are you going to do for me that will make up for that - "
"I will do my best, Mr. Gremionis, to see that you do not lose your position. I feel confident that you will be in no trouble. If I fail, however, you are free to describe me as a madman who made wild accusations against you and frightened you with threats of slander, so that you had to let me use your viewer. I'm sure Dr. Amadiro will believe you. After all, you have already sent him a memo complaining that I have been slandering you, have you not?"
Baley lifted his hand in farewell. "Good-bye, Mr. Gremionis. Thank you again. Don't worry and - remember what I said about Gladia."
With Daneel and Giskard sandwiching him fore and aft, Baley stepped out of Gremionis' establishment, scarcely conscious of the fact that he was moving out into the open once more.
53
Once out in the open, it was a different matter. Baley stopped and looked up.
"Odd," he said. "I didn't think that that much time had passed, even allowing for the fact that the Auroran day is a little shorter than standard."
"What is it, Partner Elijah?" asked Daneel solicitously.
"The sun has set. I wouldn't have thought it."
"The sun has not yet set, sir," put in Giskard. "It is about two hours before sunset."
Daneel said, "It is the gathering storm, Partner Elijah. The clouds are thickening, but the storm will not actually break for some time yet."
Baley shivered. Dark, in itself, did not disturb him. In fact, when Outside, night, with its suggestion of enclosing walls, was far more soothing than the day, which broadened the horizons and opened space in every direction.
The trouble was that this was neither day nor night.
Again, he tried to remember what it had been like that time it had rained when he had been Outside.
It suddenly occurred to him that he had never been out when it snowed and that he wasn't even sure what the rain of crystalline solid water was like. Descriptions in words were surely insufficient. The younger ones sometimes went out to go sliding or sledding - or whatever - and returned shrieking with excitement - but always glad to get within the City walls. Ben had once tried to make a pair of skis, according to directions in some ancient book or other, and had gotten himself half buried in a drift of the white stuff. And even Ben's descriptions of what it was like to see and feel snow were distressingly vague and unsatisfying.
Then, too, no one went out when it was actually snowing, as opposed to having the material merely lying about on the ground. Baley told himself, at this point, that the one thing everyone agreed on was that it only snowed when it was very cold. It was not very cold now; it was merely cool. Those clouds did not mean it was going to snow. - Somehow, he felt only minimally consoled.
This was not like the cloudy days on Earth, which he had seen on Earth, the clouds were lighter; he was sure of that. They were grayish-white, even when they covered the sky solidly. Here, the light - what there was of it - was rather bilious, a ghastly yellowish-slate.
Was that because Aurora's sun was more orange than Earth's was?
He said, "Is the color of the sky - unusual?"
Daneel looked up at the sky. "No, Partner Elijah. It is a storm."
"Do you often have storms like this?"
"At this time of year, yes. Occasional thunderstorms. This is no surprise. It was predicted in the weather forecast yesterday and again this morning. It will be over well before daybreak and the fields can use the water. We've been a bit subnormal in rainfall lately."
"And it gets this cold, too? Is that normal, too?"
"Oh yes. - But let us get into the airfoil, Partner Elijah. It can be heated."
Baley nodded and walked toward the airfoil, which lay on the grassy plot where it had been brought to rest before lunch. He paused.
"Wait. I did not ask Gremionis for directions to Amadiro's establishment - or office."
"No need, Partner Elijah," said Daneel immediately, his hand in the crook of Baley's elbow, propelling him gently but unmistakably onward. "Friend Giskard has the map of the institute clearly in his memory banks and he will take us to the Administration Building. It is very likely that Dr. Amadiro has his office there."
Giskard said, "My information is to the effect that Dr.