Mike McQuay - Suspicion

“Robot!” Derec called across the cars to him. “Where can I find Supervisor Avernus?”

The utility robot pointed down the tunnel. “They are releasing some of the reservoir water into the abandoned tunnels. It may be dangerous for humans.”

“Thanks,” Derec said, then pointed to a tram. “Has this one been recharged?”

“Yes,” the robot answered.

“Thanks again,” Derec said, and climbed behind the steering mechanism. “Rec, Eve, get in.”

As the robots climbed into the back of the tram, the utility called to Derec.

“Did you not hear me? It may be dangerous for humans in there.”

“Thanks,” Derec said again, waving, then keyed on the electric hum and geared the car down the dark tunnel.

As he sped down the tunnels, marking distance by counting the small, red lights spaced along the length, he passed other trams full of robots going the other way. There were uniformly dirty from digging, many of them dangling shorted-out appendages. Even for robots, they appeared grim. One tram they passed carried a robot shorting from the head, sparks arcing from his photocells and speaker.

He drove for several kilometers, climbing gently upward with the tunnel. Finally, he approached a large egg of light that threw long shadows against the rough-hewn walls. When he reached the place, he found a large number of utility robots, plus six of the seven supervisors, gathered around a drop-off in the tunnel.

He jumped from the tram and pushed his way through the crowd to approach the drop-off. It was the same area in which the robots had been digging the day before, only approached from the other side. A subsidiary tunnel, going upward, had been dug by hand, and it met the existing tunnel, which had been trenched out to carry water. The trench was empty. Euler and Rydberg were leaning out over the trench, looking up the newly dug tunnel, while Avernus sorted out those robots damaged beyond usefulness here, and sent them back down the tunnel.

Derec moved up to Euler. “I’ve solved the murder,” he told the supervisor without preamble.

Both Rydberg and Euler turned to look at him. “What was the cause?” Rydberg asked.

“Carbon monoxide poisoning,” Derec said. “When they tried to torch David out of the sealed room, carbon monoxide was released by the heating process into the enclosed space.”

“It was our fault, then,” Euler said.

“It was an unfortunate accident,” Derec replied. “And I have witnesses.” Both Eve and Rec hurried to join him.

“Two minutes,” Dante called. The small robot was fiddling with a terminal hooked up in the back of a tram, his long digits moving with incredible speed over the keyboard.

“Two minutes until what?” Derec asked.

“Until the charge we placed by the reservoir wall brings the water down,” Euler replied.

“I also know why the city is on security alert,” Derec said. “It was because of David’s blood. When he cut himself, the blood that dropped on the city-robot was mistaken for an alien presence because of the blood organisms. My witnesses will also corroborate that fact.”

Euler spoke up. “Then we need to feed this information to the central core and stop the replication, if there’s time.”

“What do you mean, if there’s time?” Derec asked.

Avernus joined the group. “We found a cavern that would hold all the water in the reservoir, thanks to your sonogram. Unfortunately, it will take a great deal of digging to reach it.” Avernus pointed to the trench. “This diversion will do no more than put off the inevitable for one more day; then, instead of overflowing above, the water will overflow below, here in the tunnels.”

“Where is the central core?” Derec asked. “If we can get to it and stop the replication, then we can use the digging machines to turn the trick before the next day’s rain.”

Avernus turned to Dante, looking at him over the heads of all the other robots. “Where is the core now?” he called loudly.

The little robot’s digits flew over the keys while Euler spoke. “Even with the machines, we’d have to start digging almost immediately to reach the cavern in time.”

“The core is in Tunnel J-33 at the moment,” Dante called, “moving south by southwest at ten kilometers per hour.” He hesitated briefly, then added, “Twenty centads.”

Avernus turned abruptly from them all. “That is… too bad,” he said.

“What do you mean, too bad?” Derec asked.

All at once, there was a rumble that shook the tunnel, dust and loose pebbles falling atop them. Derec nearly lost his footing on the quaking ground. Within seconds, a low roar filled the mines, growing in intensity with each passing second.

“It is too bad,” Euler said loudly above the roar, “because the central core is in Tunnel J-33, on the wrong side of the trench, and the rains are beginning outside.”

With that, tons of water came rushing down the new tunnel, slamming in fury into the trench below, churning, frothy white, dangerous and untamed. Derec watched in horrified fascination as his only possible route to the central core disappeared under a raging river that hadn’t been there a second before.

Katherine’s mind was as dark as the clouds overhead as her tram hurried through the streets of Robot City in the direction of the Compass Tower.

“I fear we won’t make the Tower before the rains come,” the utility driver told her. “We must take shelter.”

“No,” she said, determined that she’d keep them from taking away her last ounce of free will. “Go on. Hurry!”

“It is not safe for you out here,” the robot insisted. “I cannot in all conscience take you any farther.”

Katherine began to respond with anger, but feared it would arouse the robot’s suspicions. “All right,” she said. “Pull over at the next building.”

“Very good,” the robot replied, and brought the tram to an immediate stop before a tall building that had the words MUSEUM OF ART embossed in metal above the doors.

The robot got out of the tram and took Katherine by the arm to guide her. “This way, please,” he said, and Katherine began to think the robots had been having meetings about human duplicity.

She allowed the robot to lead her into the confines of the building. “This is Supervisor Arion’s project,” he said, “to please our human inhabitants.”

She looked around, taking note that the robot had used the word inhabitant instead of visitors. It merely confirmed what she already knew to be the case. They weren’t going to let her go. They had no intention of letting her go. The robots needed someone to serve, and they’d keep the masters as slaves just to see that it came to be.

The first floor of the museum was full of geometric sculptures, many of them made from city material that moved through its own sequences, constantly changing shapes in an infinite variety of patterns.

After a moment, she asked, “Please, is it possible to contact Derec and tell him where we are? I’m afraid he’ll worry.”

“There should be a terminal in the curator’s office,” the robot replied. “Would you like me to do it for you?”

“Yes, please. I would be most grateful.”

The robot hurried off immediately. As soon as he was out of sight at the far end of the building, Katherine turned and ran.

She got quickly out the front doors and down the short walk to the tram, taking the driver’s position. It started up easily, and she was off. She had no idea of which streets to take to get to the pyramid, but its size made it a beacon. She simply kept moving toward it.

She concentrated on planning as she drove. The rain was very close now, and she didn’t want to get caught in it, but it was worth the try to get out of the city. Derec had said there was a trap door from the office to the platform atop the structure. She’d go through the inside of the pyramid, then, to reach the top. The Key was hidden partway down the outside of the structure, and it would be far easier and faster to climb down from the top than to climb up.