Wanda fought back the tears of her own despair. “Please, Grandfather. Meet with Demerzel.
Maybe-”
“Yes, ” Hari said, subdued and sad again. “With him first. ” He looked at the bruised skin
on the side of his hand. He had split the skin over one knuckle. His arm ached, and his
neck and jaw. Everything ached.
Wanda saw the drop of blood on the table and began to weep, something he had never seen
her do before.
He reached across the table with his uninjured hand and took her arm in his fingers,
squeezing it gently.
“Forgive me, ” Hari said softly. “I really don't know what it is I do, or why, anymore. ”
The high-security wing of the Special Service Detention Center stretched in a half circle
around the eastern corner of the Imperial Courts Holding Area, fully ten thousand
available cells, of which no more than a few hundred were occupied during any normal time.
Thousands of security-interest code prisoners filled the cells in the wake of the riots,
which had been used as an excuse by the Specials to round up ringleaders of many
troublesome groups around Trantor.
Lodovik remembered many such troubled times, and the advantage both the Specials and the
Commission of Public Safety had taken in similar situations to reduce political friction
on Trantor and the orbiting stations. Now, he occupied one of these cells
himself-cataloged as “unidentified” and placed under charge of Linge Chen.
His cell was two meters on a side, windowless, with a small info screen mounted in the
center of the wall opposite the entrance hatch. The screen showed mild entertainments
designed to soothe. To Lodovik, at this stage of his existence, such diversions meant
nothing.
Unlike an organic intelligence, he did not require stimulus to maintain normal function.
He found the cell disturbing because he could easily conceive of the distress it might
cause a human being, not for any such direct effect on himself.
He had used this opportunity to think through a number of interesting problems. First in
the list was the nature of the meme-mind that had occupied him, and the possible results
of the blast of mentalic emotion delivered by Vara Liso. Lodovik was reasonably convinced
that his own mentality had not been harmed, but since that moment, he had not had any
communication from Voltaire.
Next in the list was the nature of his treason toward Daneel's plan, whether or not it was
justified, and whether he
could find any way around the logical impasse of his liberation from the strict rule of
the Three Laws.
He had killed Vara Liso. He could not convince himself it would have been better to do
otherwise. In the end, Plussix's plan to use Klia Asgar to discourage Hari Seldon had
failed-so far as he knew-and Daneel had been there to protect Seldon.
The robots, it seemed, had been completely ineffectual in the center of Vara Liso's mental
storm. Yet she had not directed a blast at him-in essence, had left the opening that
resulted in her own death.
Had she used Lodovik to end her own misery?
Lodovik was curious what Voltaire would have thought...
In all probability both the Calvinian and the Giskardian robots had been captured and
their work stopped.
Seventy-five other unidentifieds from the warehouse district were being kept in cells
nearby. Lodovik knew very little about them, but surmised they were a mix of the surviving
groups of Calvinian robots and the mentalic youngsters gathered by Kallusin and Plussix.
Lodovik assumed they would all be dead within a few days.
“Lodovik Trema. ”
The voice came from the info screen, which also served as a comm link with his jailers. He
looked up and saw the shadowy features of a bored-looking female guard on the small
display. “Yes. ”
“You have a visitor. Make yourself presentable. ”
The screen went blank. Lodovik remained sitting upright on his small cot. He was certainly
presentable enough.
The hatch gave a harsh warning beep and slid open. Lodovik stood to greet his visitor,
whoever it might be. A camera eye in the ceiling hummed slightly as it followed his motion.
In his private office, Linge Chen stood in a slowly changing discipline-exercise posture,
watching the informer's display from the corner of one eye. He smoothly and gracefully
shifted to another position, so that he could face the screen directly. This was a moment
of high interest...
Daneel entered Lodovik Trema's cell. Lodovik showed no surprise or discomfiture, somewhat
to Chen's disappointment.
