Inferno

Interesting that Donald would start with the robots, Kresh thought. He was focused, perhaps overfocused, on them. It would be best to keep in mind that in this investigation at least, Donald was not likely to be even remotely as objective as he normally was. Clearly, he wanted Prospero and Caliban to be guilty. A biased robot. As if there weren’t enough problems on this case.

“How reliable is Tierlaw’s statement?” Kresh asked.

“As best I could ascertain, all of his bodily reactions were consistent with a man under great stress giving a truthful statement. I believe that he spoke the truth, “ Donald said.

And that was the least-qualified pronouncement Donald had ever made concerning his lie-detector function. Enough so that Kresh felt unsure. Usually Donald made a speech three times longer than that about the uncertainty of such measurement. No doubt about it-he wanted the robots to be guilty.

“We should be able to check his story out against Grieg’s appointment diary,” Devray said. “That’s something. But at least we have a lead, and suspects.”

“Even leaving aside the First Law question, I can’t see what possible motive Caliban and Prospero could have for attacking Grieg, or why they would have been so clumsy about it,” Fredda protested. “Yes, Caliban has no First Law. In theory, there is nothing to prevent him attacking anyone he likes. But there’s nothing preventing me, or you, either. And yes, Prospero’s First Law does not enjoin him to prevent harm-but I can’t imagine Prospero splitting hair so fine as to interpret that as participating in a murder but not actually firing the weapon-which is what you’d have to have here.”

“But you do grant,” Devray said, “that there is nothing in Caliban’s absence of Laws that would prevent him from killing Grieg? And that there is nothing in the New Laws that would absolutely force Prospero to prevent the attack?”

“Yes, but-”

“So one of them could kill and the other could stand idly by,” Devray said, his tone a bit badgering.

“In theory, yes,” Fredda admitted, with massive reluctance. “But it makes no sense. Grieg was the best friend the New Law robots ever had. What would make them want to kill him?”

“Plenty,” Devray said. “I have an appointment-had an appointment-with the Governor for later this morning. We were going to talk about a proposal I had submitted last week.”

“What sort of proposal?” Kresh asked.

“One for the destruction of all New Law robots,” Devray said.

“What? Have you taken leave of your senses?” Fredda demanded.

“No, ma’am,” Devray replied, his voice bland and professional. “But I’m damned sick and tired of chasing rustbackers. The N. L. s are at the focus of a whole new series of crimes-rustback smuggling, restrictor removal, and the founding of illegal settlements.”

“Settlements?” Kresh asked.

“Well, one settlement, anyway,” Devray said. “They call it Valhalla. It’s supposed to be somewhere on the far side of the planet from here, somewhere in the Utopia region of Terra Grande. I don’t even know if it exists-but it’s where half the rustbacks we catch seem to be heading. And I’m tired of wasting time and effort chasing rumors. I told the Governor the rustbacks and the New Law robots were more trouble than they were worth, and it was time to admit it and move on.”

“But they work!” Fredda protested. “New Law robots represent half the work force on Purgatory.”

“And they were supposed to be all of it-except they’re only about a third as productive as Three-Law robots. Every department has been forced to pull in human workers, because the Settlers don’t allow Three-Law robots to have the run of the island. If the New Law robots were worth all the trouble they cause, that’d be one thing,” Devray said. “But if anything, they’re slowing down the reterraforming project.”

Kresh was surprised to see Devray that interested in terraforming-and then realized he shouldn’t have been surprised at all. The Rangers only did law enforcement on the side. Terraforming was much more their side of the street.

“Was-was the Governor considering the idea?” Fredda asked.

“I don’t know,” Devray said. “He didn’t reject it out of hand. I know he was also toying with the idea of removing all the range restrictors and letting the New Law robots go.”

“Why the devil would he do that?” Kresh asked. “There wouldn’t be a New Law left on this island if not for the restrictors.”

“Don’t be too sure of that,” Fredda said. “A lot of the New Law robots do cause trouble-but the ones that do work, work plenty hard. A lot of the rustbacks work very hard indeed-once they’re paid a decent wage. And not all of them head for Valhalla, Justen. And just by the way, Valhalla is no rumor. It’s a real place-and there are lots of good reasons for the New Laws to head for it. I’ve seen that with my own eyes.”

“You seem to know a lot about rustbacks,” Devray said. “And have you reported these escaped robots in Valhalla you’ve seen with your own eyes? Or reported Valhalla’s location?”

“No, I have not reported that information,” she snapped. “I don’t know where Valhalla is, and I don’t want to know. But if you want to arrest me for seeing a rustback, go right ahead. I felt responsible for them. Rustbacks are escaped New Law robots, and I invented New Law robots. Of course I’d research them.”

“Hold it, both of you,” Kresh said. “This is not the time. We can go into all this later. Right now the only important thing is that Devray’s recommendation to the Governor could have given Caliban and Prospero a very strong motive if they knew about it. They might have decided to kill him before he killed them.”

“Caliban isn’t a New Law robot-”

“Burning hells, I know that better than anyone!” Kresh snapped. “But maybe he decided not to take chances on being caught up in a roundup. Or maybe he just acted in sympathy to the plight of his New Law brethren. It’s a possible motive, and the two of them are definite suspects.”

“But you can’t just decide they did it. Any number of humans might have-”

“I said they were suspects, not the suspects,” Kresh said. “Even if I were convinced they did it-and I’m not-I wouldn’t dare stop investigating other possibilities. Not until the other shoe drops. Suppose it wasn’t the robots? Suppose humans did this job? What was their motive? Have they achieved it with Grieg’s death, or is there more to follow? Is it a coup, or a simple assassination?”

“A coup? Stars above, I hadn’t even thought of that,” Fredda said.

“I haven’t thought of much else,” Kresh said. “But I’ll tell you this-with every minute that passes, it becomes less likely that it was-is-a coup. If you’re attempting to overthrow a government, you don’t give it time to recover from the first blow before you strike again. Unless something has gone wrong with their plans. Or unless-hellfire, that’s a tough one.”

“What’s a tough one?” Fredda demanded.

“Suppose the public a

“Well, there’s some chance of that,” Devray agreed. “I doubt the killers expected the body would be discovered so soon-or that you would discover it. They set up the image box to do the comm simulation, after all. ”

“Yes,” Fredda said. “Probably the killers weren’t expecting discovery until this morning. ” She looked up at Kresh and shrugged. “Maybe it was Tierlaw who was supposed to find the body. Unless Tierlaw did it and was pla

“Don’t trust Donald’s sensors that far,” Kresh said. “A trained man could beat his sensors-or any lie-detector system, short of a Psychic Probe. But Tierlaw could have been set up, a useful idiot. ”

“How the devil can an idiot be useful?” Fredda asked.

“By being worse than useless to your opposition. Maybe we’re supposed to pay so much attention to Tierlaw that we let the real perpetrators get away. But that’s giving them an awful lot of credit, and assumes an incredibly complex and fragile plot. My guess is that the assassins are completely unaware of Tierlaw’s existence, and he is telling the precise truth: He had nothing to do with it, and he slept through the whole thing. But don’t worry, we’re going to hold him and check him out all the same.”