for the Key, he was certain of that, trying to take herself out of the situation in the only way she knew how. He didn’t expect that the Key would do her much good, but he could hardly blame her for trying. What frightened him was the danger she was exposing herself to by trying for the Key in the rain. He would have gone after her alone, but, having experienced the destructive power of Robot City’s weather, he knew he’d be no help at all in a storm. Only a robot would have a chance.
Wohler jerked them to a stop before the Extruder Station entrance, a series of low, wide buildings constructing themselves from ground level. There was no robotic activity here now, no unloading of trucks. All had taken shelter from the impending storm.
“You think she’s gone to the Compass Tower?” Wohler asked.
“I’m sure of it.”
“She may have time before the storm to get inside to safety.”
Derec looked at him, then reached out and put a hand on his shiny gold arm. “She’s not going inside,” he said. “She’ll be trying to climb the pyramid.”
“But why?”
“We hid something there, something she’s trying to retrieve.”
“I must go,” Wohler said without hesitation. “She’ll be killed.”
“What will the rain do to you?” Derec asked as he climbed out of the van.
“Rain in ordinary amounts won’t do anything,” the robot replied. “City rain could force its way through my plating in a thousand different places and make its way into my electrical system. The limits of the damage at that point are a matter of imaginative speculation.”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Derec said. “If you don’t go . . . ”
“Katherine will die,” the robot finished. “You can tell me nothing. My duty is self-evident. Good-bye, Derec.”
Wohler looked back once to make sure the witnesses were off the van, then hurried off at a pace that didn’t include the safety margin he had preserved with Derec in the cab.
“Come with me,” Derec told the witnesses, and moved toward the now-closed entrance to the underground. Despite his fears for Katherine’s safety, he had things to do. With his explanation of the murder and its connection to the city defenses, backed up totally by Rec’s witness testimony, there was no doubt that he’d at least be able to get into the core and stop the replication. That wouldn’t stop tonight’s rain, however, or even future rains for a time; but it was a start.
He opened the outside door, then hurried inside, going down the stairs to the now-deserted holding area and its bank of elevators. This wasn’t the same Extruder Station he’d been in previously, but it was set up exactly the same.
He walked quickly to the same elevator he had taken with Avernus when he’d gone underground. He got inside with the witnesses and pushed the down arrow. The lift began its long journey to the caverns below.
The elevator opened into the bustling cavern where the work of building Robot City continued unabated. There wasn’t a supervisor in sight, however. There seemed to be activity at one of the darkened, unused mine tunnels at the west end of the cavern.
He began to move into the flow, then stopped, steeling himself. Deliberation, Avernus had said. As he stood on the edge of the activity, a long tram sped past him at a hundred kilometers an hour, passing within a few centimeters, his hair being pulled by its suction.
Deliberation. It was the only way.
“Stay with me,” he told the witnesses. Then he set his body in line with his goal and shut his eyes, taking a blind step right into the fray.
He walked quickly, without hesitation, trying to direct his mind away from the feel of unrushing robots and vehicles that barely brushed him as they hurried past. Occasionally, he would open his eyes a touch, just to make sure he was still heading in the right direction. Then he’d squeeze them closed again, and keep walking.
He kept this up for nearly ten minutes as he crossed the great chamber without mishap. As he reached the safety of the mine entrance, he released a huge sigh that made him feel as if he’d been holding his breath the whole time.
A utility robot was stationed near the mine entrance, using an overhead pulley system to remove the spent batteries from a fleet of mine trams and replacing them with charged batteries. The trams were parked three deep all around him.
“Robot!” Derec called across the cars to him. “Where can I find Supervisor Avernus?”
The utility robot pointed down the tunnel. “They are releasing some of the reservoir water into the abandoned tunnels. It may be dangerous for humans.”
“Thanks,” Derec said, then pointed to a tram. “Has this one been recharged?”
“Yes,” the robot answered.
“Thanks again,” Derec said, and climbed behind the steering mechanism. “Rec, Eve, get in.”
As the robots climbed into the back of the tram, the utility called to Derec.
“Did you not hear me? It may be dangerous for humans in there.”
“Thanks,” Derec said again, waving, then keyed on the electric hum and geared the car down the dark tunnel.
As he sped down the tunnels, marking distance by counting the small, red lights spaced along the length, he passed other trams full of robots going the other way. There were uniformly dirty from digging, many of them dangling shorted-out appendages. Even for robots, they appeared grim. One tram they passed carried a robot shorting from the head, sparks arcing from his photocells and speaker.
He drove for several kilometers, climbing gently upward with the tunnel. Finally, he approached a large egg of light that threw long shadows against the rough-hewn walls. When he reached the place, he found a large number of utility robots, plus six of the seven supervisors, gathered around a drop-off in the tunnel.
