“You’d know that they were not truly human, that they’d be submorons,” Frigate said. “You couldn’t talk to them as you would to a real woman. You’d know that their passion was simulated, mechanical and unconscious. OK, so you’d get sexual relief. But that’s not enough.”
“True,” Li Po said, “but they’d be better than nothing.”
“Would they?” Burton said.
Alice came onto the balcony then. The men dropped the subject, not because Alice would have been embarrassed by its nature but because she would have felt bad that she could do nothing to help them. They talked about what they had achieved during their studies that day, Burton with his investigations into the dialects that had formed the Urmother of the Semitic languages, Li Po in his studies of English and French, so that he could read their poetry, Frigate in his study of every motion picture that had been made (or at least preserved by the Ethicals), and Alice with her newfound passion of painting with oils.
At dinner, served by androids, they talked about the yet-to-be-solved mystery of Loga’s murder and the identity of the woman whom Nur had killed.
Burton pushed his chair away from the table, pulled a cigar from his shirtpocket, lit it, and said, “I’d devote most of my time to sleuthing those enigmas if I thought it would do any good. I’m convinced, however, that the Computer won’t—can’t— permit us to even get a foot in the door, as it were. We will never know until the Gardenworlders come and perhaps not then.”
“You won’t have to wait that long.”
Alice screamed. Burton gasped, shoved his chair back, and rose to face the man who had spoken.
Loga, smiling, stood in the entrance to the dining room.
37
Loga had lost his fat-turkey look. His clothes, a sky-blue kilt, open yellow robe with blue dragons, and blue sandals, showed a stocky and powerfully muscled body without an ounce of excess weight.
He was unarmed.
Loga held his hand up. “Please. If you’ll quiet down, I’ll explain all. First, though, my apologies for startling you.”
Burton had recovered enough from his shock to say, “You always did like the dramatic.”
“True.”
Li Po said, “How did you get in here?”
“I’ll tell you all in due time. However, I had no trouble overriding the codeword. After all, I control the tower.”
He went to the sideboard by the door and poured himself a goblet of cognac. Alice, a hand on her breast, sat down. The men exchanged glances the meaning of which they understood from long intimacy. If he makes the slightest move that seems dangerous to us, we’ll all jump him at the same time.
Loga, however, was very much at ease, almost hail-fellow-well-met. That meant nothing. He was a superb actor. On the other hand, Burton thought, why should he have anything bad in mind for us?
“Am I right in assuming that your melting … your death … was a trick, a simulation by the Computer?” Burton said. “And that you’ve been watching us since you disappeared?”
Loga faced them, his thick legs braced as if he were on the foredeck of a sailing ship. He smiled and said, “Yes. I know that that was one of the possibilities you considered.”
“So you were spying on us, eavesdropping!” Burton said angrily.
“Everywhere except in those rooms you painted. That was a clever idea, but then I’ve always known that you were intelligent and imaginative. That, of course, is one of the reasons why I chose you as my agents. It’s not true, though, that you completely blocked my monitoring. When you used the auxiliary computers, I tapped in on those.”
He sipped on the cognac while regarding them over the rim. When he moved the goblet away, he said, “It’s good to have someone to talk to. Not just anyone; you are special. I feel very close to you. Though I imagine that, at this moment, you’re rather furious with me. I don’t blame you, but I’m sure that after you’ve heard my story, you’ll forgive me.”
“I don’t think so,” Alice said, her dark eyes narrowed, her lips stretched back. “I don’t know what sort of game you’ve been playing, but you’re responsible for dooming—” She stopped as if something had just occurred to her. Her cheeks became even more red.