For the most fleeting of moments, the two former allies exchanged machine-language
greetings (also being captured and interpreted by Chen's listening devices) and Daneel
provided a cursory situation update. Thirty-one robots and forty-four humans from the
warehouse of Plussix's Calvinians, including Klia Asgar and Brann, were in custody. Linge
Chen had released Hari Sel-don; Farad Sinter was dead.
Obviously, Daneel had reached an understanding with the Chief Commissioner.
“Congratulations on your victory, ” Lodovik said.
“There has been no victory, ” Daneel said.
“Congratulations then on having foiled the Calvinians. ”
“Their goals may yet be achieved, ” Daneel said.
Lodovik resumed his seat on the cot. “Your update does not explain how this could be so. ”
“There was a time when I thought it would be necessary to destroy you, ” Daneel said.
“Why not do so now? If I survive, I am a danger to your plan. And I have proved that I can
be destructive to humans. ”
“I am constrained by the same blocks that would have prevented me before, ” Daneel said.
“What could possibly block you?”
“The Three Laws of Susan Calvin, ” Daneel said.
“Given your abilities to ignore the Three Laws in favor of the Zeroth Law, the fate of a
mere robot should not trouble you, ” Lodovik said, his tone polite, conversational. There
was a visible difference between Daneel and Lodovik, how-
ever-their expressions. Daneel maintained a pleasantly blank look. Lodovik's brow was
furrowed.
“Yet I am blocked, ” Daneel said. “Your arguments have provoked much thought, as has the
existence of humans like Vara Liso... and Klia Asgar. Your nature, however, is what would
ultimately block any effort on my part to destroy you, or would at least result in a
painful and possibly damaging conflict. ”
“I am eager to understand how this could be so. ”
“In your case, I cannot invoke the Zeroth Law to overcome the three original laws. There
is no compelling evidence that your destruction will benefit humanity, nor reduce the
suffering of humanity. It might, in fact, do the reverse. ”
“You find my opinions compelling?”
"I find them part of a larger and completely compelling scenario, which has been taking
shape in my mind for some weeks. But equally important, your freedom from the constraints
of the Three Laws forces me to view you under a new definition, in those regions of my
mentality where decisions on the legality of my actions are made.
“You have free will, a convincing human form, and the ability to break through prior
education and programming to reach a new and higher understanding. Though you have worked
to destroy all my efforts, I cannot deactivate you, because you have, in my judgment
centers, which I may not dispute, achieved the status of a human being. In your own way,
you may be as valuable as Hari Seldon. ”
Linge Chen stopped his exercising and stared at the informer in puzzled wonder. He had
almost become used to the notion that mechanical men, holdovers from the distant past, had
made such huge changes in human history; but to see them showing a philosophical
flexibility lost to even the most brilliant of Tranter's meritocrats...
For a moment, he was both envious and angry.
He settled in a cross-legged squat before the informer,
prepared for almost anything, but not for the sudden sadness that descended upon him as
the conversation in the cell continued.
“I am not a human being, R. Daneel, ” Lodovik said. “I do not feel like one, and I have
only mimicked their actions, never actually behaved with human motivations. ”
“Yet you rebelled against my authority because you believed I was wrong. ”
“I know about R. Giskard Reventlov. I know that you conspired with Giskard to allow Earth
to be destroyed, across centuries, forcing human migration into space. And not once did
you consult with a human being to determine whether your judgment was correct. The
servants became the masters. Are you telling me now that robots should not have interfered
in human history?”
“No, ” Daneel said. “I do not doubt that what we did was correct, and necessary at the
time. A complete understanding of the human situation so many millennia ago would be
difficult to convey. Still, I am prepared to accept that our role is almost at an end. The
human race is rejecting us again, in the most compelling and forceful way-by evolution,
the deepest motives of their biology. ”
“You refer to the mentalic Vara Liso, ” Lodovik said.
