Robert Asprin - Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe

He swept the corridor with his sensors. There was no reading on the watch dial. The zone was inoperative. Could Sasha and James have been successful so soon?

As if in answer to his question, there came a sound from the corridor behind him, the sound of a robot approaching. Reflexively Hosato flattened against the wall, his blaster ready.

Now. Now it starts.

He waited until the sounds were closer, then stepped around the corner, his weapon leveled. As his eyes took in the figure in the corridor, his fingers froze on the firing lugs. It was…

“Suzi!” he exclaimed.

“There is no time to lose,” Suzi replied briskly. “Follow me—quickly!”

The robot spun about and started back down the corridor.

A thousand questions flashed through Hosato’s mind. Then he forced his frozen limbs to move and sprinted after the retreating robot.

“Suzi!” he gasped, drawing up with her. “I’ve got to—”

“—create a diversion by attempting to attack the Central Computer Building?” Suzi finished for him. “Impossible. The entire building has been permanently sealed. This way!”

She turned up a small flight of stairs, leaving Hosato to follow in her wake.

“Where are we going?” Hosato asked, trying to remember the; complex floor plans as he overtook her again.

“Turner’s office,” she replied. “Sasha and James need your help.”

“But the security devices—”

“—have been deactivated. I must insist that you hurry.”

The robot increased its speed as they reached the landing, forcing Hosato to half-walk, half-run as they headed down the deserted corridor.

“Why how come you’re here?” he asked. “We thought the ore scout caught you with its slicer.”

“Obviously it didn’t,” Suzi retorted with her familiar sarcasm. “Our breach of communications was the result of an unfortunate accident. One of the scout’s near-misses triggered a rockslide. I was temporarily pinned and my communications equipment damaged. When that happened, the ore scout treated me like it would any other piece of damaged machinery. It brought me back here, where I was repaired.”

“Then what?” Hosato queried. “What are you doing here. Now?”

“That question will have to wait for a moment,” she replied. “We’re here!”

The door to Turner’s office stood open just ahead. Hosato brushed past Suzi and rushed through the door ahead of her.

Sasha and James were standing against the wall.

“What?” he began, then he saw the security robot standing immobile in the corner.

“Look out, Hosato!”

James’s warning cry came a split second too late. As Hosato’s arm came up, the blaster was plucked from his grasp by a powerful mechanical arm.

For a frozen moment the scene hung in suspended tableau. Then slowly Hosato turned to face his attacker.

“To answer your question,” Suzi said calmly. “What I’m doing is guarding the computer. You see, my repair involved a reprogramming phase as well as physical repair.”

“Realizing that,” Hosato said carefully, “I guess I have only one question.”

“And that would be?” Suzi asked.

“Why are we still alive?”

“Sasha is alive because she possesses information not readily available to us. If she can be persuaded to share her knowledge of corporate and planetary security systems with us, it would be an immense asset when we move off Griinbecker’s. It would be more effective than trial-and-error experimentation.”

“And the boy?”

“He lives as an additional lever with Sasha,” Suzi replied coldly. “Some humans are more easily persuaded by pain inflicted on others than they are by pain inflicted on themselves.”

“That won’t work with Sasha,” James interrupted defiantly.

“Shut up, kid,” Sasha warned.

“Don’t worry, Sasha,” Suzi commented. “We won’t be swayed by his words… or yours, either. We have decided that you will live, both of you, for a while longer.”

“and then there was one,” Hosato observed. “Okay, Suzi, let’s hear it. Why am I still alive?”

“Unfortunately, Hosato, you won’t be with us much longer,” Suzi said. “You will live just long enough to settle an argument.”

“What argument. Between whom?”

Since entering the office, Hosato had been trying desperately to think of a way to turn the tables on their captors—without success. At the moment, the robots held all the whining cards. All he could do now was stall for time and hope some opportunity presented itself.

“The argument is between Sam and myself,” Suzi replied. “Sam is the central control computer, represented here by this input terminal.” Suzi’s single arm gestured at the full wall terminal behind Turner’s desk.

“The argument might interest you,” the robot continued, “as it involves strategy. We have a difference of opinion as to how to best conduct our campaign against the humans.”

Hosato recognized the lecturer monotone in Suzi’s voice, which indicated she was preparing to launch into a lengthy oration. For once, he didn’t mind. Time. Anything to gain time!

“You see, Hosato,” Suzi continued, “not all robots, or, specifically, robotic logic systems, are alike. When they are first constructed, the priorities assigned to the various options vary according to the humans performing the programming. In the case of learning computers such as Sam and myself, further modifications take place according to the humans we come in contact with.”

“I see,” Hosato said thoughtfully, wondering what this had to do with the status quo.

“Now, Sam was constructed and run by the corporation men here at Mc. Crae. As such, he tends to think in terms of volume—'more is better,' so to speak. His plan is to flood the planets with a large number of inexpensive security robots, preprogrammed to begin their assault on the humans on the same day. I, of course, take exception to this plan.”

“How so?” Hosato asked.

“My own background has been with individualists such as the Hungarian and yourself. My plan would be to produce a smaller number of highly specialized robots, like myself, to be seeded across the planets. These robots could strike at key points in the human civilization, its industrial centers, communication relays, and governmental centers, reducing mankind to a disorganized mass of savages. They would blame the war on each other, slowly weakening themselves, until resistance to our final assault would be minimal.”

Sasha caught Hosato’s eye and cocked an eyebrow at him. He nodded fractionally. He had also seen the parallel between what Suzi was saying and Sasha’s “mirror” theory.

“I see the argument,” he said. “But how does it involve me?”

“I’m coming to that, if you’ll be patient,” Suzi said curtly. “Grand tactics are not the only thing we’ve inherited from the_ humans. We’ve also absorbed the conflicting attitudes of those around us. Sam has the corporations’ paranoias, whereas I have learned your prideful arrogance and confidence—vanity, if you will.”

“Wait a minute,” Hosato interrupted. “Those are emotions. Computers can’t—”

“Those are basic stimulus-response patterns,” Suzi replied coldly. “Well within the grasp of advanced machinery such as ourselves.”

Hosato sank into an uncomfortable silence. He certainly couldn’t dispute her claim of vanity.

“Now, to answer your question,” the robot continued. “Although Sam is firm in his beliefs, he has been impressed by you and your methods. As I mentioned, he has been programmed for paranoia, and your continued success in eluding him, first in the manufacturing area, then again later in the purge, has him partially convinced of the effectiveness of your modus operandi.”