Isaac Asimov - The Caves of Steel

“Yes. Go on.”

“She said she didn’t know what I was talking about and besides I was a cop’s wife. I said that had nothing to do with it and finally she said, well, she’d speak to somebody, and then about a month later she came to me and said it was all right and I joined and I’ve been at meetings ever since.”

Baley looked at her sadly. “And you never told me?”

Jessie’s voice trembled. “I’m sorry, Lije.”

“Well, that won’t help. Being sorry, I mean. I want to know about the meetings. In the first place, where were they held?”

A sense of detachment was creeping over him, a numbing of emotions. What he had tried not to believe was so, was openly so, was unmistakably so. In a sense, it was a relief to have the uncertainty over.

She said, “Down here.”

“Down here? You mean on this spot? What do you mean?”

“Here in the motorway. That’s why I didn’t want to come down here. It was a wonderful place to meet, though. We’d get together—”

“How many?”

“I’m not sure. About sixty or seventy. It was just a sort of local branch. There’d be folding chairs and some refreshments and someone would make a speech, mostly about how wonderful life was in the old days and how someday we’d do away with the monsters, the robots, that is, and the Spacers, too. The speeches were sort of dull really, because they were all the same. We just endured them. Mostly, it was the fun of getting together and feeling important. We would pledge ourselves to oaths and there’d be secret ways we could greet each other on the outside.”

“Weren’t you ever interrupted? No squad cars or fire engines passed?”

“No. Never.”

R. Daneel interrupted, “Is that unusual, Elijah?”

“Maybe not,” Baley answered thoughtfully. “There are some side passages that are practically never used. It’s quite a trick, knowing which they are, though. Is that all you did at the meetings, Jessie? Make speeches and play at conspiracy?”

“It’s about all. And sing songs, sometimes. And of course, refreshments. Not much. Sandwiches, usually, and juice.”

“In that case,” he said, almost brutally, “what’s bothering you now?”

Jessie winced. “You’re angry.”

“Please,” said Baley, with iron patience, “answer my question. If it were all as harmless as that, why have you been in such a panic for the last day and a half?”

“I thought they would hurt you, Lije. For heaven’s sake, why do you act as though you don’t understand? I’ve explained it to you.”

“No, you haven’t. Not yet. You’ve told me about a harmless little secret kaffee-klatsch you belonged to. Did they ever hold open demonstrations? Did they ever destroy robots? Start riots? Kill people?”

“Never! Lije, I wouldn’t do any of those things. I wouldn’t stay a member if they tried it.”

“Well, then, why do you say you’ve done a terrible thing? Why do you expect to be sent to jail?”

“Well… Well, they used to talk about someday when they’d put pressure on the government. We were supposed to get organized and then afterward there would be huge strikes and work stoppages. We could force the government to ban all robots and make the Spacers go back where they came from. I thought it was just talk and then, this thing started; about you and Daneel, I mean. Then they said, ‘Now we’ll see action,’ and ‘We’re going to make an example of them and put a stop to the robot invasion right now.’ Right there in Personal they said it, not knowing it was you they were talking about. But I knew. Right away.”

Her voice broke.

Baley softened. “Come on, Jessie. It was all nothing. It was just talk. You can see for yourself that nothing has happened.”

“I was so—so suh—scared. And I thought: I’m part of it. If there were going to be killing and destruction, you might be killed and Bentley and somehow it would be all muh—my fault for taking part in it, and I ought to be sent to jail.”

Baley let her sob herself out. He put his arm about her shoulder and stared tight-lipped at R. Daneel, who gazed calmly back.

He said, “Now, I want you to think, Jessie. Who was the head of your group?”

She was quieter now, patting the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief. “A man called Joseph Klemin was the leader, but he wasn’t really anybody. He wasn’t more than five feet four inches tall and I think he was terribly henpecked at home. I don’t think there’s any harm in him. You aren’t going to arrest him, are you, Lije? On my say-so?” She looked guiltily troubled.

“I’m not arresting anyone just yet. How did Klemin get his instructions?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did any strangers come to meeting? You know what I mean: big shots from Central Headquarters?”

“Sometimes people would come to make speeches. That wasn’t very often, maybe twice a year or so.”

“Can you name them?”

“No. They were always just introduced as ‘one of us’ or ‘a friend from Jackson Heights’ or wherever.”

“I see. Daneel!”

“Yes, Elijah,” said R. Daneel.

“Describe the men you think you’ve tabbed. We’ll see if Jessie can recognize them.”

R. Daneel went through the list with clinical exactness. Jessie listened with an expression of dismay as the categories of physical measurements lengthened and shook her head with increasing firmness.

“It’s no use. It’s no use,” she cried. “How can I remember? I can’t remember how any of them looked. I can’t—”

She stopped, and seemed to consider. Then she said, “Did you say one of them was a yeast farmer?”

“Francis Clousarr,” said R. Daneel, “is an employee at New York Yeast.”

“Well, you know, once a man was making a speech and I happened to be sitting in the first row and I kept getting a whiff, just a whiff, really, of raw yeast smell. You know what I mean. The only reason that I remember is that I had an upset stomach that day and the smell kept making me sick. I had to stand up and move to the back and of course I couldn’t explain what was wrong. It was so embarrassing. Maybe that’s the man you’re speaking of. After all, when you work with yeast all the time, the odor gets to stick to your clothes.” She wrinkled her nose.

“You don’t remember what he looked like?” said Baley.

“No,” she replied, with decision.

“All right, then. Look, Jessie, I’m going to take you to your mother’s. Bentley will stay with you, and none of you will leave the Section. Ben can stay away from school and I’ll arrange to have meals sent in and the corridors around the apartment watched by the police.”

“What about you?” quavered Jessie.

“I’ll be in no danger.”

“But how long?”

“I don’t know. Maybe just a day or two.” The words sounded hollow even to himself.

They were back in the motorway, Baley and R. Daneel, alone now. Baley’s expression was dark with thought.

“It would seem to me,” he said, “that we are faced with an organization built up on two levels. First, a ground level with no specific program, designed only to supply mass support for an eventual coup. Secondly, a much smaller elite dedicated to a well-planned program of action. It is this elite we must find. The comic-opera groups that Jessie spoke of can be ignored.”

“All this,” said R. Daneel, “follows, perhaps, if we can take Jessie’s story at face value.”

“I think,” Baley said stiffly, “that Jessie’s story can be accepted as completely true.”

“So it would seem,” said R. Daneel. “There is nothing about her cerebra-impulses that would indicate a pathological addiction to lying.”

Baley turned an offended look upon the robot. “I should say not. And there will be no necessity to mention her name in our reports. Do you understand that?”