Asimov's Future History Volume 4 by Isaac Asimov

and, somehow, I got to thinking, it’s just the same now as it was then. I mean, we Earth people had our old ways and here were the Spacers coming in with a lot of new ways and trying to encourage the new ways we had stumbled into ourselves and maybe the Medievalists were right. Maybe we should go back to our old, good ways. So I went back and found Elizabeth.”
    “Yes. Go on.”
    “She said she didn’t know what I was talking about and besides I was a cop’s wife. I said that had nothing to do with it and finally she said, well, she’d speak to somebody, and then about a month later she came to me and said it was all right and I joined and I’ve been at meetings ever since.”
    Baley looked at her sadly. “And you never told me?”
    Jessie’s voice trembled. “I’m sorry, Lije,”
    “Well, that won’t help. Being sorry, I mean. I want to know about the meetings. In the first place, where were they held?”
    A sense of detachment was creeping over him, a numbing of emotions. What he had tried not to believe was so, was openly so, was unmistakably so. In a sense, it was a relief to have the uncertainty over.
    She said, “Down here.”
    “Down here? You mean on this spot? What do you mean?”
    “Here in the motorway. That’s why I didn’t want to come down here. It was a wonderful place to meet, though. We’d get together–”
    “How many?”
    “I’m not sure. About sixty or seventy. It was just a sort of local branch. There’d be folding chairs and some refreshments and someone would make a speech, mostly about how wonderful life was in the old days and how someday we’d do away with the monsters, the robots, that is, and the Spacers, too. The speeches were sort of dull really, because they were all the same. We just endured them. Mostly, it was the fun of getting together and feeling important. We would pledge ourselves to oaths and there’d be secret ways we could greet each other on the outside.”
    “Weren’t you ever interrupted? No squad cars or fire engines passed?”
    “No. Never.”
    R. Daneel interrupted, “Is that unusual, Elijah?”
    “Maybe not,” Baley answered thoughtfully. “There are some side-passages that are practically never used. It’s quite a trick, knowing which they are, though. Is that all you did at the meetings, Jessie? Make speeches and play at conspiracy?”
    “It’s about all. And sing songs, sometimes. And of course, refreshments. Not much. Sandwiches, usually, and juice.”
    “In that case,” he said, almost brutally, “what’s bothering you now?”
    Jessie winced. “You’re angry.”
    “Please,” said Baley, with iron patience, “answer my question. If it were all as harmless as that, why have you been in such a panic for the last day and a half?”
    “I thought they would hurt you, Lije. For heaven’s sake, why do you act as though you don’t understand? I’ve explained it to you.”
    “No, you haven’t. Not yet. You’ve told me about a harmless little secret kaffee-klatsch you belonged to. Did they ever hold open demonstrations? Did they ever destroy robots? Start riots? Kill people?”
    “ Never! Lije, I wouldn’t do any of those things. I wouldn’t stay a member if they tried it.”
    “Well, then, why do you say you’ve done a terrible thing? Why do you expect to be sent to jail?”
    “Well... Well, they used to talk about someday when they’d put pressure on the government. We were supposed to get organized and then afterward there would be huge strikes and work stoppages. We could force the government to ban all robots and make the Spacers go back where they came from. I thought it was just talk and then, this thing started; about you and Daneel, I mean. Then they said, ‘Now we’ll see action,’ and ‘We’re going to make an example of them and put a stop to the robot invasion right now.’ Right there in Personal they said it, not knowing it was you they were talking about. But I knew. Right away.”
    Her voice