“Where are you?” Steve asked. “Are you alone, for that matter?”
“I have been left alone, chained to a tree,” said Hunter. “I have no way to convey my exact location.”
“You can’t free yourself?”
“No. I have ascertained that I cannot break the chain on my own. Until I heard the unexplained static, I had intended to wait until after dawn to try again. At that time, my energy would be replenished, and I could awaken you three without disturbing your rest.”
“We’ll come get you,” said Steve. “I have a fireplace poker; maybe we can use it to pry open a link of your chain. How can I find you?”
“Follow the road back down the slope. When I hear you nearby, I will call to you.”
“Okay. But I’ll leave my lapel pin on.” He turned to Marcia. “Come on.”
“It’s freezing out here,” Marcia muttered.
“Well, it’ll help keep us both wide awake.”
Ishihara and Wayne had hidden themselves near the road about halfway between the place where Hunter was chained and the inn. Xiao Li stood with them, holding the reins of his donkey and also the horse Wayne and Ishihara had ridden from Khanbaliq. They had to stay far enough from Hunter so that he could not hear their voices.
Earlier, after Xiao Li had asked the other guests in the inn to come out and speak to them, Wayne and Ishihara had given them the same story that Xiao Li and his fellow villagers had accepted, that Hunter was a misguided spirit. Some of the guests had been skeptical about this, but the more superstitious men among them had convinced the others to consider it. Finally, Wayne had assured them all that Hunter was absolutely prevented by supernatural law from harming humans, but that he had to be restrained.
“We have to figure out what to do next,” said Wayne. “We have Hunter. He’ll probably radio his team to come get him, but maybe we can interfere with that, too-”
“I have an emergency,” Ishihara said abruptly. “I have been monitoring Hunter’s radio band to intercept his communication with his team members.”
“Yeah? What of it?”
“Steve has just reported to Hunter that Jane has been kidnapped from the inn by the same guests we convinced to take Hunter. They obviously saw them together and acted on their own.”
“But that’s good,” said Wayne enthusiastically. “It’ll keep the whole team busy. Why didn’t they grab the other two, while they were at it?”
“It was apparently a spontaneous move. However, I now feel that I am responsible for potential harm to Jane. Under the First Law, I must rescue her.”
“Well…wait a minute,” said Wayne. “Let’s think this through.”
“I cannot wait.” Ishihara turned and began working his way out of the trees to the road. “ A further consideration is that her captors will have overheard the voices of Steve and Hunter through her lapel pin, which seems to have remained turned on. This could endanger her even more.”
“We can still talk about it,” said Wayne. “This isn’t necessarily bad. At least, let’s consider the whole situation before we act.”
“The First Law will not allow me to wait,” said Ishihara, over his shoulder.
“Well…” Wayne plunged after him, crashing through the underbrush. “Then wait for me.”
“Please hurry,” said Ishihara. “The only transmission now is background static and the sound of humans breathing and walking. However, this tells me that they are coming down the road toward us from the inn.”
Wayne pushed his way through tree branches after Ishihara, panicked by the danger of losing his only ally. Certainly, Ishihara could rescue Jane, and Wayne did not object to that. However, as a roboticist, she might very well argue First Law interpretations with Ishihara that would convince him to stop cooperating with Wayne…
Behind him, he could hear the sound of Xiao Li following, bringing the horse and the donkey.
“Shut off your hearing,” said Wayne urgently to Ishihara, as he finally managed to come up next to him on the road.
“I dare not. My First Law imperative to rescue Jane requires all my efforts.” Ishihara strode quickly up the road in the moonlight.
“I don’t want Jane to trick you. She may argue that you should help Hunter instead of me.”
“If her arguments are valid, I will respond. If they are not, of course I will not be influenced.”
“Well…all right. But remember, Jane’s arguments about cooperating with me do not involve Jane’s personal welfare in this particular situation.”
“I accept your instruction.”
Wayne said nothing else as he hurried up the slope. He knew that while every robot had to obey the First Law, each one had some leeway to make independent interpretations. All Wayne could do now was try to influence him.
Since Jane’s captors did not speak as they carried her through the cold night air, she did not learn anything about what they had in mind. They were still taking her in the same direction Hunter had gone, so she was not really too scared. Before they had gone very far, however, the men carrying her suddenly stopped. Jane heard the voices of Hunter and Steve coming over her lapel pin, muffled slightly under a fold in her rumpled robe. Suddenly very frightened, she forced herself to cough and clear her throat, in the hope of covering the sound.
“What’s that?” One of the men asked fearfully.
“What’s what?” Another asked.
“Voices.”
“I hear them, too,” said a man near Jane’s left shoulder. “Voices from the air. No-from her!” He released his grip suddenly and she began to fall.
“Let her down! Let her down!”
Jane felt herself lowered; at least they had the decency to set her on her feet. When she found her footing, she looked up and saw all the men slowly backing away from her in the moonlight. Then another pointed past her, down the road.
“Look! Someone’s coming! Who are they?” He spoke in a hushed, worried voice.
“Maybe it’s the big spirit,” yelled a third, “coming back for her!”
With a roar of frightened shouts, every man who had carried Jane to this spot suddenly turned and ran back up the road. Puzzled, she glanced down the road to see if Hunter had somehow gotten free. Instead, two other figures were running up the slope toward her.
At first she had no idea who they were. Then, even in the moonlight and shadows, she recognized Wayne and Ishihara. Xiao Li, mounted on his donkey and holding the reins of a horse, waited without moving behind them.
She had to choose between dealing with them, following the others back up the slope, or running into the forest. She did not really want to face Wayne and Ishihara without Hunter. However, she knew that their company would certainly be safer than that of her recent captors.
After all, no matter what argument Wayne had used to bring Ishihara under his control, the First Law would still require the robot to protect her from actual harm. If she could convince Ishihara to drop Wayne, then she would have accomplished something important, too. So she waited for them to come running up to her, checking to make sure that her lapel pin was still on.