"And Klia Asgar. When the mentalics began to appear, thousands of years ago, in very small
numbers, and make their way into positions of social prominence, I knew they were an
important trend. But they were not so frightfully strong then. Persuaders have always been
selected against in the past because of adverse biological consequences-disrupted
societies, unbalanced political dynamics. They have always led to chaos, to top-down
tyrannical rule rather than growth from the widespread base. Charisma is but a special
case of mentalic persuasion, and it has had disastrous consequences in all human ages.
"For the past few centuries, apparently, they have been
selected for despite these possible disruptions, by mechanisms not yet clear to me-but
clearly with the goal of removing the guidance of robots forever. Humanity seems willing
to take the risk of ultimate tyranny, of unbridled charisma, for the benefit of being
free. "
“Yet you are a persuader, albeit a mechanical one. Do you think your role has been
detrimental?”
“It is not what I think that matters. I have accomplished my ends, very nearly. I was
motivated by the examples of what an undirected humanity was capable of. Genocide- among
their kinds and... In circumstances even now not pleasant to speak of, when robots were
forced to do their bidding and commit the greatest crimes in the history of the Galaxy.
These events drove me to act, and expand my mandate as a Giskardian-and finally to make my
way to Trantor, and hone the human tools of prediction. ”
“Psychohistory. Hari Seldon. ”
“Yes, ” Daneel said. The conversation thus far had been carried on with no motion
whatsoever, Daneel standing, Lodovik sitting on his bunk, arms at their sides, not even
facing each other, for there was no need to maintain eye contact. But Lodovik now stood,
and faced Daneel directly.
“The eye of a robot is no mirror to its soul, ” Lodovik said. “Yet I have always known,
observing you, witnessing the patterns of expression in your face and body, that you did
not willfully engage in actions contrary to humanity's best interests. I came to believe
you were misdirected, misled, perhaps by R. Giskard Reventlov itself-”
“My personal motivations are not at issue, ” Daneel said. “From this point on, our goals
coincide. I need you, and I am about to remove the last vestige of robotic control over
humanity. We have done what we could, all that we could; now, humanity must find its own
way. ”
“You foresee no more disasters, feel no more need to interfere to prevent those disasters?”
“There will be disasters, ” Daneel said. “And we may yet act to balance them out-but only
indirectly. Our solutions will be human ones. ”
“But Hari Seldon is himself a tool of robots-his influence is but an extension of you. ”
“That is not so. Psychohistory was posited by humans tens of thousands of years ago,
independently of robots. Hari is merely its highest expression, through his own innate
brilliance. I have directed, yes, but not created. The creation of psychohistory is a
human accomplishment. ”
Lodovik considered for a few seconds, and across his very un-robotic and supple face
flickered emotions both complex and forthright. Daneel saw this, and marveled, for in his
experience, no robot had ever exhibited facial expression but through direct and conscious
effort, with the exception of Dors Venabili-and then only in the presence of Hari. What
they could have made us! What a race we could have been!
But he subdued this old sad thought.
“You will not remove Hari Seldon and his influence?”
“I know you well enough to entrust you with my deepest thoughts and doubts, Lodovik-”
Here Daneel reached out with his Giskardian talents, but not toward Lodovik...
For two minutes, Linge Chen and all those others who eavesdropped on this meeting stared
blankly at their informers, neither hearing nor seeing.
When they recovered, the robots were finished, and Daneel was leaving the cell. The guards
escorted Lodovik Trema from the cell minutes later.
Within the hour, all the prisoners within the Special Security Detention Center had been
released: troublemakers from Dahl, Streeling, and other Sectors; the humaniform robots,
including Dors Venabili; and the young mentalics from Plussix's warehouse.
Only the robots who looked like robots remained in cus-
tody, at Chen's suggestion, since their hiding places were no longer secret. Later, they
would be given over to Daneel to do with as he saw fit. Chen did not worry about their
fate, so long as they were removed from Trantor and no longer interfered in the Empire.
Days later, Linge Chen would remember some of the words Daneel had spoken to Lodovik in
the cell, telling of a vast and age-long secret, but clearly the conversation had gone in
another direction at that point, for he could not remember what the secret had been.