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

ДMicrotraces of a red paint found in Madame LevingТ s scalp wound likewise correspond to a paint used on some robots at Leving Labs, though it has not been definitively established that the paint in question was used on the robot model in question. I might add that it could not be immediately established whether the microtraces were from fresh or fully dried and hardened paint, as it was some hours before the labtech robots secured the samples. Further tests should answer that question.У
ДSo the only suspect we are offered is a robot. ThatТs impossible, of course. So it had to be a human--a Settler--posing as a robot. Except even a Settler who had been on the planet five minutes would know that it is impossible for a robot to attack a human. Why bother to plant doctored evidence we will refuse to believe?У
ДThat point has bothered me as well,У Donald said. ДBut even if we assume a Settler was involved in this crime, we must assume that the Settler in question knew more about robots than the average Spacer.У
ДWhat do you mean?У
ДConsider the detailed familiarity and access to robot equipment required to stage this attack,У Donald replied. ДThe assailant would have to build and wear shoes with robot foot-tread soles and then replicate the gait of a specific robot. He or she would have to use a surplus robot arm--or an object that closely matched it--as a blunt instrument, and strike in such a manner as to match a blow from that robot arm. He or she would need access to the proper materials to stage the attack, and have the mechanical skill to build or modify the needed robot body parts. To be blunt, sir, a human capable of staging this attack could not possibly be stupid enough or sufficiently ignorant of robots to dream that we would think a robot did it.У
ДBut then what was the motive for staging the attack in that manner?У Kresh asked. He thought for a moment. ДYou said this footprint and arm are off a very standard robot model. How many of them out there?У
ДSeveral hundred. Several thousand if you include all the variants.У
ДVery well, then. That means there have been several thousand opportunities to steal a robot, or secure a defective one, and strip it for parts--the feet and arms and so forth. Or hell, the assailant could simply get hold of a robot and yank the positronic brain. He or she could plug in a remote-control system with a video-link back to the controller. Let the controller walk the robot body up to the unsuspecting victim--after all, who would suspect a robot?
ДAnd using a remotely operated robot body that would look like a normal robot would have to be less suspicious than wearing robot-tread boots and carrying a robot arm around. And by working from a remote location, the assailant could hide his or her identity. Another thing: If I popped someone on the head, IТd want to get away fast. Yet those footprints were of a walking gait, not a run. That points toward a remotely controlled robot, one with a fairly limited remote-control system that could manage a walk but not a run.У
ДExcept the attacker did not leave immediately. He or she--or it--remained for some time after the attack, at least thirty seconds or a minute.У
ДHow do you know that?У Kresh asked. Д Ah, of course, the footprints. They went through the outer edges of the pooled blood, so they had to have been made after Leving had bled long enough to produce a large pool of blood. Damn it! That makes no sense. Why the devil would the attacker stay behind? Not to make sure Leving was dead, obviously, because she wasnТt. But weТre digressing. You suggested that the assailant would know that weТd know that a robot could not commit the crime. Therefore, the assailant had an alternate motive for disguising the attack as coming from a robot. What would that be? Why such an elaborate setup?У
ДTo afford the chance to get lost in the crowd later,У Donald suggested. ДLet me offer a hypothetical variation on the facts by way of example. We now have an impossible suspect, a robot. Let me offer another impossible suspect to make my point, though I must ask you not to take offense at a hypothetical example.У
ДOf course not, Donald. Go on.У
ДAll right. If someone decided to plant clues to make it appear that, for example, you had attacked Fredda Leving, that would limit the search for the assailant to those persons with the ability to plant those clues. Someone who could steal a pair of your shoes, or manage to plant strands of your hair, or your fingerprints, at the scene. But if that someone chose to plant clues that pointed equally well to several thousand identical and impossible suspects--У
ДOur search is made far larger. Yes. Yes, I see that. An excellent point, Donald. But there is still another question. What of the second set of footprints?У
ДIf you will grant, for the sake of argument, my original premise, that the effort to make this seem like a robot attack was made because we would know it was impossible a robot did it, I can offer an answer. If we further assume that the motive for that nonconvincing subterfuge was to disguise the real assailant, then I suggest that a single assailant deliberately made one set of bloody tracks, walked far enough that all traces of the blood were worn off, then simply doubled back and walked through the blood again. Again, the idea would be to confuse the search.У
ДIt seems an awfully risky thing to do for a fairly minor advantage,У Kresh objected.
ДIf, as you suggest, the attacker was using a remotely controlled robot body, as opposed to merely wearing robot boots and carrying a robot arm, there could be no risk in the gambit. At worst, someone might have come in during the assailantТs absence and been there to capture the false robot, with the real attacker at the controls, perhaps many kilometers away.У
ДYes. Yes. Now they would have us looking for two robots, or two people trying to disguise themselves as robots, when there was really only a single, human assailant. ThatТs a lovely theory, Donald, just lovely.У
ДThere is another note: Our robopsychologists have completed the preliminary interrogation of the staff robots at Leving Labs. Their results are, I think, astonishing.У
ДAre they indeed?У Kresh asked dryly. ДVery well, then, astonish me.У
ДFirst, this is by no means the first time the staff robots have been instructed to stay out of the main wing of the labs. They have been told to get out many times before, usually but not always at about the hour of the attack, but always when the lab was more or less empty. This merely confirms what Daabor 5132 told me the night of the attack. However, the second point provides fresh and remarkable data.У
ДVery well, go on.У
ДEvery single robot flatly refused to identify who had given the order. Our robopsychologists unanimously agree that the block restraining them is unbreakable. The psychologists took several robots to and past the breaking point, pressuring them to answer, and all refused to talk right up to the moment they brainlocked. The robots died rather than talk, even when told that their silence might well allow Fredda LevingТs attacker to go free.У
Alvar looked at Donald in amazement. ДBurning devils. ItТs almost unheard-of for a block to be that good. Whoever placed it must have done a damned convincing job of saying harm would certainly come to himself--or herself--if the robots talked.У
ДYes, sir. That is the obvious conclusion. There would be no other way to keep a robot from refusing to assist the police in capturing a murderer. Even so, it would require a human with remarkable skill in giving orders, and an intimate knowledge of the relative potentials of the Three Laws as programmed into each class of robot, to resist police questioning. I would venture a guess that it was only the shock of seeing Fredda Leving unconscious and bleeding that allowed Daabor 5132 to say as much as it did before expiring.У
ДYes, yes. But why was this order given more than once? Why would the order-giver need that sort of privacy repeatedly?У
ДI cannot say, sir. But the last point is perhaps the most remarkable. The block was placed with such skill that no human at the lab was even aware that the block had been placed. A whole lab full of robot specialists never even noticed that all the robots would not, could not, talk about being ordered to clear off again and again. The degree of skill required to--У
Suddenly Donald stopped moving and seemed to come to attention. ДSir, I am receiving an incoming call for you from Tonya Welton on your private line.У
ДDevil and fire, what the hell does that woman want? All right, put her through. And you might as well give me full visual.У
Donald turned his back on Kresh. A flat vertical televisor panel extruded itself from between his shoulders and slid up behind the back of his head. As it rose up, it was showing a shifting abstract pattern, but then it resolved to a sharp image of Tonya Welton. ДSheriff Kresh,У she said. ДGlad I got through to you. You should come here, to Settlertown, now.У
Kresh felt a sharp stab of anger. How dare she order him around? ДThereТs not that much new at this end, Madame Welton,У Kresh said. ДPerhaps if we delayed our next meeting until IТve had a chance to develop more information--У
ДThatТs not why I need you, Sheriff. ThereТs something you should see. Here, in Settlertown. Or more accurately, over it.У
Donald spoke, swiveling his head a bit. ДSir, I am now receiving reports from headquarters confirming a disturbance in Settlertown.У
Kresh felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. ДBurning hellfire, not again.У
ДOh, yes, again,У Welton said, cool anger in her voice. ДDeliberate provocation, and I donТt know how calm I can keep my people. Your deputies are here, of course--but itТs worse than last time. Much worse.У
Kresh shut his eyes and wished desperately for things to stop happening. Not that such wishes were likely to come true any time soon. ДVery well,. Madame Welton. WeТre on the way.У


