Emperor

by William F. Wu

  Steve dozed fitfully. The long ride on horseback had tired him, but leaving Hunter chained to a tree for the night bothered him. He understood Hunter’s desire to be left alone for now, but that didn’t help him sleep any better. When footsteps pounded up the stairs, he woke quickly.

  Suddenly Steve noticed static hissing from his lapel pin. Before he could listen more closely, whoever had just run up the stairs thumped on his door. Steve picked up his robes to hold in front of him and found his way to the door in the darkness.

  “Who is it?”

  “The innkeeper, sir.”

  Steve opened the door a crack. “What’s wrong?”

  “One of your companions, sir. The foreign woman with the brown hair.” The man held a burning candle on a small tray. The light of the flame flickered over his face, which was lined with fear.

  “Jane? What about her?” Steve’s worry V vas followed by a surge of adrenaline. Something had really gone wrong.

  “The other guests carried her out of here—by force! With a hand over her mouth and a sword at my throat, I could do nothing, I assure you—”

  “I believe you,” said Steve, fumbling his robes on as quickly as he could. He stepped past the innkeeper to rap on Marcia’s door. Then he remembered that they were supposed to be married; the innkeeper would expect to see Marcia in his room. “Excuse me, will you?” He found a coin in his robes and gave it to the man.

  “Thank you! I promise you, sir, I had no choice—this is a fine inn. Nothing like this usually—”

  “Please excuse me, all right?” Steve demanded, taking the candle from him.

  The innkeeper bowed quickly and hurried away.

  “Marcia.”

  “Hmm?” She sounded sleepy.

  “Is Jane in there?” He tried the door and found it unlocked. Slowly, he opened it only a little. “You decent?”

  “Come in. I’m under the covers. Uh-no, she isn’t here.”

  By the light of the small candle, Steve saw Marcia move up on one elbow and draw hair away from her face. The room was essentially the same as his. Jane’s bed had been disturbed, but was empty. He did not see her clothes anywhere.

  “What’s going on?”

  “She’s been kidnapped, too. Get dressed and bring your coat. I’ll wait out in the hall.”

  “What?”

  “Hurry up.” Steve backed into the hall again and closed the door. He got his own coat out of his room and picked up the cloth bag, as well. The need to improvise meant that they might not be coming back. He would call Hunter as soon as he had spoken to the innkeeper again.

  Marcia joined him, fully dressed but much more groggy than he was. She had obviously been sleeping soundly. He hoped this meant she wouldn’t lecture him all night.

  “Did Jane leave anything in the room?”

  “No.”

  “She must have gotten dressed for some reason. Come on.” Steve led her downstairs, where the innkeeper was anxiously warming his hands by the fire.

  “Where are we going?” Marcia asked, her voice still rough with sleep.

  “I’ll tell you outside.” Steve turned to the innkeeper. “Can you tell me anything else about what happened?”

  “Not very much, sir. The other guests came back in rather late and sat down by the fire to warm themselves. Then your friend came downstairs—”

  “On her own?”

  “Yes, sir. She just walked down here, and they got all excited and grabbed her. They ran outside with her. As I was saying, I had a sword to my throat, or else—”

  “Yes, I understand that.” Steve thought for a moment. Freeing Hunter was now a necessity. If Hunter couldn’t break the chain holding him with his own strength, then Steve would have to help. He pointed to the poker leaning against the side of the fireplace. “I want to borrow that.”

  “Eh? What’s that, sir?”

  Steve walked over and picked up the poker. “I’ll need this. Do you mind?”

  “Begging your pardon, sir, but of course I will be needing it, too.”

  “Yeah, all right.” Steve pulled out a couple more coins and tossed them to the innkeeper. “I’ll bring it back when I’m finished with it.”

  “Thank you.” The innkeeper bowed again.

  “Let’s go,” Steve said to Marcia. They hurried outside into the cold mountain air and walked a short distance from the front of the inn.

  “Are we going to get the horses?” Marcia asked.

