Isaac Asimov - Forward the Foundation

Dors said quietly, “You don’t need my reference number,” then she walked toward the guardsman.

The guardsman took a backward step. “If you don’t stop and present your reference number, I’ll blast you.”

“No! Drop your blaster.”

The guardsman’s lips tightened. His finger began to edge toward the contact, but before he could reach it, he was lost.

He could never describe afterward what happened in any accurate way. All he could say was “How was I to know it was The Tiger Woman?” (The time came when he would be proud of the encounter.) “She moved so fast, I didn’t see exactly what she did or what happened. One moment I was going to shoot her down—I was sure she was some sort of madwoman—and the next thing I knew, I was completely overwhelmed.”

Dors held the guardsman in a firm grip, the hand with the blaster forced high. She said, “Either drop the blaster at once or I will break your arm.”

The guardsman felt a kind of death grip around his chest that all but prevented him from breathing. Realizing he had no choice, he dropped the blaster.

Dors Venabili released him, but before the guardsman could make a move to recover, he found himself facing his own blaster in Dors’s hand.

Dors said, “I hope you’ve left your detectors in place. Don’t try to report what’s happened too quickly. You had better wait and decide what it is you plan to tell your superiors. The fact that an unarmed woman took your blaster and your car may well put an end to your usefulness to the junta.”

Dors started the car and began to speed down the central roadway. A ten-year stay on the grounds told her exactly where she was going. The car she was in—an official ground-car—was not an alien intrusion into the grounds and would not be picked up as a matter of course. However, she had to take a chance on speed, for she wanted to reach her destination rapidly. She pushed the car to a speed of two hundred kilometers per hour.

The speed, at least, eventually did attract attention. She ignored radioed cries, demanding to know why she was speeding, and before long the car’s detectors told her that another ground-car was in hot pursuit.

She knew that there would be a warning sent up ahead and that there would be other ground-cars waiting for her to arrive, but there was little any of them could do, short of trying to blast her out of existence—something apparently no one was willing to try, pending further investigation.

When she reached the building she had been heading for, two ground-cars were waiting for her. She climbed serenely out of her own car and walked toward the entrance.

Two men at once stood in her way, obviously astonished that the driver of the speeding car was not a guardsman but a woman dressed in civilian clothes.

“What are you doing here? What was the rush?”

Dors said quietly, “Important message for Colonel Hender Linn.”

“Is that so?” said the guardsman harshly. There were now four men between her and the entrance. “Reference number, please.”

Dors said, “Don’t delay me.”

“Reference number, I said.”

“You’re wasting my time.”

One of the guardsmen said suddenly, “You know who she looks like? The old First Minister’s wife. Dr. Venabili. The Tiger Woman.”

There was an odd backward step on the part of all four, but one of them said, “You’re under arrest.”

“Am I?” said Dors. “If I’m The Tiger Woman, you must know that I am considerably stronger than any of you and that my reflexes are considerably faster. Let me suggest that all four of you accompany me quietly inside and we’ll see what Colonel Linn has to say.”

“You’re under arrest” came the repetition and four blasters were aimed at Dors.

“Well,” said Dors. “If you insist.”

She moved rapidly and two of the guardsmen were suddenly on the ground, groaning, while Dors was standing with a blaster in each hand.

She said, “I have tried not to hurt them, but it is quite possible that I have broken their wrists. That leaves two of you and I can shoot faster than you can. If either of you makes the slightest move—the slightest—I will have to break the habit of a lifetime and kill you. It will sicken me to do so and I beg you not to force me into it.”

There was absolute silence from the two guardsmen still standing—no motion.

“I would suggest,” said Dors, “that you two escort me into the colonel’s presence and that you then seek medical help for your comrades.”

The suggestion was not necessary. Colonel Linn emerged from his office. “What is going on here? What is—”

Dors turned to him. “Ah! Let me introduce myself. I am Dr. Dors Venabili, the wife of Professor Hari Seldon. I have come to see you on important business. These four tried to stop me and, as a result, two are badly hurt. Send them all about their business and let me talk to you. I mean you no harm.”

Linn stared at the four guardsmen, then at Dors. He said calmly, “You mean me no harm? Though four guardsmen have not succeeded in stopping you, I have four thousand at my instant call.”

“Then call them,” said Dors. “However quickly they come, it will not be in time to save you, should I decide to kill you. Dismiss your guardsmen and let us talk civilly.”

Linn dismissed the guardsmen and said, “Well, come in and we will talk. Let me warn you, though, Dr. Venabili—I have a long memory.”

“And I,” said Dors. They walked into Linn’s quarters together.

Linn said with utmost courtesy, “Tell me exactly why you are here, Dr. Venabili.”

Dors smiled without menace—and yet not exactly pleasantly, either. “To begin with,” she said, “I have come here to show you that I can come here.”

“Ah?”

“Yes. My husband was taken to his interview with the General in an official ground-car under armed guard. I myself left the hotel at about the same time he did, on foot and unarmed—and here I am—and I believe I got here before he did. I had to wade through five guardsmen, including the guardsman whose car I appropriated, in order to reach you. I would have waded through fifty.”

Linn nodded his head phlegmatically. “I understand that you are sometimes called The Tiger Woman.”

“I have been called that. —Now, having reached you, my task is to make certain that no harm comes to my husband. He is venturing into the General’s lair—if I can be dramatic about it—and I want him to emerge unharmed and unthreatened.”

“As far as I am concerned, I know that no harm will come to your husband as a result of this meeting. But if you are concerned, why do you come to me? Why didn’t you go directly to the General?”

“Because, of the two of you, it is you that has the brains.”

There was a short pause and Linn said, “That would be a most dangerous remark—if overheard.”

“More dangerous for you than for me, so make sure it is not overheard. —Now, if it occurs to you that I am to be simply soothed and put off and that, if my husband is imprisoned or marked for execution, that there will really be nothing I can do about it, disabuse yourself.”

She indicated the two blasters that lay on the table before her. “I entered the grounds with nothing. I arrived in your immediate vicinity with two blasters. If I had no blasters, I might have had knives, with which I am an expert. And if I had neither blasters nor knives, I would still be a formidable person. This table we’re sitting at is metal—obviously—and sturdy.”

“It is.”

Dors held up her hands, fingers splayed, as if to show that she held no weapon. Then she dropped them to the table and, palms down, caressed its surface.