Utopia - By Isaac Asimov,Roger E. Allen Page 0,45

a real mess on our hands. Devray out."

Justen glanced toward Gervad. "How soon?" he asked.

"We will arrive over Government Tower in approximately three minutes. However, sir, First Law prevents me from landing this craft in the vicinity of an uncontrolled toxic and flammable material while a human is on board."

"I know," Justen said, working the comm system controls again. "Once we arrive, circle the building near the roof." He got the controls to where he wanted them. "This is Commander Devray on crash emergency circuit. I need immediate voice contact with Governor Kresh."

After a remarkably brief delay, the governor came on the line. "Kresh here."

"Devray here. The code query is Emoch Huthwitz."

"Burning stars," the governor replied, the surprise plain in his voice. But for all of that, he recovered quickly and gave the proper response. "The code reply is melted Sappers."

"Thank you, sir. I'm glad to know it is really you." Devray and Kresh had agreed on the query and reply after what had happened to Governor Grieg. The opposition had planted a device that simulated Grieg's voice, and made it seem as if he were alive and well after he was dead. The ruse had nearly worked then. Devray did not wish to be fooled by the same sort of impostor.

"So am I, Commander. Something is going on." It was not a question.

"Yes, sir, and I don't know what. There's been a staged accident on the roof of Government Tower. You might be the target-but I suspect it is our young friend. Please go to heightened security status."

"At once," Kresh said. "I can tell you our friend left here not ten minutes ago. Keep me informed. Kresh out."

Justen allowed himself a half a minute to give thanks once again for the blessings of a governor who used to be a cop. Kresh knew better than to tie up the line with a lot of foolish questions.

Justen thought fast. The odds were good that Lentrall was still in the building. And standard operating procedure was for all visitors to the governor to be tracked as they moved through the building. If Lentrall was already with his security detail, maybe everything would be all right. Justen switched to yet another channel. "Commander Justen Devray. Priority call to Central Control, Government Tower."

"This is Central Control." Another calm, unflappable robot voice. Good.

"I need an immediate location fix on a visitor to the governor, named Davlo Lentrall, and a fix on the security detail assigned to him."

"Davlo Lentrall left the building and exited out onto the main plaza approximately thirty seconds ago. His security detail is on the rooftop landing pad and in the Topside command center adjacent to it."

"Damnation!" Devray cut the connection. Now he saw it. The point of the staged accident was to split off Lentrall from his security detail. It had to mean they were going to make a try for him right now. Kill him, or grab him, or something. And there was nothing Justen could do to

Wait a second. There was something. Even if Lentrall didn't have the security detail on him, he did have something nearly as good. His robot. His robot was right there with him. If he could get through to the robot on hyperwave...There had to be a way. There had to be.

"We have reached Government Tower," Gervad announced. "Commencing orbit of the rooftop level."

"Excellent," Justen said, though there was very little all that excellent about the situation. He looked up from the comm system controls. There was the flat top of the huge building, about thirty meters away. It looked as if the robots had formed a sort of protective cordon about the airtruck, keeping all the human personnel well away. He could see several officers arguing with the robots, gesturing vigorously. Damnation. They should be shooting robots, not debating them. He could see one of the police officers waving to him. But the situation on the rooftop was nothing but a diversion. Justen was sure of that. He was determined, therefore, not to be diverted by it. Let the rooftop cops argue with robots all they liked. For a moment he considered heading down toward the plaza below, but thought better of it. No doubt whoever was running this show could see his car up here by the rooftop landing pad. Let them think he was still worried about the accident up there. Besides, he didn't even know Lentrall. He had never seen the man, or even a photo of him. What