  “Uh, no. Too noisy. I’m not sure exactly what happened to Jane, but we have to stay out of everyone’s sight if we can, until we find out. We’ll have to find Hunter on foot.” Steve turned on his lapel pin. “Hunter, Steve here.”

  “Yes, Steve.”

  “Jane’s been kidnapped. From what the innkeeper said, I guess it’s the same bunch of people who jumped you.”

  “I suspected something of the sort had happened to one of you—”

  “What? Why didn’t you call and wake us up?” Steve was startled. “You’ve just been sitting there, even under the First Law?”

  “I have been puzzling over how to respond. For only the last few minutes, I have been receiving static and the sounds of footsteps and breathing from someone’s lapel pin, but nothing more clear than that. I did not call because I fear, even now, that her captors are listening to our voices coming out of the air and will be even more fearful than before. Once you called me, however, the damage was done. I must have your help to free myself.”

  “Where are you?” Steve asked. “Are you alone, for that matter?”

  “I have been left alone, chained to a tree,” said Hunter. “I have no way to convey my exact location.”

  “You can’t free yourself?”

  “No. I have ascertained that I cannot break the chain on my own. Until I heard the unexplained static, I had intended to wait until after dawn to try again. At that time, my energy would be replenished, and I could awaken you three without disturbing your rest.”

  “We’ll come get you,” said Steve. “I have a fireplace poker; maybe we can use it to pry open a link of your chain. How can I find you?”

  “Follow the road back down the slope. When I hear you nearby, I will call to you.”

  “Okay. But I’ll leave my lapel pin on.” He turned to Marcia. “Come on.”

  “It’s freezing out here,” Marcia muttered.

  “Well, it’ll help keep us both wide awake.”

  Ishihara and Wayne had hidden themselves near the road about halfway between the place where Hunter was chained and the inn. Xiao Li stood with them, holding the reins of his donkey and also the horse Wayne and Ishihara had ridden from Khanbaliq. They had to stay far enough from Hunter so that he could not hear their voices.

  Earlier, after Xiao Li had asked the other guests in the inn to come out and speak to them, Wayne and Ishihara had given them the same story that Xiao Li and his fellow villagers had accepted, that Hunter was a misguided spirit. Some of the guests had been skeptical about this, but the more superstitious men among them had convinced the others to consider it. Finally, Wayne had assured them all that Hunter was absolutely prevented by supernatural law from harming humans, but that he had to be restrained.

  “We have to figure out what to do next,” said Wayne. “We have Hunter. He’ll probably radio his team to come get him, but maybe we can interfere with that, too—”

  “I have an emergency,” Ishihara said abruptly. “I have been monitoring Hunter’s radio band to intercept his communication with his team members.”

  “Yeah? What of it?”

  “Steve has just reported to Hunter that Jane has been kidnapped from the inn by the same guests we convinced to take Hunter. They obviously saw them together and acted on their own.”

  “But that’s good,” said Wayne enthusiastically. “It’ll keep the whole team busy. Why didn’t they grab the other two, while they were at it?”

  “It was apparently a spontaneous move. However, I now feel that I am responsible for pote
ntial harm to Jane. Under the First Law, I must rescue her.”

  “Well...wait a minute,” said Wayne. “Let’s think this through.”

  “I cannot wait.” Ishihara turned and began working his way out of the trees to the road. “ A further consideration is that her captors will have overheard the voices of Steve and Hunter through her lapel pin, which seems to have remained turned on. This could endanger her even more.”

  “We can still talk about it,” said Wayne. “This isn’t necessarily bad. At least, let’s consider the whole situation before we act.”

  “The First Law will not allow me to wait,” said Ishihara, over his shoulder.

  “Well...” Wayne plunged after him, crashing through the underbrush. “Then wait for me.”

  “Please hurry,” said Ishihara. “The only transmission now is background static and the sound of humans breathing and walking. However, this tells me that they are coming down the road toward us from the inn.”

