Isaac Asimov - The Robots of Dawn

Baley opened his eyes. “Gladia?”

It was a question, a surprised question, but deep within himself he was not really surprised. Thinking back, he had, of course, recognized her voice.

He looked around. Giskard was standing in his alcove, but he ignored him. First things first.

He said, “Where’s Daneel?”

Gladia said, “He has cleaned and dried himself in the robot’s quarters and he has dry clothing. He is surrounded by my household staff and they have their instructions. I can tell you that no outsider will approach within fifty meters of my establishment in any direction without our all knowing it at once. Giskard is cleaned and dried as well.”

“Yes, I can see that,” said Baley. He was not concerned with Giskard, only with Daneel—He was relieved that Gladia seemed to accept the necessity of guarding Daneel and that he would not have to face the complications of explaining the matter.

Yet there was one breach in the wall of security and a note of querulousness entered in his voice as he said, “Why did you leave him, Gladia? With you gone, there was no human being in the house to stop the approach of a band of outside robots. Daneel could have been taken by force.”

“Nonsense,” said Gladia with spirit. “We were not gone long and Dr. Fastolfe had been informed. Many of his robots had joined mine and he could be on the spot in minutes if needed—and I’d like to see any band of outside robots withstand him.”

“Have you seen Daneel since you returned, Gladia?”

“Of course! He’s safe, I tell you.”

“Thank you!” Baley relaxed and closed his eyes. Oddly enough, he thought: It wasn’t so bad.

Of course it wasn’t. He had survived, hadn’t he? When he thought that, something inside himself grinned and was happy.

He had survived, hadn’t he?

He opened his eyes and said, “How did you find me, Gladia?”

“It was Giskard. They had come here—both of them—and Giskard explained the situation to me quickly. I set right about securing Daneel, but he wouldn’t budge until I had promised to order Giskard out after you. He was very eloquent. His responses with respect to you are very intense, Elijah.

“Daneel remained behind, of course. It made him very unhappy, but Giskard insisted that I order him to stay at the very top of my voice. You must have given Giskard some mighty strict orders. Then we got in touch with Dr. Fastolfe and, after that, we took my personal airfoil.”

Baley shook his head wearily. “You should not have come along, Gladia. Your place was here, making sure Daneel was safe.”

Gladia’s face twisted into scorn. “And leave you dying in the storm, for all we knew? Or being taken up by Dr. Fastolfe’s enemies? I have a little holograph of myself letting that happen. No, Elijah, I might have been needed to keep the other robots away from you if they had gotten to you first. I may not be much good in most ways, but any Solarian can handle a mob of robots, let me tell you. We’re used to it.”

“But how did you find me?”

“It wasn’t so terribly hard. Actually, your airfoil wasn’t far away, so that we could have walked it, except for the storm. We—”

Baley said, “You mean we had almost made it to Fastolfe’s?”

“Yes,” said Gladia. “Either your airfoil, in being damaged, wasn’t damaged sufficiently to force you to a standstill sooner or Giskard’s skill kept it going for longer than the vandals had anticipated. Which is a good thing. If you had come down closer to the Institute, they might have gotten you all. Anyway, we took my airfoil to where yours had come down. Giskard knew where it was, of course, and we got out—”

“And you got all wet, didn’t you, Gladia?”

“Not a bit,” she replied. “I had a large rain shade and a light sphere, too. My shoes got muddy and my feet got a little damp because I didn’t have time to spray on Latex, but there’s no ham in that.—Anyway, we were back at your airfoil less than half an hour after Giskard and Daneel had left you and, of course, you weren’t there.”

“I had tried—” began Baley.

“Yes, we know. I thought they—the others—had taken you away because Giskard said you were being followed. But Giskard found your handkerchief about fifty meters from the airfoil and he said that you must have wandered off in that direction. Giskard said, it was an illogical thing to do, but that human beings were often illogical, so that we should search for you. So we looked—both of us—using the lightsphere, but it was he who found you. He said he saw the infrared glimmer of your body heat at the base of the tree and we brought you back.”

Baley said, with a spark of annoyance, “Why was my leaving an illogical thing to do?”

“He didn’t say, Elijah. Do you wish to ask him?” She gestured toward Giskard.

Baley said, “Giskard, what’s this?”

Giskard’s impassivity was disrupted at once and his eyes focused on Baley. He said, “I felt that you had exposed yourself to the storm unnecessarily. If you had waited, we would have brought you here sooner.”

“The other robots might have gotten to me first.”

“They did—but you had sent them away, sir.”

“How do you know that?”

“There were many robotic footprints around the doors on either side, sir, but there was no sign of dampness within the airfoil, as there would have been if wet arms had reached in to lift you out. I judged you would not have gotten out of the airfoil of your own accord in order to join them, sir. And, having sent them away, you need not have feared they would return very quickly, since it was Daneel they were after—by your own estimate of the situation—and not you. In addition, you might have been certain that I would have been back quickly.”

Baley muttered, “I reasoned precisely in that manner but I felt that confusing the issue might help further. I did what seemed best to me and you did find me, even so.”

“Yes, sir.”

Baley said, “But why bring me here? If we were close to Gladia’s establishment, we were just as close, perhaps closer, to Dr. Fastolfe’s.”

“Not quite, sir. This residence was somewhat closer and I judged, from the urgency of your orders, that every moment counted in securing Daneel’s safety. Daneel concurred in this, though he was most reluctant to leave you. Once he was here, I felt you would want to be here, too, so that you could, if you desired, assure yourself of his safety firsthand.”

Baley nodded and, said grumpily (he was still annoyed at that remark concerning his illogicality), “You did well, Giskard.”

Gladia said, “Is it important that you see Dr. Fastolfe, Elijah? I can have him summoned here. Or you can view him trimensionally.”

Baley leaned back in his chair again. He had leisure to realize that his thought processes were blunted and that he was very tired. It would do him no good to face Fastolfe now. He said, “No. I’ll see him tomorrow after breakfast. Time enough. And then I think I’ll be seeing this man, Kelden Amadiro, the head of the Robotics Institute. And a high official—what d’you call him?—the Chairman. He will be there, too, I suppose.”

“You look terribly tired, Elijah,” said Gladia. “Of course, we don’t have those microorganisms—those germs and viruses—that you have on Earth and you’ve been cleaned out so you won’t get any of the diseases they have all over your planet, but you’re clearly tired.”

Baley thought: After all that, no cold? No flu? No pneumonia?—There was something to being on a Spacer world at that.

He said, “I admit I’m tired, but that can be cured by a bit of rest.”

“Are you hungry? It’s dinnertime.”