5

MURDER. Riot. What the hell was going on, anyway? Alvar Kresh powered up his aircar and took the controls. It took little more than a glare in DonaldТ s direction to make it clear to the robot that Alvar intended to fly himself, just at the moment, and was not going to take any nonsense.
But still, no sense in getting Donald upset for no reason. Alvar took off, flying with a nicely calculated degree of care, guiding the craft just cautiously enough to keep Donald from taking over.
Violent crime wasnТt supposed to happen on Spacer worlds. The endless wealth and unlimited prosperity provided by robotic labor was supposed to eliminate poverty, and so remove any motive for crime.
Nice theory, of course, but it did not quite work out that way. If only it did, Alvar Kresh would have a much more peaceful time of it. For there was always someone relatively poorer than someone else. Someone with only a small mansion instead of a big one, who dreamed of owning a palace. Someone jealous of someoneТ s greater affluence, determined to redress the unfair imbalance.
And no matter how rich you were, only one person could own a given object. Spacer society had more than its share of artists, and thus more than its share of art, some small fraction of it remarkably good. The burning desire to own an original and unique work of art was common motive for burglary.
There were plenty of other motives for crime besides poverty and greed, of course. People still got drunk and lusted after other peopleТs spouses, and got into arguments with their neighbors. There were still loversТ quarrels, and domestic incidents.
Love and jealousy sparked many a crime of passion, if you could call a crime passionate when it required intricate, detailed planning to arrange for your victim to be somewhere robots werenТt...
Others broke the law seeking after a different kind of gain than wealth or love. Simcor Beddle, for example. He hungered after power, and was willing to risk arrest--for himself and for his Ironheads--in order to get it.
And that was just the start of the list of motives. Inferno society was deeply hierarchical, its upper crust burdened with an incredibly complex system of proper behavior. It was vital to keep up appearances, and virtually impossible to avoid making a misstep sometime. In short, upper-class Inferno was a perfect breeding ground for blackmailers and revenge seekers.