Asimov's Future History Volume 4 Read Online Free PDF Page B

Daneel, sitting in a chair with grave immobility, face turned toward the door.
    Then he fell asleep, and when he slept, he dreamed.
    He dreamed Jessie was falling into the fission chamber of a nuclear power plant, falling and falling. She held out her arms to him, shrieking, but he could only stand frozenly just outside a scarlet line and watch her distorted figure turn as it fell, growing smaller until it was only a dot.
    He could only watch her, in the dream, knowing that it was he, himself, who had pushed her.
     
     

12: Words from an Expert
    E LIJAH B ALEY LOOKED up as Commissioner Julius Enderby entered the office. He nodded wearily.
    The Commissioner looked at the chock and grunted, “Don’t tell me you’ve been here all night!”
    Baley said, “I won’t.”
    The Commissioner said in a low voice, “Any trouble last night?” Baley shook his head.
    The Commissioner said, “I’ve been thinking that I could be minimizing the possibility of riots. If there’s anything to–”
    Baley said tightly, “For God’s sake, Commissioner, if anything happened, I’d tell you. There was no trouble of any sort.”
    “All right.” The Commissioner moved away, passing beyond the door that marked off the unusual privacy that became his exalted position.
    Baley looked after him and thought: He must have slept last night.
    Baley bent to the routine report he was trying to write as a cover-up for the real activities of the last two days, but the words he had tapped out by finger touch blurred and danced. Slowly, he became aware of an object standing by his desk.
    He lifted his head. “What do you want?”
    It was R. Sammy. Baley thought: Julius’s private flunky. It pays to be a Commissioner.
    R. Sammy said through his fatuous grin, “The Commissioner wants to see you, Lije. He says right away.”
    Baley waved his hand. “He just saw me. Tell him I’ll be in later.”
    R. Sammy said, “He says right away.”
    “All right. All right. Go away.”
    The robot backed away, saying, “The Commissioner wants to see you right away, Lije. He says right away.”
    “Jehoshaphat,” said Baley between his teeth. “I’m going. I’m going.” He got up from his desk, headed for the office, and R. Sammy was silent.
    Baley said as he entered, “Damn it, Commissioner, don’t send that thing after me, will you?”
    But the Commissioner only said, “Sit down, Lije. Sit down.”
    Baley sat down and stared. Perhaps he had done old Julius an injustice. Perhaps the man hadn’t slept after all. He looked fairly beat.
    The Commissioner was tapping the paper before him. “There’s a record of a call you made to a Dr. Gerrigel at Washington by insulated beam.”
    “That’s right, Commissioner.”
    “There’s no record of the conversation, naturally, since it was insulated. ‘What’s it all about?”
    “I’m after background information.”
    “He’s a roboticist, isn’t he?”
    “That’s right.”
    The Commissioner put out a lower lip and suddenly looked like a child about to pout. “But what’s the point? What kind of information are you after?”
    “I’m not sure, Commissioner. I just have a feeling that in a case like this, information on robots might help.” Baley clamped his mouth shut after that. He wasn’t going to be specific, and that was that.
    “I wouldn’t, Lije. I wouldn’t. I don’t think it’s wise.”
    “What’s your objection, Commissioner?”
    “The fewer the people who know about all this, the better.”
    “I’ll tell him as little as I can. Naturally.”
    “I still don’t think it’s wise.”
    Baley was feeling just sufficiently wretched to lose patience.
    He said, “Are you ordering me not to see him?”
    “No. No. You do as you see fit. You’re heading this investigation. Only..
    “Only what?”
    The Commissioner shook his head. “Nothing.–Where is he? You know who I mean.”
    Baley did. He said, “Daneel’s still at the files.”
    The Commissioner paused a long moment, then