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 his 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 besurer ’

“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 youknow 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.

Wayne might be hustling Jane farther down the mountain road, going south, or taking her out into the forest itself. Then again, he could have ordered Ishihara to grab Steve and Marcia, too, though Steve doubted that a single robot could hold all three humans captive at once. Most likely, Wayne and Ishihara were running away with Jane while they had the chance.

In any case, as Steve and Marcia hiked down the road, they saw no sign of them.

“Steve,” Hunter called from the trees. “This way. Follow my voice.”

Steve turned carefully toward the sound, picking out the direction. Hunter called out repeatedly so that they could find him. Steve glanced back to see that Marcia followed him through the branches and underbrush, then pushed forward.

After a few minutes of hiking on rough, uneven ground, they reached Hunter. Hardly enough moonlight to see anything reached them here. Steve looked up high at the silhouette of Hunter’s head.

“Aren’t you even taller than usual?”

“Yes. I made myself as tall and thin as I can, to loosen the chains. However, I was still not able to get free. I can move my arms somewhat, though. Do you have any more information now about Jane?”

“Not really,” said Steve. “Except that she didn’t scream for immediate help.”

“Ishihara will protect her, of course. You have the poker you told me about?”

“Yeah. But I don’t suppose I’m strong enough to do much with it.”

“Give it to me. I have enough freedom of my arms now to use it.”

Steve felt for Hunter’s hand and placed the poker in it. “You want me to do anything?”

“Yes. I have felt the individual links of the chain I can reach already. In my other hand, I am holding the weakest one. These are not, after all, mass produced. As I hold the handle of the poker, please fit the point of it into the middle of this other link.”

“Okay. Let’s see…Got it.”

“Please stand back. I will use the curve of the tree trunk as a fulcrum and attempt to pry the link open.”

Steve backed away, moving Marcia with him. If the end of the poker slipped out of the link by accident, the point could swing around and club them both. Steve could barely see Hunter’s movements, but after a long moment, he heard the chain fall, clinking, to the ground.

“Finished,” said Hunter. “I will return to my previous appearance.”

“Now what are we going to do?” Marcia asked.

“I shall attempt to locate Jane,” said Hunter. “I believe that Wayne and Ishihara arranged to have me trapped in order to break up our team and waste our time and energy. However, I am certain that they expected me to remain isolated much longer. They will not expect you to have released me so soon.”

“The trouble is, now that they have Jane, we’re still split up,” said Steve.

“How are you going to find her?” Marcia asked. “Her lapel pin is turned off.”

“I am turning up my hearing to maximum,” said Hunter. “As we walk on the road, I believe I should be able to hear Xiao Li’s donkey. If they are moving through the underbrush, the donkey will make more noise than the humans. If the boy rides him on the road, I may hear his hoofbeats.”

“Let’s get back out on the road,” said Steve.

The now-famous prototype of the highly successful “Hunter” class robot first demonstrated his remarkable abilities in the Mojave Center Governor case. The following images are drawn from the Robot City archives of Derec Avery, the eminent robotics historian.

The Mojave Center. An aerial view of the Center, including the Governor’s Building (foreground left), complete with stadium on top; the Bohung Institute (background center), which is surrounded by a park in front and a gorge with redwood forest and waterfall in the rear; and the Residential Building (right), with its water park inset on the wall: lake, river, watersides and kayaks, trees, and grass, plus a sculpture garden on the side.

MC robots merged. Four of the MC Governor’s six independent component robots are shown here. After capturing them in the remote past, R. Hunter merged and deactivated the robots temporarily.

Governor ’ s Building. The bank of elevators in the “Transition Plane” level. The “90°” label indicates the direction relative to North one is facing (in this case East: ninety degrees from North).

R. Hunter ’ s hand. Here we see the versatility of R. Hunter’s manual extremity. Clockwise from top left: as a normal human hand; extended and upturned to be used as a crowbar or pry; as an awl, which can be used as a pick or as a weapon; and as a flathead screwdriver.

The Mojave Center. A ground’s eye view of the Center’s “downtown,” including (l.-r) the Residential Building, the Central Computer Memory Building, the Communications Station, the Genetic Engineering Center (a.k.a “The Helix Building”), the Office building (with park atop), and the Governor’s Building.

The Gate to the Forbidden City. R. Hunter, Steve, and Marcia are led by Marco Polo into the grounds of Kublai Kahn’s palace.

The Cliffs. A mall in the Mojave Center, located in the lower portion of the Governor’s Building, complete with escalators and moving sidewalks. It is from here that the clothes and supplies needed by the time travelers are procured.

Mojave Center Security Vehicle, Type W5, Model ME-BJ. Equipped with a low-level positronic brain, this vehicle can adapt its shape and wheels to fit any terrain and transport up to eight people or robots. It has a maximum speed of 325 kph. The roof protrusion contains full-spectrum scanning equipment. The body is capable of withstanding heavy fire from any known hand-held weapon or ground assault vehicle.

Jane said nothing as Ishihara led her slowly through the dark forest by a gentle but firm grip on her arm while Wayne walked beside them. She heard Xiao Li following them, walking the horse and donkey now that they were moving among the trees once more. Ishihara walked slowly, changing direction to avoid trees, boulders, and dense clumps of underbrush. When they finally stopped, she had no way of judging how far from the road they had gone, but she doubted it was very far. She waited to see what Wayne and Ishihara would do next.

“Have you heard any communication between Hunter and Steve?” Wayne asked Ishihara.

“No. I am surprised. I would expect Hunter to send a constant signal, so that he could be found. Or else I would expect ongoing conversation between them. I do not understand what they are doing.”

Jane saw Wayne turn to her in the faint moonlight.

“We haven’t really had a chance to talk, have we?” Wayne asked, in a casual tone.

“No. That’s true.” She could barely see his silhouette in the moonlight that filtered through the leaves overhead. “What do we have to say to each other? Anything?”