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Steve and Marcia would be reasonably secure at the inn as long as the
other guests did not see them. He also trusted Steve to act wisely.
At the same time, he felt he he d failed to take proper care of his team.
Wayne had already succeeded in interrupting their search for MC 5.
Now Hunter had to prevent him from taking full advantage of the
situation.
As Hunter rode down the moonlit mountain road, he slowed the
horses to a walk to preserve their energy. With his vision on
maximum light receptivity, he identified the fresh tracks that
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r r
matched the sounds he had heard earlier. The most recent donkey
tracks leading south were much deeper than the same ones Xiao Li s
animal had made riding north; the horse tracks with them were deep
enough to have been made by the horse whose heavy hoofbeats he had
heard.
Hunter had to plan his approach to his quarry. He chose not to radio
Ishihara with any sort of threat or argument, since Wayne clearly had
become more persuasive in making his case to Ishihara. Any such
transmission would merely reveal to Ishihara that he was chasing
them and give Ishihara some fix on the. distance between them.
Hunter s best chance to rescue Jane and apprehend Wayne would be
to sneak up on them.
Hunter did not know if Ishihara s hearing ability was fully equal to his
own. Since Hunter had been designed specifically to search for MC
Governor, he had been given some abilities greater than most robots,
but he had never specifically compared his hearing to Ishihara s.
However, he was certain that Ishihara s aural sense was greater than
any human s. That lessened his chance of making an unheard
approach.
Obviously, Hunter s pursuit would become obvious if he simply
cantered up behind them, since even Wayne would hear that. Hunter
could, however, draw closer slowly. When he heard the first faint
sounds of hoofbeats up ahead, he could pace them at a distance until
he formed a specific plan.
If Ishihara s hearing equaled his own, however, then Ishihara might
hear Hunter s horses at the same time. The question of stealth might
in fact turn on uncontrollable variables, such as the direction of the
wind or the echo pattern off the surrounding slopes. He would have to
remain aware of those as he continued on his way.
Now that he had identified the tracks, however, he did not have to
study each hoofprint carefully. He could see the trail plainly enough.
Instead, he turned his attention to the condition of his mount. The
tired animal kept slowing down, and had to be prodded forward.
After more than a mile, the tracks of his quarry still followed the road.
Hunter had expected more effort at evasion, but postulated that
Ishihara, under the First Law, could not take the risk of allowing the
humans to flee through the mountains in the darkness. Another
possibility was that Wayne had simply decided to forget about
evasion. He might be taking his companions as far as they could go
straight down the road before their mounts wore out.
Hunter still expected that the two mounts ahead of him would tire
more quickly than his own. All of them had traveled a long way earlier
in the day, but the mounts ahead of him were, by his calculation,
carrying two riders each; one was merely a donkey, whose short legs
had to take many more strides to keep up with the horse. Maybe they
were gambling that Hunter s substantial weight would tire his horse
first, instead.
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r r
He considered that possibility unlikely, but the burden on his horse
was real. To minimize it, he moved to Jane s mount in order to rest
his own. Wayne did not have that option.
In the lobby the innkeeper gave Steve a small brass oil lamp before
sleepily returning to bed. Leading Marcia upstairs, Steve was relieved
to find the corridor quiet. He turned to Marcia to say good night. She
stopped at the door to her room, looking at him uncertainly in the
shifting light.
 What s wrong? Steve asked quietly.  Everybody else here is asleep.
We ll be okay.
 I know, she said softly.  But...
 What? He could see that her arrogance had vanished.  What is it?
 I was thinking about your other missions. Were they like this?
 Like this? What do you mean?
 Well, how dangerous were they? When you talk about buccaneers
and dinosaurs and everything else, were you really in serious
danger?
 Yes. We were.
 I don t think the risk became real to me until Hunter was
kidnapped.
Steve nodded.  I know. All of you who live in cities in our own time
have robots around you constantly.
 Yes. I never even thought about it before because I was so used to
it.
 I think we re in less danger now than usual. Hunter is between us
and Wayne and Ishihara. He gestured toward the rooms around
them,  We should keep quiet and just go to sleep, so we don t wake up
the kidnappers.
Marcia nodded and opened the door to her room.  Of course. Sorry.
 Make sure you bar the door behind you, he added.  Light your
candle with this. He carefully handed her the brass lamp and waited
while she took it into her room. A moment later, she brought it back
out, silhouetted by the candle flame flickering behind her on a small
table.
 Good night. She yawned again and went into her room, closing the
door behind her.
Steve waited in the hall until he heard her slide the bar into place.
Then he went into his own room and did the same. In a few minutes, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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