"Allen, Roger Macbride - 01 - Isaac Asimov's Caliban" - читать интересную книгу автора (Allen Roger Macbride)

What Caliban saw was a lively oasis in the midst of the fading city. He stood at the edge of a broad and verdant park, dotted stands of trees, great lawns, spraying fountains.
Small pavilions dotted the landscape and seemed to give access to underground facilities, judging by the people going in and out. Caliban walked along the low stone wall that formed the perimeter of the park, until he came to the entrance.
Settlertown, a sign said. Caliban stared at it in confusion. Another mystery. He had no idea what Settlers were, or why they should have their own town. He called to the datastore, but it had no information on any such term.
For some reason, all information regarding both his origin point and this place had been deleted from his datastore.
But why would anyone do that?

DARKNESS had passed, and dawn had come over the horizon, and the morning was well begun. Alvar Kresh paced the room, listening to the routine words of the routine interrogation of yet another routine coworker, one Jomaine Terach. Terach wasnТt normally up and at the lab by this hour, but he lived quite near the lab and all the commotion had wakened him. He had wandered over to see what was going on--or so he claimed. Police officers throughout history had been a little slow to believe witnesses who explained trifles such as coming to work with such elaboration--and Kresh was tempted to uphold that tradition in the present instance. It would be wise to treat everyone as a suspect just at the moment.
Kresh let Donald do most of the work. This night had been a long, hard journey through the darkness to the day. Crime scenes could be grueling.
They had taken over the duty office for the purpose of doing the intake interrogations, taking each worker as he or she arrived. The duty office was designed to accommodate an overnight stay, in case an experiment ran all night. The office featured a large and rather comfortable-looking bed, much better than the miserable cot in the duty room at SheriffТs HQ. After a sleepless night, it looked more than slightly inviting.
ДTonya Welton claims that Fredda Leving was--is--working ; for her. Is that true?У Donald asked.
ДAbsolutely not,У Jomaine Terach said, yawning mightily. ДFredda Leving has never worked for anyone but herself in her life, and she isnТt likely to start in by oiling up to the high and mighty Queen of the Settlers.У He yawned again. ДMy God, itТs early. Have you been at it since the attack?У
ДYes, sir. We have been here working straight through the night,У Donald said.
ДSo she and Tonya Welton donТt get along,У Kresh said, brushing aside TerachТs and DonaldТs pleasantries. He sat back down at the table, next to Donald and opposite Terach. He drummed his fingers on the desktop, trying to keep his exhausted mind from wandering. Maybe he should have gone home instead of staying here all night.
Now, where was he? Damn it, his mind was wandering. He was getting fuzzy. He wasnТt going to learn much of anything if he was too exhausted to think. ДSo they didnТt like each other,У he said again, trying to cover up his overlong pause. ДWere they at least polite around each other?У
ДNo, sir, not in the least,У Jomaine said. ДNot anymore. They used to be much closer, real friends, I thought. Now there isnТt much left but the professional relationship.У
That was an interesting tidbit. Tonya Welton and Fredda Leving, each with a real reputation for being a hard-edged infighter. He could easily imagine them coming to a parting of the ways. It was far harder to imagine them becoming friends in the first place.
But being personally involved with the victim made it just that much more peculiar that Welton would barge into the investigation. She must have known that Kresh would quickly learn about the friction between herself and the victim. It was very early in the going, but right now, she was the one with the best motive for the attack. Why draw attention to herself?
Alvar Kresh leaned back in his chair and looked across the desk at the man he was interviewing. Jomaine Terach was a tall, thin man, sandy-haired, pale, with a long, thin face and a sharp-pointed nose. There was something a bit overrefined, overformal, about his manner of speech.
Kresh repressed a yawn. It hardly seemed worth staying up all night just to listen to the likes of Terach.
Alvar rubbed his eyes and brought his mind back to where he was in the questioning.У I find it hard to imagine the two of them as friends. Settlers hate robots, and Leving was one of the leading proponents of more and better robots. I canТt see how much they would have in common,У Kresh said.
ДI think perhaps that was part of what made the friendship work--at least for a while. They enjoyed debating each other. But then things fell apart between them. Maybe it just got a little too intense,У Terach suggested.
ДBut if she wasnТt Tonya WeltonТs employee, Master Terach, and they were no longer friends,У Donald 111 said, Дmight one ask what their relationship was?У
Terach glared at Donald. It clearly annoyed him to be questioned by a robot. But he was smart enough not to protest out loud.
Kresh watched Terach with a detached, professional interest. He often ordered Donald to take an active part in the questioning. It was a variation on the ancient good-cop, bad-cop routine. Donald unsettled the interrogation subjects, and then the subjects answered Kresh, looking to him for support and understanding, unwisely trusting him over Donald.
ДThey were collaborators, I suppose.У Terach turned toward Kresh. ДThereТs a lot I canТt say about the work at the lab,У he apologized.
