“Really? How mad! What possible use could I make of it?”
“Since he was clearly attracted to you very strongly, it would not be difficult to arrange to have him attracted by another who resembled you very closely. You urged him to do so, perhaps promising to accept him if the other did not.
“Who is this poor woman who resembles me closely?”
“You do not know? Come now, that is naive, Dr. Vasilia. I am talking of the Solarian woman, Gladia, whom I already have said has come under the protection of Dr. Fastolfe precisely because she does resemble you. You expressed no surprise when I referred to this at the beginning of our talk. It is too late to pretend ignorance now.”
Vasilia looked at him sharply. “And from his interest in her, you deduced that he must first have been interested in me? It was this wild guess with which you approached me?”
“Not entirely a wild guess. There are other substantiating factors. Do you deny all this?”
She brushed thoughtfully at the long desk beside her and Baley wondered what details were carried by the long sheets of paper on it. He could make out, from a distance, complexities of patterns that he knew would be totally meaningless to him, no matter how carefully and thoroughly he studied them.
Vasilia said, “I grow weary. You have told me that Gremionis was interested first in me, and then in my look-alike, the Solarian. And now you want me to deny it. Why should I take the trouble to deny it? Of what importance is it? Even if it were true, how could this damage me in any way? You are saying that I was annoyed by attentions I didn’t want and that I ingeniously deflected them. Well?”
Baley said, “It is not so much what you did, as why. You knew that Gremionis was the type of person who would be persistent. He had offered himself to you over and over and he would offer himself to Gladia over and over.”
“If she would refuse him.”
“She was a Solarian, having trouble with sex, and was refusing everyone, something I dare say you knew, since I imagine that, for all your estrangement from your fa—from Dr. Fastolfe, you have enough feeling to keep an eye on your replacement.”
“Well, then, good for her. If she refused Gremionis, she showed good taste.”
“You knew there was no ‘if’ about it. You knew she would.
“Still—what of it?”
“Repeated offers to her would mean that Gremionis would be in Gladia’s establishment frequently, that he would cling to her.”
“One last time. Well?”
“And in Gladia’s establishment was a very unusual object, one of the two humaniform robots in existence, Jander Panell.”
Vasilia hesitated. Then, “What are you driving at?”
“I think it struck you that if, somehow, the humaniform robot were killed under circumstances that would implicate Dr. Fastolfe, that could be used as a weapon—to force the secret of the humaniform positronic brain out of him. Gremionis, annoyed over Gladia’s persistent refusal to accept him and given the opportunity by his constant presence at Gladia’s establishment, could be induced to seek a fearful revenge by killing the robot.
Vasilia blinked rapidly. “That poor barber might have twenty such motives, and twenty such opportunities and it wouldn’t matter. He wouldn’t know how to order a robot to shake hands with any efficiency. How would he manage to come within a light-year of imposing mental freeze—out on a robot?”
“Which now,” said Baley softly, “finally brings us to the point, a point I think you have been anticipating, for you have somehow restrained yourself from throwing me out because you had to make sure whether I had this point in mind or not. What I’m saying is that Gremionis did the job, with the help of this Robotics Institute, working through you.”
PART 10.
AGAIN VASILIA
40
It was as though a hyperwave drama had come to a halt in a holographic still.
None of the robots moved, of course, but neither did Baley and neither did Dr. Vasilia Aliena. Long seconds—abnormally long ones—passed, before Vasilia let out her breath and, very slowly, rose to her feet.
Her face had tightened itself into a humorless smile and her voice was low. “You are saying, Earthman, that I am an accessory in the destruction of the humaniform robot?”
Baley said, “Something of the sort had occurred to me, Doctor.”
“Thank you for the thought. The interview is over and you will leave.” She pointed to the door.
Baley said, “I’m afraid I do not wish to.”
“I don’t consult your wishes, Earthman.”
“You must, for how can you make me leave against my wishes?”
“I have robots who, at my request, will put you out politely but firmly and without hurting anything but your self-esteem—if you have any.”
“You have but one robot here. I have two that will not allow that to happen.”
“I have twenty on instant call.”
Baley said, “Dr. Vasilia, please understand! You were surprised at seeing Daneel. I suspect that, even though you work at the Robotics Institute, where hunianiform robots are the first order of business, you have never actually seen a completed and functioning one. Your robots, therefore, haven’t seen one, either. Now look at Daneel. He looks human. He looks more human than any robot who has ever existed, except for the dead Jander. To your robots, Daneel will surely look human. He will know how to present an order in such a way that they will obey him in preference, perhaps, to you.”
Vasilia said, “I can, if necessary, summon twenty human beings from within the Institute who will put you out, perhaps with a little damage, and your robots, even Daneel, will not be able to interfere effectively.”
“How do you intend to call them, since my robots are not going to allow you to move? They have extraordinarily quick reflexes.”
Vasilia showed her teeth in something that could not be called a smile. “I cannot speak for Daneel, but I’ve known Giskard for most of my life. I don’t think he will do anything to keep me from summoning help and I imagine he will keep Daneel from interfering, too.”
Baley tried to keep his voice from trembling as he skated on ever-thinner ice—and knew it. He said, “Before you do anything, perhaps you might ask Giskard what he will do if you and I give conificting orders.”
“Giskard?” said Vasilia with supreme confidence.
Giskard’s eyes turned full on Vasilia and he said, with an odd timbre to his voice, “Little Miss, I am compelled to protect Mr. Baley. He takes precedence.”
“Indeed? By whose order? By this Earthman’s? This stranger’s?”
Giskard said, “By Dr. Han Fastolfe’s order.”
Vasilia’s eyes flashed and she slowly sat down on the stool again. Her hands, resting in her lap, trembled and she said through lips that scarcely moved, “He’s even taken you away.”
“If that is not enough, Dr. Vasilia,” said Daneel, speaking suddenly, of his own accord, “I, too, would place Partner Elijah’s welfare above yours.”
Vasilia looked at Daneel with bitter curiosity. “Partner Elijah? Is that what you call him?”
“Yes, Dr. Vasilia. My choice in this matter—the Earthman over you—arises not only out of Dr. Fastolfe’s instructions, but because the Earthman and I are partners in this investigation and because—” Daneel paused as though puzzled by what he was about to say, and then said it anyway, “—we are friends.”
Vasilia said, “Friends? An Earthman and a humaniform robot? Well, there is a match. Neither quite human.”
Baley said, sharply, “Nevertheless bound by friendship. Do not, for your own sake, test the force of our—” Now it was he who paused and, as though to his own surprise, completed the sentence impossibly, “—love.”