Foundation’s Fear

Rendezvous

R. Daneel Olivaw was alarmed. “I have underestimated Lamurk’s power.”

“We are few, they are many,” Dors said. She wanted to help this ancient, wise figure, but could think of nothing concrete to suggest. When in doubt, comfort. Or was that too human?

Olivaw sat absolutely still, using none of his ordinary facial or body language, devoting all capacity to calculation. He had come slipping in on a private shuttle from the worm and now sat with Dors in a suite of the Station. “I cannot assess the situation here. That security officer-you are certain she was not an agent of the Academic Potentate?”

“She aided us greatly after we had returned to our bodies.”

“With Vaddo dead, she could have been pretending innocence.”

“True. I cannot rule her out.”

“Your escape from Trantor went undetected?” Dors touched his hand. “I used every contact, every mechanism I knew. But Lamurk is devious.”

“So am I!-if need be.”

“You can’t be everywhere. I suspect Lamurk somehow corrupted that Vaddo character.”

“I believe he must have been planted in advance,” Daneel said adamantly, eyes narrowing. Evidently he had reached a decision and so had computational room for expression again.

“I checked his records. He’s been here for years. No, Lamurk bribed him or persuaded him.”

“Not Lamurk himself, of course,” R. Daneel said precisely, lips severe. “An agent.”

“I tried to get a brain scan of Vaddo, but could not finesse the legal issues.” She liked it when R. Daneel used his facial expression programs. But what had he decided?

“I could extract more from him,” he said neutrally.

Dors caught the implication. “The First Law, suspended because of the Zeroth Law?”

“It must be. The great crisis approaches swiftly.”

Dors was suddenly quite glad that she did not know more about what was going on in the Empire. “We must get Hari away from here. That is the most important point.”

“Agreed. I have arranged highest priority for you two through the wormhole.”

“It shouldn’t be busy. We-”

“I believe they expect extra traffic soon-more Lamurk agents, I fear. Or even the more insidious variety, as the Academic Potentate would employ.”

“Then we must hurry. Where shall we go?”

“Not to Trantor.”

“But we live there! Hari won’t like being a vagabond-”

“Eventually, yes, back to Trantor. Perhaps soon. But for now, anywhere else.”

“I’ll ask Hari if there is any special world he prefers.”

R. Daneel frowned, lost in thought. With absentminded grace he scratched his nose, then his eyeball. Dors flinched, but apparently R. Daneel had simply altered his neurocircuitry, and this was an ordinary gesture. She tried to imagine the use for such editing and could not. But then, he had come through millennia of winnowing she could not truly imagine, either.

“Not Helicon,” he said suddenly. “Sentimentality and nostalgia might plausibly lead Hari there.”

“Very well. That leaves only twenty-five million or so choices of where to hide.”

R. Daneel did not laugh.