or out. Just now, I think perhaps Madame Welton and I need to have a little talk, and this is not the place for it. Join us when you have completed the arrangements."
"Very good, sir," Donald said.
"Let's go to my car, Madame Welton. We can talk there."
"Yes, let's do that, Sheriff," Tonya Welton said, rather stiffly. "There are a few things we need to get straight. Come along, Ariel."
ALVAR Kresh and Tonya Welton sat down in the Sheriff's aircar, facing each other, both of them clearly wary. Welton's robot, Ariel, stood behind her mistress, fading into the background as far as Kresh was concerned. Robots didn't count.
"All right, then," he said. "What's all this about? Why did the Governor call you in? What possible connection does this case have with the Settlers?"
Tonya Welton folded her hands carefully and looked Kresh straight in the eye. "In a day or two you'll get the answer to that. But for now, it's classified."
"I see," Kresh said, though he most certainly did not. "I'm afraid that is not much of an explanation."
"No, and I am sorry for that, but my hands are tied. There is, however, one thing Ican tell you that will at least in part explain my being here. I do have authority to be here, under the agreement permitting a Settler presence on this world. I have the right to protect the safety of my employees."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Oh, yes, didn't you know?" Tonya Welton asked. "Fredda Leving is working for me."
There was a half minute' s dead silence. Fredda Leving was famous, one of the top roboticists on the planet. Most Infernals regarded her not as a person, but as a planetary asset. For her and her labs to be reduced to mere employees of the Settlers-Welton might as well have announced that the Settlers had purchased Government Tower, or gotten title to the Great Bay.
At last Alvar found his voice again. "If I could make a suggestion, Madame Welton, I think it might be wise to keep that fact very quiet indeed," he said gruffly.
Welton looked surprised. "Why? We haven't publicized it widely, but we haven't tried to keep it secret."
"Then I suggest you start," Alvar said.
"I'm afraid I don't understand," Welton said.
"Then let me make this clear, Madame Welton. The average citizen of Inferno will not regard this attack as a mere assault, or as attempted murder. The citizens will see an attack on a top scientist, especially a roboticist, as sabotage. Many of them will simply assume your people did it, even without knowledge of Settler involvement in Leving Labs. Once they hear Settlers are involved, that will only make it worse."
"Our involvement!" Tonya Welton exclaimed. "We had nothing to do with the attack!"
"That's as may be," Alvar said. Clearly Welton was upset, and he wanted her that way, wanted her off balance. What was she doing here, anyway? How had she gotten here so quickly? There was something damned suspicious in her haste and eagerness. Just what the hell kind of robotics work would the Settlers be interested in, anyway? There was more than one mystery in the air tonight.
Donald slipped back into the aircar and took a place standing against the wall, next to Ariel. Kresh glanced at him and nodded. There was something comforting in having his loyal servant present. But Donald was not the issue here. Kresh took a good hard look at Welton, trying to gauge her mood. If he was any judge of such matters, there was an underlayer of uncertainty below all her brave talk. "You deny involvement," he said, "but just now you spoke of Fredda Leving working for you.That is involvement enough. That alone will be seen as a threat by most of the people on this world."
"What in deep space are you talking about?" Welton demanded.
"My fellow Infernals will see interference in robot research as an attack on the Spacers' hopes of survival in a universe that seems to be surrendering itself to the Settlers. Given the slightest hint of any connection between the Settlers and the attack, however slender and tenuous, the people of this world will assume your people were behind it. They won't care if it is true or not. They willbelieve.
"They will associate this attack with the Settlers-the same damn Settlers they see wandering free allover Inferno, poking their noses into everything, treating the people of Inferno as little better than savages. It will be enough to make the situation even more tense