Unicorn Point (6 page)

Abruptly his receptors turned on again. “What?” he exclaimed, startled.

“I have nulled your shorting mechanism,” she said, tensing and relaxing a buttock. “Did you suppose I knew nothing of robotics? This office is appropriately equipped.” He should have known. His machine defenses were useless here. He was no Adept, in this frame, and that made him vulnerable. She could make him react when she chose to.
 

“Oracle.” It was the connection. With relief, Mach plunged into his recitation of formulae, tuning out his body’s awareness of hers.

But all too soon the information had been covered. The Oracle signed off; it would now devote itself to integrating the new information with the old, and compiling the whole into something useful to the Adepts. Mach’s job was done, for the moment.

“Have you learned your lesson?” Tania inquired, turning so that her left breast pressed against his chest.
 

“Yes.” But he doubted this would satisfy her at this stage.
 
She considered him a challenge, and that would motivate her even if she found him sexually repulsive.
 

“How nice. But perhaps I should make certain. I must say, I had forgotten the pleasure of seducing an unwilling male. I think we shall be seeing a good deal of each other this month.” She twisted around, her thighs sliding across his thighs, her breasts making better contact. The sensations sent electrical pulses through his body, and both his mind and his loin responded. Damn that override she had turned on! He was unable to curtail any of his natural reactions.
 
She reached up to draw his face into hers. Her tan hair spread out, framing her face, descending to brush against his body. Her tan irises seemed to grow large. She kissed him, and he was aware of his resistance crumbling. She was an infernally attractive figure of a woman, never mind her unattractive nature, and his body wanted hers.
 
There was a ping from the screen. Tania paused, a quirk of annoyance twisting her mouth.

“What?” she rapped.
 

“Notice of problem,” the screen said, showing matching words. “The child Nepe has gone astray.”

“What?” This time it was Mach, unable to damp down his alarm circuitry.

“She boarded her plane,” the screen said and printed. “It took off. It disappeared from surveillance. It seems unlikely to arrive at its destination.”

“That’s impossible!” Tania exclaimed. “Recheck!” She started to get up.

Mach’s arms clamped around her body with the power of machinery. “That child is covered by the covenant!” he said.
 
“As is Agape—and my wife and child in Phaze.”

“I know she is!” Tania said. “We haven’t done this!”

“Haven’t you?” One of his hands closed on her upper arm and began to squeeze. Now the override prevented him from moderating his developing emotion of anger. “You thought to distract me while you acted against my niece?” He was hurting her, but she refused to cry out.

“I thought to seduce you, yes. Nothing more. No harm to Nepe. Now let me go so I can pursue this matter.”

He realized that it would make no sense for the Contrary Citizens to make such a move, even after they gained suffi cient information to achieve their power in Proton. He and Bane remained the Citizens’ only contact with the opposite frames. He released her. His desire for her body had been nullified by his awareness of the threat to Nepe.
 
Quickly Tania ascertained that the plane, flying preprogrammed, had at first suffered what appeared to be a malfunction of the tracking equipment. It had ceased to show on the screen. But when they compensated by orienting with another tracker, they had been unable to locate it. A direct physical check had also failed to turn it up. A crash in the polluted desert was a strong possibility; a robot search party was now proceeding to the site of last observation.
 

“The timing remains suggestive,” Mach said tightly.
 

“What reason would we have to take her out, knowing it would jeopardize your cooperation?” Tania asked, looking genuinely nervous.

“This is what I am trying to ascertain. Your receptionist conducted her to the plane. She could have planted something on the craft, or sent a signal to an accomplice. While you made sure I was not there, because I might have interfered.
 
It all fits together rather neatly: Citizen Tan stepping aside at this time for you, your hireling taking the child—”

“No!” she cried. “The timing is coincidence! We were trying only to—”

“You did set this up?” he asked, stepping toward her.
 

“No! Not to hurt the child! We have nothing to do with mat! We don’t want anything to happen to her! We want her on our side!”

“What are you talking about? Nepe is only four years old! She’s no part of the struggle between Citizens.”

“But she will be! She—“ Tania stopped, realizing that she had said too much.

“I think I had better question you more authoritatively.”

She drew herself up angrily. “You have no right!”

“Listen, Tania, you are a serf, just as I am. If your brother dies, you may inherit his Citizenship—but if my father dies, I may inherit his. You are human, I am a robot, but you are no better than I am either legally or socially. Not till your side wins it’s case against Citizen Blue and starts subverting the new order. You gained my acquiescence to your advances only because I care for the welfare of my niece. Do you wish to try whether your good will is more precious to the Citizens than mine? Do you wish to try whether I will not destroy you as readily as I would have played sex with you, if that child is in peril by your device? Whether I can do this with impunity, as long as I continue to bring across the formulae your Citizens require? In that case, summon your brother and put it to him before I do. It was my love for Fleta that brought me to your side, but I believe the Adept Stile would accept our union now. It is honor, not love or fear, that keeps me in your camp, and it is dishonor on your part that will break that tie. You have one way to establish the nature of your complicity in this matter, and you will do that now or suffer the consequence.”

“You damned arrogant machine!” she flared. “You should be junked! No one talks to me that way and lives!”

“I am not alive. What is your decision?”

“I hate you!”

Mach smiled. “I take that to be your acquiescence.”

“Yes,” she whispered, defeated. In that moment of her genuine humiliation, he found her more appealing than she had been when arrogant. Stripped of her imperialistic manner and her cruelty, she could be a truly attractive woman.
 

