Robert Asprin - Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe

She collapsed the unit and replaced it on her belt.

“Guess we’ll have to take a rain check, Hayama. I still want to talk with you sometime, though.”

“Trouble?” he asked politely.

She shrugged. “Probably just routine. We average about two false alarms a week. Most likely some messenger robot’s decided to take a shortcut through a restricted area.”

“A Mc. Crae robot?” Hosato murmured sarcastically, but he was talking to thin air. Sasha was already in full stride, heading off down the corridor.

He watched the distance-eating length of her stride without the slightest appreciation of the movement of her feminine hips. It seemed Sasha and her team took their work very seriously if they reacted with that speed and intensity to a false alarm. Unless…

Unless the whole thing had been carefully planned and executed just to impress him.

Suzi was waiting when Hosato returned to his quarters. For a change, she followed him in stoic silence instead of immediately expressing her annoyance as soon as the door closed. One part of his mind registered this and breathed a silent note of thanks to the Hungarian. Whatever behavior recognition patterns had been built into the robot, they were definitely programmed correctly. He had a lot of heavy thinking to do and didn’t need a nagging assistant to distract him.

The silence lasted as he made himself a pot of tea. Loading cup and pot onto the small end table, he kicked off his shoes and draped himself over the large reading chair.

He spent several thoughtful moments sipping the tea and collecting his thoughts before he spoke.

“Suzi, give me the layout prints of the complex.”

The robot obediently swiveled around, and the viewscreen blinked to life, showing the line drawings of the buildings that made up the Mc. Crae complex.

“Exclude the living quarters and mall and give me an enlargement on the rest.”

The display changed according to his specifications.

“Confirm corridors in Administrative Building lobby and Personnel areas Turner’s office subterranean tunnels to all buildings corridors in southern half of Household Manufacturing Building… also external lines on all buildings.”

As he described the various areas, the designated lines on the drawing changed from blue to red. The data being displayed had been provided by Raven-54 steel and was quite detailed. Hosato’s plans called for believing none of it without confirmation. He was not prepared to risk his life relying on other people’s data. Refilling his cup, he studied the new display. There was still too much blue showing to make concrete plans.

“Problems?” Suzi prodded gently.

“Yeah,” he responded absently. “Problems.”

“Want to talk it out?”

Hosato thought for a few more moments, then shrugged. “Why not. I’m supposed to put this complex out of business for an indefinite period of time… the longer the better. The problem, of course, is how.”

He rose and began to pace restlessly as he continued.

“Right off the bat, we can forget about the living quarters and the mall. They exist independently of the complex proper, so hitting them wouldn’t slow production a bit. Similarly, the Administrative Building is safe. They don’t even store records there, it’s all terminal tie-in with the main computer banks. That leaves the manufacturing areas and the main computer-control building.”

“If I might suggest,” interrupted Suzi, “the obvious weakness in the complex is the main computer-control building. All of the automated design and manufacturing functions are controlled from there, and if my understanding is correct, it also serves as storage for most or all of the corporation’s financial records, correspondence, and design programs. Sabotaging that unit would be certain to disrupt the functioning of Mc. Crae Enterprises perhaps permanently.”

Hosato grimaced. “You’re right, Suzi. It’s obvious… too obvious. It’s apparently occurred to several people here at Mc. Crae that it’s their major vulnerability, because they’re guarding it damn close. Every corridor leading to that unit is loaded with sensors and live guards, both stationary and roaming. It would mean a major undertaking just to approach the unit, much less penetrate it.”

“But you've—”

“I’ve saved the best for last. The whole building is subterranean, just like our charts show. What the charts don’t show is that it’s completely sealed. The only ones who can get in are the technical-maintenance teams, and they haven’t set foot in the place for three years. It requires two keys turned simultaneously at different locations to spring the lock, and even if I could beat that, there’s another little problem. The unit is kept at planetary surface conditions… no pressurization, and minus three hundred degrees Fahrenheit. The controls to bring it to humanly bearble conditions are alarmed and guarded. That means I’d have to wear a full surface suit to survive inside, and it might make me a little conspicuous walking through the corridors.”

There was a few moments’ silence; then Suzi changed her display to show an enlargement of the manufacturing areas.

“Right,” said Hosato.

He poured himself another cup of tea before he turned his attention to the new display.

“That brings us to our current problem—the manufacturing areas.” Hosato spoke as much to himself as to Suzi. “The first problem is that we aren’t talking about one building, we’re talking about three. Mc. Crae has divided their operations into three product families: Household, Office, and Industrial. Every one of the product families has its own separate building, bless their paranoid little hearts. That means I have to gimmick three separate areas if I want to get paid.”

“You keep talking about the manufacturing areas,” Suzi interrupted. “What about the mining and ore processing?”

“No go,” Hosato proclaimed. “Same story as the computer areas—conditions unfit for human survival. The mining is done at planetary conditions, and the ore-processing area is hot enough to cook a human in a minute and a half.”

“Do the humans here have any means of going out on the planet surface?”

“They’ve got a few surface suits, and there’re a couple sand-crawler-type vehicles, but they’re unarmed and lack the power to do any real damage. Believe me, Suzi, it’s going to have to be the manufacturing areas. Unfortunately I don’t know what the interior layouts are or what kind of machines are operating in there. Until I know what I’m up against, I can’t settle on a plan for gimmicking it.”

“What was the source of your information?” Suzi asked. “Some of it was not on the data tapes supplied by Ravensteel. How or from whom did you obtain it?”

“From one of the maintenance crew, Rick Handel. He was in the bar grumbling about the firings, and I bought him a couple drinks.”

“I thought you were picky about whom you drank with?”

“I am, but this was business. Look, do you want to hear this or not?”

“Sorry. You were saying…”

“Right. It seems Mc. Crae has just dismissed a third of their maintenance staff, the crew that used to work the manufacturing area, and replaced them with robot repairmen. Handel ran down the list of the complex areas for me, complaining at great length about the problems involved in keeping them functional. That’s how I got the information.”

“Would it be possible to persuade your newfound friend to take you on a walking tour of the manufacturing areas?”

“Negative. I’ve already tried it, and it’s no go on two counts. First, the remaining maintenance crew is avoiding the manufacturing areas in quiet protest over the dismissals. Second, Security will let them into those areas only with a signed work order.”