He jumped from the tram and pushed his way through the crowd to approach the drop-off. It was the same area in which the robots had been digging the day before, only approached from the other side. A subsidiary tunnel, going upward, had been dug by hand, and it met the existing tunnel, which had been trenched out to carry water. The trench was empty. Euler and Rydberg were leaning out over the trench, looking up the newly dug tunnel, while Avernus sorted out those robots damaged beyond usefulness here, and sent them back down the tunnel.
Derec moved up to Euler. “I’ve solved the murder,” he told the supervisor without preamble.
Both Rydberg and Euler turned to look at him. “What was the cause?” Rydberg asked.
“Carbon monoxide poisoning,” Derec said. “When they tried to torch David out of the sealed room, carbon monoxide was released by the heating process into the enclosed space.”
“It was our fault, then,” Euler said.
“It was an unfortunate accident,” Derec replied. “And I have witnesses.” Both Eve and Rec hurried to join him.
“Two minutes,” Dante called. The small robot was fiddling with a terminal hooked up in the back of a tram, his long digits moving with incredible speed over the keyboard.
“Two minutes until what?” Derec asked.
“Until the charge we placed by the reservoir wall brings the water down,” Euler replied.
“I also know why the city is on security alert,” Derec said. “It was because of David’s blood. When he cut himself, the blood that dropped on the city-robot was mistaken for an alien presence because of the blood organisms. My witnesses will also corroborate that fact.”
Euler spoke up. “Then we need to feed this information to the central core and stop the replicati
on, if there’s time.”
“What do you mean, if there’s time?” Derec asked.
Avernus joined the group. “We found a cavern that would hold all the water in the reservoir, thanks to your sonogram. Unfortunately, it will take a great deal of digging to reach it.” Avernus pointed to the trench. “This diversion will do no more than put off the inevitable for one more day; then, instead of overflowing above, the water will overflow below, here in the tunnels.”
“Where is the central core?” Derec asked. “If we can get to it and stop the replication, then we can use the digging machines to turn the trick before the next day’s rain.”
Avernus turned to Dante, looking at him over the heads of all the other robots. “Where is the core now?” he called loudly.
The little robot’s digits flew over the keys while Euler spoke. “Even with the machines, we’d have to start digging almost immediately to reach the cavern in time.”
“The core is in Tunnel J-33 at the moment,” Dante called, “moving south by southwest at ten kilometers per hour.” He hesitated briefly, then added, “Twenty centads.”
Avernus turned abruptly from them all. “That is . . . too bad,” he said.
“What do you mean, too bad?” Derec asked.
All at once, there was a rumble that shook the tunnel, dust and loose pebbles falling atop them. Derec nearly lost his footing on the quaking ground. Within seconds, a low roar filled the mines, growing in intensity with each passing second.
“It is too bad,” Euler said loudly above the roar, “because the central core is in Tunnel J-33, on the wrong side of the trench, and the rains are beginning outside.”
With that, tons of water came rushing down the new tunnel, slamming in fury into the trench below, churning, frothy white, dangerous and untamed. Derec watched in horrified fascination as his only possible route to the central core disappeared under a raging river that hadn’t been there a second before.
Katherine’s mind was as dark as the clouds overhead as her tram hurried through the streets of Robot City in the direction of the Compass Tower.
“I fear we won’t make the Tower before the rains come,” the utility driver told her. “We must take shelter.”
“No,” she said, determined that she’d keep them from taking away her last ounce of free will. “Go on. Hurry!”
“It is not safe for you out here,” the robot insisted. “I cannot in all conscience take you any farther.”
Katherine began to respond with anger, but feared it would arouse the robot’s suspicions. “All right,” she said. “Pull over at the next building.”
“Very good,” the robot replied, and brought the tram to an immediate stop before a tall building that had the words MUSEUM OF ART embossed in metal above the doors.
The robot got out of the tram and took Katherine by the arm to guide her. “This way, please,” he said, and Katherine began to think the robots had been having meetings about human duplicity.
She allowed the robot to lead her into the confines of the building. “This is Supervisor Arion’s project,” he said, “to please our human inhabitants.”
She looked around, taking note that the robot had used the word inhabitant instead of visitors. It merely confirmed what she already knew to be the case. They weren’t going to let her go. They had no intention of letting her go. The robots needed someone to serve, and they’d keep the masters as slaves just to see that it came to be.
The first floor of the museum was full of geometric sculptures, many of them made from city material that moved through its own sequences, constantly changing shapes in an infinite variety of patterns.
After a moment, she asked, “Please, is it possible to contact Derec and tell him where we are? I’m afraid he’ll worry.”
“There should be a terminal in the curator’s office,” the robot replied. “Would you like me to do it for you?”
“Yes, please. I would be most grateful.”
The robot hurried off immediately. As soon as he was out of sight at the far end of the building, Katherine turned and ran.
