Isaac Asimov Robot 02 The Caves Of Steel

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Table DF was apparently among those reserved for transients. Those already
seated watched their plates uneasily and did not talk with one another. They
looked with sneaking envy at the laughing crowds at the other tables.
There is no one so uncomfortable, thought Baley, as the man eating
out-of-Section. Be it ever so humble, the old saying went, there s no place
like home-kitchen. Even the food tastes better, no matter how many chemists
are ready to swear it to be no different from the food in Johannesburg.
He sat down on a stool and R. Daneel sat down next to him.
No free choice, said Baley, with a wave of his fingers, so just close the
switch there and wait.
It took two minutes. A disc slid back in the table top and a dish lifted.
Mashed potatoes, zymoveal sauce, and stewed apricots. Oh, well, said Baley.
A fork and two slices of whole yeast bread appeared in a recess just in front
of the low railing that went down the long center of the table.
R. Daneel said in a low voice, You may help yourself to my serving, if you
wish.
For a moment, Baley was scandalized. Then he remembered and mumbled, That s
bad manners. Go on. Eat.
Baley ate industriously but without the relaxation that allows complete
enjoyment. Carefully, he flicked an occasional glance at R. Daneel. The robot
ate with precise motions of his jaws. Too precise. It didn t look quite
natural.
Strange! Now that Baley knew for a fact that R. Daneel was in truth a robot,
all sorts of little items
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showed up clearly. For instance, there was no movement of an Adam s apple when
R. Daneel swallowed.
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Yet he didn t mind so much. Was he getting used to the creature? Suppose
people started afresh on a new world (how that ran through his mind ever since
Dr. Fastolfe had put it there); suppose Bentley, for instance, were to leave
Earth; could he get so he didn t mind working and living alongside robots? Why
not? The Spacers themselves did it.
R. Daneel said, Elijah, is it bad manners to watch another man while he is
eating?
If you mean stare directly at him, of course. That s only common sense, isn t
it? A man has a right to his privacy. Ordinary conversation is entirely in
order, but you don t peer at a man while he s swallowing.
I see. Why is it then that I count eight people watching us closely, very
closely?
Baley put down his fork. He looked about as though he were searching for the
salt-pinch dispenser. I
see nothing out of the ordinary.
But he said it without conviction. The mob of diners was only a vast
conglomeration of chaos to him.
And when R. Daneel turned his impersonal brown eyes upon him, Baley suspected
uncomfortably that those were not eyes he saw, but scanners capable of noting,
with photographic accuracy and in split seconds of time, the entire panorama.
I am quite certain, said R. Daneel, calmly.
Well, then, what of it? It s crude behavior, but what does it prove?
I cannot say, Elijah, but is it coincidence that six of the watchers were in
the crowd outside the shoe store last night?
Chapter 11
ESCAPE ALONG THE STRIPS
Baley s grip tightened convulsively on his fork.
Are you sure? he asked automatically, and as he said it, he realized the
uselessness of the question.
You don t ask a computer if it is sure of the answer it disgorges; not even a
computer with arms and legs.
R. Daneel said, Quite!
Are they close to us?
Not very. They are scattered.
All right, then. Baley returned to his meal, his fork moving mechanically.
Behind the frown on his long face, his mind worked furiously.
Suppose the incident last night had been organized by a group of anti-robot
fanatics, that it had not been the spontaneous trouble it had seemed. Such a
group of agitators could easily include men who had studied robots with the
intensity born of deep opposition. One of them might have recognized R. Daneel
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for what he was. (The Commissioner had suggested that, in a way. Damn it,
there were surprising depths to that man.)
It worked itself out logically. Granting they had been unable to act in an
organized manner on the spur of last evening s moment, they would still have
been able to plan for the future. If they could recognize a robot such as R.
Daneel, they could certainly realize that Baley himself was a police officer.
A police officer in the unusual company of a humanoid robot would very likely
be a responsible man in the organization. (With the wisdom of hindsight, Baley
followed the line of reasoning with no trouble at all.)
It followed then that observers at City Hall (or perhaps agents within City
Hall) would be bound to spot
Baley, R. Daneel, or both before too long a time had passed. That they had
done so within twenty-four hours was not surprising. They might have done so
in less time if so much of Baley s day had not been spent in Spacetown and
along the motorway.
R. Daneel had finished his meal. He sat quietly waiting, his perfect hands
resting lightly on the end of the table.
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Had we not better do something? he asked.
We re safe here in the kitchen, said Baley. Now leave this to me. Please.
Baley looked about him cautiously and it was as though he saw a kitchen for
the first time.
People! Thousands of them. What was the capacity of an average kitchen? He had
once seen the figure.
Two thousand two hundred, he thought. This one was larger than average.
Suppose the cry, Robot, were sent out into the air. Suppose it were tossed
among the thousands like a
...
He was at a loss for a comparison, but it didn t matter. It wouldn t happen.
A spontaneous riot could flare anywhere, in the kitchens as easily as in the
corridors or in the elevators.
More easily, perhaps. There was a lack of inhibition at mealtimes, a sense of
horseplay that could degenerate into something more serious at a trifle.
But a planned riot would be different. Here in the kitchen, the planners would
themselves be trapped in a large and mob-filled room. Once the dishes went
flying and the tables cracking there would be no easy way to escape. Hundreds
would certainly die and they themselves might easily be among them.
No, a safe riot would have to be planned in the avenues of the City, in some
relatively narrow passageway. Panic and hysteria would travel slowly along the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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