  Wayne pushed his way through tree branches after Ishihara, panicked by the danger of losing his only ally. Certainly, Ishihara could rescue Jane, and Wayne did not object to that. However, as a roboticist, she might very well argue First Law interpretations with Ishihara that would convince him to stop cooperating with Wayne..

  Behind him, he could hear the sound of Xiao Li following, bringing the horse and the donkey.

  “Shut off your hearing,” said Wayne urgently to Ishihara, as he finally managed to come up next to him on the road.

  “I dare not. My First Law imperative to rescue Jane requires all my efforts.” Ishihara strode quickly up the road in the moonlight.

  “I don’t want Jane to trick you. She may argue that you should help Hunter instead of me.”

  “If her arguments are valid, I will respond. If they are not, of course I will not be influenced.”

  “Well...all right. But remember, Jane’s arguments about cooperating with me do not involve Jane’s personal welfare in this particular situation.”

  “I accept your instruction.”

  Wayne said nothing else as he hurried up the slope. He knew that while every robot had to obey the First Law, each one had some leeway to make independent interpretations. All Wayne could do now was try to influence him.

  Since Jane’s captors did not speak as they carried her through the cold night air, she did not learn anything about what they had in mind. They were still taking her in the same direction Hunter had gone, so she was not really too scared. Before they had gone very far, however, the men carrying her suddenly stopped. Jane heard the voices of Hunter and Steve coming over her lapel pin, muffled slightly under a fold in her rumpled robe. Suddenly very frightened, she forced herself to cough and clear her throat, in the hope of covering the sound.

  “What’s that?” One of the men asked fearfully.

  “What’s what?” Another asked.

  “Voices.”

  “I hear them, too,” said a man near Jane’s left shoulder. “Voices from the air. No—from her!” He released his grip suddenly and she began to fall.

  “Let her down! Let her down!”

  Jane felt herself lowered; at least they had the decency to set her on her feet. When she found her footing, she looked up and saw all the men slowly backing away from her in the moonlight. Then another pointed past her, down the road.

  “Look! Someone’s coming! Who are they?” He spoke in a hushed, worried voice.

  “Maybe it’s the big spirit,” yelled a third, “coming back for her!”

  With a roar of frightened shouts, every man who had carried Jane to this spot suddenly turned and ran back up the road. Puzzled, she glanced down the road to see if Hunter had somehow gotten free. Instead, two other figures were running up the slope toward her.

  At first she had no idea who they were. Then, even in the moonlight and shadows, she recognized Wayne and Ishihara. Xiao Li, mounted on his donkey and holding the reins of a horse, waited without moving behind them.

  She had to choose between dealing with them, following the others back up the slope, or running into the forest. She did not really want to face Wayne and Ishihara without Hunter. However, she knew that their company would certainly be safer than that of her recent captors.

  After all, no matter what argument Wayne had used to bring Ishihara under his control, the First Law would still require the robot to protect her from actual harm. If she could convince Ishihara to drop Wayne, then she would have accomplished something important, too. So she waited for them to come running up to her, checking to make sure that her lapel pin was still on.

  She did not want to speak directly to Hunter now, while Ishihara could hear her. If Hunter could hear them through the lapel pin, he might find a way to help. In that case, he would want the element of surprise.

  “Now shut off your hearing,” Wayne ordered Ishihara, as they drew near. “And don’t read her lips, either.”

  “I already told you I cannot do that,” said Ishihara. He stopped in front of Jane.

  “That was when she was a captive,” said Wayne. “Now she’s okay.”

  “Jane, are you harmed?” Ishihara asked.

  “No,” Jane said sternly. “I’m not. But I don’t owe any thanks to you for that.”

  “I had nothing to do with your being kidnapped,” said Ishihara, his voice conveying just a hint of urgency. “Neither did Dr. Nystrom. I have not violated the First Law.”

  “No?” Jane put her hands on her hips, assuming the tone of schoolteacher challenging a naughty child. “What are you doing cooperating with him at all? Hunter told you that his missions are driven by a First Law imperative.”