She got quickly out the front doors and down the short walk to the tram, taking the driver’s position. It started up easily, and she was off. She had no idea of which streets to take to get to the pyramid, but its size made it a beacon. She simply kept moving toward it.
She concentrated on planning as she drove. The rain was very close now, and she didn’t want to get caught in it, but it was worth the try to get out of the city. Derec had said there was a trap door from the office to the platform atop the structure. She’d go through the inside of the pyramid, then, to reach the top. The Key was hidden partway down the outside of the structure, and it would be far easier and faster to climb down from the top than to climb up.
The sky rumbled loudly as she drove; the wind whipped her long hair around her face. She was cold, but put it out of her mind as she concentrated on her objective. Why did he have to do it to her? Why did he have to go over to the other side? The city had become Derec’s obsession. He apparently couldn’t understand that she had to have freedom, that she couldn’t live within its structure forever.
The pyramid loomed large before her. It lit up brightly as a bolt of lightning ran down its face. She skidded to a stop before it and jumped out of the tram, hearing a noise behind her.
There, two blocks distant, the robot that called itself Wohler was hurrying to intercept her. She turned and ran up to the entry. The city material melted away at her approach to allow her inside.
Once inside, she had no idea of where she was going. The only thing she remembered for sure was that she needed to keep going up. She ran the maze-like halls, taking every opportunity to climb stairs or take an elevator that would put her higher. About halfway up the structure, she heard an announcement over unseen loudspeakers that called attention to her flight and gave instructions for her apprehension.
At that, she doubled her pace, going full out. Her only hope of escaping was to reach the safety of the off-limits zone before she was spotted.
She hurried unseen down the now-shortened hallways, reaching the last elevator up. A tech robot with welder arms spotted her as she hurried inside. Heart pounding, she stabbed at the up arrow and the machine sped her quickly to the upper floor.
The doors slid open and she burst through, running immediately. There were voices behind, calling her by name. She turned a corner, ran up a short ramp, and burst into the off-limits hallway just as the robots behind were closing on her.
She ran to the door leading up to the office, her hand going to the power stud.
“Katherine.”
She recognized Wohler’s voice and turned to face him. He stood, a hallway full of robots behind him, at the edge of the off-limits zone, the same place the witnesses had stopped earlier in the day.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Come away from there. This place is off-limits.”
She smiled. “Not to me,” she said. “I’m human, remember? I’m free, and I’m going to be freer.”
“Please do not go outside,” Wohler said. “The rains are beginning. It could be dangerous for you.”
“You’re not going to keep me here,” she said, opening the door that faced the spiral staircase.
“We would love to have you stay with us,” the robot said, “but we would never keep you here against your will.”
“Then why don’t you have the means on-planet for me to leave or call for help?”
“You act as if we brought you here under false pretenses,” Wohler said. “We did nothing. You came here uninvited. Welcome . . . but uninvited. Our civilization has not developed to the point where planetary interaction is possible. You can see that for yourself.”
“We’re wasting time,” Katherine said, and started through the door.
“Please reconsider,” the robot called. “Don’t put yourself in jeopardy.”
She stared hard at him. “I’ve been in jeopardy every secon
d I’ve been in this crazy place.”
With that, she moved through the door, closing it behind her. She took the stairs quickly and entered the office. The angry clouds rolled up close to the viewers, making it seem as if she were standing in the midst of the gathering storm.
Searching the office, she found the ladder easily enough, climbing it to reach the windy platform above. The wind was so strong that she feared getting to her feet, and crawled to the edge where she and Derec had made their first treacherous descent into the city of robots.
For the first time since being freed from the sealed room, her fears began to overcome her anger at the situation as she turned her body to edge herself off the dizzying height to begin her climb downward. The wind pulled viciously at her like cold, prying hands; her ears and nose went numb, and her fingers tingled with the cold.
Though the pyramid was made from the same material as the rest of the city, it wasn’t the same in any other respect. It was rigid and unbending, its face set with patterns of holes that she and Derec had used as hand and footholds previously, and in which they had hidden the Key on their first descent.
Her mind whirled as she climbed, slowly, so slowly. How far down had it been? She had been moving fast, and Derec, carrying the Key, had been unable to keep up. They had stopped for a conference and decided to hide the Key and continue without it. How far down? A fourth of the climb, barely a fourth, in the leftmost hole of the pattern that ran down the center of the structure.
She continued downward, her fingers hurting now, her eyes looking upward, trying to gauge her distance just right. She began testing the holes in the repeated pattern, to no avail. She still hadn’t reached the place. Something wet and cold hit her hard on the back. Her hands almost pulled out of their holds reflexively. It was a raindrop, and it wet the entire back of her one-piece.
She was running out of time.
The pattern of holes repeated again as she inched downward, and when she looked up, squinting against the frigid wind, she knew she had reached the place.
Hugging the pyramid face with the last of her strength, she slowly reached out, sticking her hand into the leftmost hole of the pattern.