Robot Blues Read Online Free PDF

the plane in which it was traveling crashed into the planet, though my
colleague who first reported the find stated that, in her estimation, the robot
was in excellent condition, all things considered. I’m not sure I understand
your question—”
    Xris was shaking
his head. “Look, Professor, from all indications, it sounds like you need to
hire a salvage team, not Mag Force 7. We’re a crack commando outfit. I have the
best men and women in the business on my team and you’ll pay the highest rates
in the business for us. And if all you want us to do is dig out some moldy old
hunk of scrap metal—”
    “Ah, I see. I wish
it were that easy.” Sakuta smiled briefly; his smile faded. He ran his
fingertips back and forth on the desk pad, back and forth, staring down at the
pad all the while.
    Xris recognized
the signs. He waited patiently.
    Sakuta looked up.
His face was tinged with a faint crimson. “I ... I am deeply ashamed of myself.
I could never have imagined ... Ethical considerations aside, I ...” He lapsed
into silence.
    Suddenly he
clenched his fist. “But, damn it, this is too important!”
    Sakuta shut his
eyes when he spoke, as if he feared to see the condemnation of his visitors’
faces. “I’m committing a terrible act. I know that, but I can’t help myself.
Gentlemen, I am hiring you to steal this robot.”
     

Chapter 4
    Thieves respect
property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may
more perfectly respect it.
    G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday
     
    Sakuta sat,
sweating, shaken.
    He might have been
asking us to assassinate the prime minister, Xris thought, amused. Raoul had
leaped to his feet and was solicitously pouring the professor a glass of water
from a carafe on the desk.
    “Thank you,” said
Sakuta faintly.
    “My pleasure.”
Raoul was about to rest a comforting hand on the professor’s broad shoulder,
except that Xris growled. With a jerk of his head, he ordered the Ado-nian back
to his chair.
    Sighing deeply,
Raoul obeyed, patting Sakuta’s hand tenderly as he left.
    The professor
never noticed. He gulped the water, wiped his lips fastidiously on a white
handkerchief, which he then returned to his breast pocket.
    “Who is in
possession of the robot?” Xris asked.
    “No one, at the
moment. It is still inside the wreckage of the plane, where it was discovered.
The Pandoran government officials have taken into their empty heads to fear
that the ship is contaminated—some sort of ancient virus or bacteria that may
infect and kill everyone on the planet. They are, of course, completely wrong.
Any expert would tell them so. Several have. The plane crashed in a desert
environment. My colleague has inspected the spaceplane thoroughly and reported
finding only trace amounts of radiation and no bacteria or germs of any kind,
ancient or otherwise. The Pandoran government refuses to listen. And, I must
admit, we haven’t gone out of our way to convince them. Their irrational fear
is buying us time.”
    Xris shifted in
his chair. “Professor, I don’t mind bending the law on occasion—”
    He was forced to
wait to continue until Raoul recovered from a fit of coughing.
    “—but galactic
salvage law clearly states that any debris which falls from space becomes the
property of the planet on which it falls. If the Pandorans want this robot for
their own Space and Areonautics Museum, then—”
    “That’s just it!”
Sakuta cried in a hollow voice. “If they wanted it for a museum, that would be
fine with us! We could arrange to have it exhibited here on loan. But they don’t.
They are terribly afraid of it. They intend to destroy it.” Xris frowned. “Legal
action, then.” Sakuta was shaking his head. “We are in a quandary, gentlemen.
We could go to the galactic court and ask for an injunction to stop the
Pandorans from destroying the robot, but that would take weeks of legal
maneuvering and we don’t have weeks!
    “The robot and