ДIТve heard that more than once,У Kresh growled. ДEvery employee IТve talked to has told me that. Those seem to be the only words most of your people know.У
ДIТm sorry about that.У
ДDonТt be. WeТll be back once IТve gotten the Governor to grant me some clearances.У
That prospect didnТt seem to please the rather reedy-looking Jomaine Terach. ДWell, perhaps you neednТt bother, once the public announcement is made.У
ДAnd IТve heard that, too, and I know bloody damn well youТre about to tell me you canТt say anything more,У Kresh said. ДSo letТs talk about something else. Tell me why Fredda Leving would be in Gubber AnshawТs lab in the middle of the night.У
Terach seemed genuinely astonished. ДOh, my heavens, I wouldnТt attach any great importance to that,У he said. ДWeТre in and out of each otherТs labs all the time. The work is of a highly--ah--collaborative nature, and I expect that she was simply working on some subcomponent that happened to be in his lab.У
ДInfernals tend to be rather territorial people,У Kresh suggested. ДWe like to have our own space.У
Terach shrugged. ДThat may be so, but that doesnТt mean everyone is compulsive about it,У he said, a bit pointedly.
ДMmmph,У Kresh grunted, not altogether convinced, and ignoring the gibe that was clearly intended to distract him. ДWell, then, maybe you can tell me where the devil Gubber Anshaw is. He hasnТt shown up this morning and we have not been able to reach him at home. We assume heТs there, but his robots flatly refuse to confirm that, or to pass on any messages.У
ДIТm not surprised,У Jomaine said. ДGubber likes to work at home, in complete privacy. HeТs taken to doing it more and more recently. Sometimes we kid him that if you police threw an arrest perimeter around his house, he wouldnТt even notice.У
Kresh grunted noncommittally. Privacy, and the sanctity of the home, were indeed highly valued commodities on Inferno. Indeed, it was illegal to arrest a person in his or her home. The law was very precise on that point, and on the procedures that could and could not be followed. The police and their robots could wait outside until hell froze over, they could search the premises once an arrest was made, but they could not enter the home to effect the arrest.
It had happened more than once that a suspect had refused to come out for a long period of time. Precedents and rules of procedure had long ago been established in such cases, setting out what could and could not be done. The police could cut off all communications links to the surrounded house, but not food, or water, or power. Sometimes the prohibition against home arrests actually worked to police advantage: If kept up long enough, the police-robot vigil outside a suspectТs home amounted to house arrest without all the bother and expense of a trial.
ДWell, it might come to an arrest perimeter if we donТt hear from him soon,У Kresh said warningly. ДYou might get that information to him.У
Jomaine cocked a surprised eyebrow at Kresh. ДHave a little patience, Sheriff. Gubber rarely comes in much before midday on the days he does come in,У he said. ДHe spends his mornings at his home, working on other research projects. Most days--but not all of them--he comes in here and works on Leving Lab projects about midday and through the evening. But as I said, he doesnТt always come in. HeТs not held to any sort of schedule.У
Jomaine thought for a moment. ДCome to think of it, I donТt recall seeing him when I came through here last night. I doubt he was here. My guess is heТs been at home, working, the entire time, quite unaware that anything has happened. And yes, his robots have strict orders to prevent his being disturbed. But that is routine with him. I wouldnТt suggest that you read anything into his absence, or waste any time thinking he had something to do with the attack on Fredda.У
Alvar Kresh frowned. ДWhy not? It was his lab she was attacked in. At this point we have no suspects, no motive, no real information at all. I donТt know Gubber Anshaw or anything about him. I see no reason to eliminate anyone at this point, especially someone who would seem to have the opportunity to commit the crime. Coworkers have been known to have motives for murder.У
ДWell, thereТs your argument against suspecting him right there,У Jomaine said, a bit overeagerly. ДGubber Anshaw had no motive for attacking Fredda, and every reason for wishing her well. I suppose, yes, he might have had the means and the opportunity to assault her--but Sheriff Kresh, you have the means and the opportunity to pull your blaster from your holster right now and vaporize my head. That doesnТt mean you will do it. You have no motives for killing me--and a lot of motives for not hurting me. You С d lose your job and get thrown in jail, at the very least. But it goes past that. Fredda was a great help to Gubber. He would most definitely not want to lose that.У
ДYou are suggesting that Gubber Anshaw would have a great deal to lose if something happened to Fredda Leving?У Donald asked.
Jomaine Terach looked cautiously at Donald, and then at Kresh. ДOnce again, that gets us into classified areas. But yes, I think that would be safe to say. Gubber had made some remarkable advances, advances that required the rejection of some very tried and true technology in favor of something newer and better and more flexible. However, he didnТt get far in promoting his discoveries. Robotics is in many ways a very conservative field. Leving Labs was the only place that was willing to use his work.У
ДI suppose weТre talking about gravitonic brains here,У Kresh said.
Terach breathed in sharply, clearly surprised and unsettled. ДHow did you--У
ДThere was a stack of them in neatly labeled boxes in Anshaw С s lab,У Kresh said, more than a bit sardonically. ДI think perhaps you need to work a little on security procedures down at the lab.У
ДApparently so,У Terach said, clearly nonplussed.
ДSo what the devil are gravitonic brains? Some sort of replacement for the positronic brain?У
Donald turned his head toward Kresh. ДSir! That would be quite impossible. The positronic brain is the basis, the core, of all robotics. The Three Laws are intrinsic to it, built into its very structure, burned into its fundamental pathways.У