  “Don’t listen to her,” Wayne insisted. “I told you that Hunter’s argument is full of holes.”

  “Ishihara, take custody of Wayne on behalf of Hunter’s First Law duties,” said Jane. ‘ Then, still hoping that Hunter was listening, she tried to help give their location. “Since we’re only a short distance down the slope from the inn, the rest of my team is not far.”

  “I cannot. The imperatives under the First Law are not clear to me on either side. I wish to convince you, however, that your kidnapping was never part of our plan. The guests at the inn acted on their own.”

  “Well, I sort of guessed that,” said Jane. “But you must have told them something that set it up.”

  “That is true,” said Ishihara. “I am relieved that you are well.”

  Xiao Li, who was still leading a horse, joined them on his donkey, but did not speak..

  “Look,” said Wayne. “We have to talk, but not here. Ishihara, take her lapel pin and shut it off.”

  “No!” Jane ordered, stepping back. “Stop. This will harm me.”

  “I will not allow harm to come to you,” said Ishihara. He reached out and took her lapel pin.

  Jane did not bother trying to wrestle with the robot. “What do you want with me, Wayne?”

  “Ishihara, we have to get away from here before her team comes after her. Bring her.”

  “Hey! You can’t do that.” Jane backpedaled again, but she knew she could not outrun Ishihara any more than she could wrestle with him. Her only chance was to argue. “Ishihara, this constitutes harm. I need sleep and I need to rejoin my team. You must see that.”

  “I cannot harm you.” Ishihara gently took hold of her arm. “Further talk in private will not harm you.”

  “Say,” said Wayne suddenly, “Steve is marching around here somewhere looking for Hunter. He probably has their historian with him. Can you grab them, too?”

  “No,” said Ishihara. “I could not keep control of three humans without risking harm to them.”

  “Well, all right, then,” said Wayne, glancing up and down the road anxiously. “Let’s get off the road and into the brush. Fast.”

  11

  Steve led Marcia down the side of the road, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. Since they had kept their lapel pins on, he and Marcia had overheard the reaction of Jane’s captors to h
is last conversation with Hunter. A moment later, they’d also listened to Jane’s exchange with Wayne and Ishihara, up to the moment her lapel pin had been suddenly switched off.

  “Jane’s in serious trouble now, isn’t she?” Marcia asked quietly.

  “Well, at least she’s safe with a robot,” said Steve. “Hey, look up ahead.”

  Steve saw the growing shadow of a large group of people down the road. They were running up the slope toward Steve and Marcia. Quickly, he grabbed Marcia’s arm and pulled her into the trees, then crouched with her in the underbrush.

  “Quiet,” he whispered.

  She nodded.

  The group of frightened men, breathing hard from the exertion of running up the mountain road, pounded past without seeing them. In another moment, they had rounded the next bend back toward the inn. Steve stood up, pulling Marcia with him, and returned to the road.

  “Well, I think Jane’s in trouble,” Marcia whispered. “We have to rescue her, don’t we?”

  “We have to get Hunter first.”

  “Do we have time? What are these other two going to do with her?”

  “Ishihara can’t violate the First Law any more than Hunter can, so Jane won’t be harmed. But he must be following Wayne’s instructions, which means that he won’t let us just take her away, either.”

  “How can you be surer’

  “Because Jane wants me to get Hunter, too.”

  “Oh, come on. She didn’t say that.”

  “She couldn’t say it plainly without giving away the message to Wayne and Ishihara.”

  “So what makes you think you heard it?”

  “She knew her lapel pin was on, until one of them took it. If she had wanted us to come running, she could have yelled for us. Since she didn’t, she was telling me she was okay for now.”

  “But how do you know that?”

  Steve sighed. “Because I’ve worked with her long enough now to know how she thinks.”

  Marcia finally fell silent again.

  As they walked, Steve tried to figure out what Wayne would want to do now. He had no way of knowing exactly where Steve and Marcia were, though of course Ishihara would have picked up his recent conversation with Hunter. So they knew Steve and Marcia were out here looking around.