Mach spoke to the desk. “One interrogation unit to this site,” he said. He realized that the receptionist was late returning; probably she was under orders to stay clear until her mistress had completed the seduction of the robot. That particular plot had gone awry! But if Nepe was in trouble—

“But a condition,” Tania said.

“No conditions! I mean to have the truth!”

“You pride yourself on honor,” she said, speaking so low that her voice hardly carried. “Deal with me with honor.”

“You never dealt with me with honor!”

“That is irrelevant. You are not me.”

She had a point. “What are you asking?”

“If I demean myself in this manner, and prove out, you owe me.”

“Owe you what?”

She merely looked at him.

Mach was shaken. Could she be telling the truth? If so, his humiliation of her would prove to have been unjustified. He would, indeed, owe her, by his code. But she was a clever, nervy woman; she could be bluffing, trying to make him change his mind without proof.

“Granted,” he said shortly. And felt a twinge of guilt. Had he any right to make such a bargain, regardless of the situation?

Tania went to the desk. “Admit the machine, then seal off all communications until further notice,” she said. She sat in the chair.

Thus this questioning would be only between the two of them. The interrogation unit would not tell; it would be erased after use. No one else would know what happened here, unless one of them told.

The unit arrived. It was a standard cylindrical robot, with several extensible arms and assorted recesses. “Subject?” its speaker grille inquired.

“Me,” Tania said.

The machine rolled to her. Efficiently it fastened metallic bracelets on her wrists, ankles and head. She submitted to this with unconcealed aversion, but made no move to interfere.

“Testing,” the machine said. “Speak truth: what is your name and station?”

“Tania, human, serf, heir to Citizen Tan.”

“Speak false: what is your name and station?”

“Mach, robot, serf, heir to Citizen Blue.” Mach had to smile; she had given his identification, true for him but a falsehood for her.

“Speak half-truth: a statement of your choosing.”

“I am in love with Mach.”

Mach was startled. Could any part of that be true? He had assumed that her play for him was entirely cynical.
 
“Alignment is complete,” the interrogator said. “Proceed.”

Her half-truth had aligned? This promised mischief of another nature!

Though shaken by her statement, Mach knew he had to make this count, because he would never get another opportunity. He could not afford to let any aspect of the truth slip by him.

He started obliquely, because now he wanted a broader truth than he had initially. “Why did you attempt to seduce me? Provide such detail as you believe is warranted to clarify this matter.”

“That is not relevant!” she flared.

“I believe it is, because Nepe disappeared while you were doing this.”

Indeed, the interrogator challenged it. “Subject’s statement is false,” it said.

She grimaced. She was in no sense drugged or under any duress other than the need to tell the truth or be immediately exposed in her lie. “It was my brother’s plan. Fleta humiliated him and got away. Now she is back in Phaze; he can not reach her, either physically or by the terms of the covenant.
 
But he can not rest until he has his satisfaction of her. Therefore he asked me to win you away from her. That would be a fitting vengeance for him, that can reach her wherever she is. In addition, this would bind you more firmly to our cause, so it is practical; that is why the other Citizens agreed. Nepe is involved only in the sense that she would be affected by the breakup of the marriage of her parents.”

She paused. After a moment the interrogator spoke. “That is not the whole truth.”

Tania’s lips tightened. “I had no need to agree to this, because I am his sister and his heir. He could have used Tsetse for this purpose; indeed, that was the original plan.
 
But I volunteered, because it is better to keep it in the family; it would be dangerous to have my employee gain your loyalty.
 
She might get notions of independence. With me, there would be no risk, because never would I betray the interests of the Citizenship I am slated to inherit.”

Another pause. Then: “That is not the whole truth.”

“It is enough of it!” she snapped.

“True,” the interrogator agreed.

Mach was surprised again. She had backed off the machine! But his own curiosity had been aroused. “Give the rest anyway,” he said.

“You owe me,” she reminded him.

“If you prove out.”

“I was influenced by more than loyalty to my brother and my side,” she said. “For a decade I have known of this sophisticated robot, Mach. I am older than he, but this has little relevance in our society. At first I was outraged that he should be designated heir to a Citizen. But when he established communication with his other self, and went to Phaze, I realized that he was much more than a robot. I saw the mischief he made for our side, and I learned how he became an Adept in the other frame. I know how hard it is to do that.
 
I studied him, and was fascinated with him, as a machine who had become human. That was all there was to it, until the time of our dominance neared, and we knew that the enemy had to make his countermove soon or be forever lost.
 
Then it seemed wise to bind Mach more tightly to us, and the Citizens were ready to give my brother his vengeance.
 
Then, as I considered the advantage of doing the job myself, I realized that my interest was more than this. I have found no man worthy of more than occasional dalliance; but Mach, though he is a robot, may be worthy. I became intrigued to the point of fascination. My mission may be one thing, but my heart is another, and I want him. It was my intent to seduce him first, then wean him away from Fleta by repeated demonstrations of my effectiveness as a lover, and, perhaps, to love him myself. In the end, perhaps, to win Bane also.
 
Because these two represent our only known contact with the frame of Phaze, and Phaze remains a dream for all of us, even those of us who have never seen it, a magic world like none other. I would give my power and pride to live in Phaze, the frame where enchantment is literal. If Mach could take me there, or exchange me with my other self there for a time, as he did with Agape—the very notion, however farfetched, fills me with an unutterable longing, and I would love him for it no matter what else occurred between us. And that is the whole of it.”