Maverick

Eve’s commlink voice answered. Friend Derec? Where are you? Derec transmitted a location-and-range pulse. Please stay there. Eve said. Friend Wolruf and 1 will join you shortly.

A few moments later, Wolruf and Eve came dashing up the slidewalk.

“Eve! What-?” is as far as Avery got.

“Iss Adam,” Wolruf blurted out. “ ‘E’s gone over completely to being SilverSides, an’ ‘at means the natives are ‘umans to ‘im. ‘E’s whipped ‘em up int’ a frenzy. Keeps talkin’ ‘bout ‘ow th’ city can never serve ‘eir needs properly as long as th’ TwoLegs are ‘here. Wants t’ drive ‘u ‘umans off th’ planet. ”

Derec blinked. “That’s impossible. The First Law-”

“Is being interpreted by the standards of these natives, “ Avery completed. “Intimidation may well be a normal part of their lives. For Adam, it’s the tactics of indirection: If he can get the natives to scare us out, it’ll never become a First Law problem. ” He turned to Eve. “What about the city robots?”

“They appear to be backing Adam,” Eve reported. “We saw several security robots draw back into the shadows as we approached. “

Avery looked at the mob again, which was now quite close, and swore softly. “It’s that double-frosted Zeroth Law of theirs. So long as we aren’t in immediate danger, the interests of a few hundred kin outweigh the interests of three humans. But I do not share Adam’ s confidence that he can control the mob. ” Scowling darkly, he bit the corner of his moustache, “Son? I think this nonsense has gone far enough. ” Reaching into his coat pocket, Avery drew out the black, flashlight-sized welding laser and stepped up to the edge of the balcony. “You, robot! “

The mob reacted instantly, swirling to a noisy, hostile stop beneath the balcony. Everywhere Avery looked, he saw bobbing torches and wet fangs bared and clashing in a savage, angry chant: “TwoLegs out! TwoLegs out!” Then, from somewhere in the depths of the crowd a lone howl erupted, a long, drawn-out note that sent chills down Avery’s spine.

The mob fell silent. The ranks parted, and SilverSides stepped to the fore. The robot’s skin flashed and glowed like flaming chrome in the orange torchlight.

“Robot!” Avery shouted. “You have violated the First Law! You threaten harm to humans!”

The crowd began to chant again, but SilverSides waved a paw to silence them. “Avery!” she shouted back. “This is not your world! You are not wanted here! Your very presence prevents this city from adapting to the needs of the kin. Only your departure can permit it to learn what it must. ” The kin could not have understood what she said, but they howled in support anyway. “Leave now and no harm will come to you!”

The crowd fell silent as Avery raised the laser and pointed it straight at SilverSides’ head. “Stand clear of the natives, robot,” he said in a voice as cold and deep as Death. “You are a rogue and I intend to destroy you. ”

Their glares interlocked. For the first time, Avery realized that he was facing a will as strong as his own, and he began to feel sweat and raw fear.

“Destroy me,” SilverSides said softly, “and you are all dead. It’s my word alone that keeps the kin from ripping you to pieces where you stand. ”

For a moment, they were a frozen tableau: Avery on the balcony, holding the laser, surrounded by fear-stricken Derec, Wolruf, and Eve; SilverSides in the street below, glaring at Avery with naked defiance, three hundred angry faces dancing in the torchlight behind her.

They were still trying to stare each other down when the hyperwave pulse bomb went off.

As kinetic weapons go, it wasn’t much. Just a small airburst in the troposphere, about two miles above the city. All that Avery, Wolruf, and the kin saw was a tiny point of light that flared and was gone long before the gentle pop of its detonation reached their ears.

To anyone equipped with a commlink, though, it was a deafening flash of colorless light and a blinding shriek of silent noise that jangled every synapse in his entire nervous system. Across the city, all the lights flickered and went out for a fraction of a second. Thousands of robots ground to a halt. SilverSides and Eve simply locked up, frozen in place.

Derec had time to scream once before his brain was overwhelmed by the searing blast of pain.

When the light ebbed and he could see again, he was lying on the pavement. His father and Wolruf were bending over him, looks of deep concern on their faces, their mouths moving in words he could not hear. And he couldn’t answer. Instead, he felt curiously distant, as if there were something invisible and gauzy between him and the others. Another face was forming, like an afterimage on his retinas: a picture of a head, large and hairless, with two black, glittering eyes set in bulging turrets of wrinkled skin. The grim, lipless mouth opened. Even via hyperwave, the voice was high and reedy.

Hello, Derrec. 1 trrust 1 now have your full attention?

“Aranimas?” Derec gasped.

Verry good. Now forr my second question. Do you know what plutonium is?

Obliquely, as if in his peripheral vision, Derec felt Eve and SilverSides come back to life and tap into the transmission. Behind them, every robot in the city slowly began to revive and join in.

Radioactive metal,Derec answered via commlink. Very poisonous. Explosively fissionable in large quantities.

Excellent,Aranimas answered. Now forr my thirrd question. Do you know what will happen when 1 dump five tons of plutonium rreactorr waste on yourr city?

Derec was suddenly terrified and fully awake. “You can’t!” he screamed on both voice and commlink. “You’ll kill every living thing for a hundred kilometers around!”

Leaving the rrobots unharrmed,Aranimas noted. Goodbye, Derrec. Like a light going out, his image vanished.

Derec leapt to his feet. “Wait, Aranimas! We can make a deal!” The only answer was silence. Derec leaned over the edge of the balcony and caught SilverSides’ attention… SilverSides! Did you monitor that transmission?” The silver robot’s grim expression told him everything he needed to know.

Pulling himself back from the edge, Derec turned to Avery and Wolruf, who were still staring at him with confused looks on their faces. “Dad, can we put the civil war on hold for a while? We’ve got a real problem. ”

Chapter 24. The Weapons Shop

Derec gave Avery and Wolruf a full update on the situation as they traveled to the Compass Tower. For a few minutes Avery held out the hope that Aranimas was bluffing, but Wolruf only shook her head.

“ ‘E never lied an’ e’ never laughed,” she said. “Don’ think ‘e’s got it in ‘im to bluff. “

Eve caught up with them just before they entered the tower. “I still can’t locate Lucius,” Eve reported. “I did manage to raise Mandelbrot, though. He said that half a dozen younglings broke off from the mob and tried to seize the ship, but someone named BlackMane kicked the stuffings out of them. The ship is secure and Ariel is unhurt. ”

Avery raised an eyebrow and looked at Derec. “Then we still have a back door. ”

Derec looked disgusted. “It’s our fault that Aranimas is here. I won’t leave the kin to pay for our mistake. ”

Avery nodded. “Right decision. I was just testing. ”

Derec’s face flushed red to the roots of his blond hair. “Will you kindly knock it off with this testing crap? Every time I turn around you’re testing, testing, testing! I am sick to death of being tested!”

“Sorry. ” Avery shrugged. “It’s a character flaw. ”

SilverSides caught up with the four of them as they started up the slidewalk to Central Hall. “Well, I’ve persuaded the mob to disperse,” she a