The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov Page B

the Commissioner’s broken glasses and, even in the middle of somber thoughts, a corner of his mouth twitched. Poor Julius! Yes, he
would
be disturbed. Of course, there would be no way for Enderby to have explained the situation to the lofty Spacers, who looked upon physical disability as a peculiarly disgusting attribute to the nongenetically selected Earthmen. At least, he couldn’t without losing face, and face was valuable to Police Commissioner Julius Enderby. Well, Earthmen had to stick together in some respects. The robot would never find out about Enderby’s nearsightedness from Baley.
    R. Daneel continued, “One by one, the various exit points from the City were investigated. Do you know how many there are, Elijah?”
    Baley shook his head, then hazarded, “Twenty?”
    “Five hundred and two.”
    “What?”
    “Originally, there were many more. Five hundred and two are all that remain functional. Your City represents a slow growth, Elijah. It was once open to the sky and people crossed from City to country freely.”
    “Of course. I know that.”
    “Well, when it was first enclosed, there were many exits left. Five hundred and two still remain. The rest are built over or blocked up. We are not counting, of course, the entrance points for air freight.”
    “Well, what of the exit points?”
    “It was hopeless. They are unguarded. We could find no official who was in charge or who considered them under his jurisdiction. It seemed as though no one even knew they existed. A man could have walked out of any of them at any time and returned at will. He would never have been detected.”
    “Anything else? The weapon was gone, I suppose.”
    “Oh, yes.”
    “Any clues of any sort?”
    “None. We have investigated the grounds surrounding Spacetown thoroughly. The robots on the truck farms were quite useless as possible witnesses. They are little more than automatic farm machinery, scarcely humanoid. And there were no humans.”
    “Uh-huh. What next?”
    “Having failed, so far, at one end, Spacetown, we will work at the other, New York City. It will be ourduty to track down all possible subversive groups, to sift all dissident organizations—”
    “How much time do you intend to spend?” interrupted Baley.
    “As little as possible, as much as necessary.”
    “Well,” said Baley, thoughtfully, “I wish you had another partner in this mess.”
    “I do not,” said R. Daneel. “The Commissioner spoke very highly of your loyalty and ability.”
    “It was nice of him,” said Baley sardonically. He thought: Poor Julius. I’m on his conscience and he tries hard.
    “We didn’t rely entirely on him,” said R. Daneel. “We checked your records. You have expressed yourself openly against the use of robots in your department.”
    “Oh? Do you object?”
    “Not at all. Your opinions are, obviously, your own. But it made it necessary for us to check your psychological profile very closely. We know that, although you dislike R’s intensely, you
will
work with one if you conceive it to be your duty. You have an extraordinarily high loyalty aptitude and a respect for legitimate authority. It is what we need. Commissioner Enderby judged you well.”
    “You have no personal resentment toward my anti-robot sentiments?”
    R. Daneel said, “If they do not prevent you from working with me and helping me do what is required of me, how can they matter?”
    Baley felt stopped. He said, belligerently, “Well, then, if I pass the test, how about you? What makes you a detective?”
    “I do not understand you.”
    “You were designed as an information-gatheringmachine. A man-imitation to record the facts of human life for the Spacers.”
    “That is a good beginning for an investigator, is it not? To be an information-gathering machine?”
    “A beginning, maybe. But it’s not all there is, by a long shot.”
    “To be sure, there has been a final adjustment of my circuits.”
    “I’d be curious to hear the