"Wouldn't dream of it. Still, this Gladia went to Aurora and you keep wanting to go there, too."
"Are you trying to tell me that you honestly think the reason I want to go to Aurora - Oh, Jehoshaphat!"
His son's eyebrows raised. "What's the matter?"
"The robot. That's R. Geronimo."
"Who?"
"One of our Department messenger robots. And it's out here! I'm off-time and I deliberately left my receiver at home because I didn't want them to get at me. That's my privilege and yet they send for me by robot."
"How do you know it's coming to you, Dad?"
"By very clever deduction - One: there's no one else here, who has any connection with the Police Department; and two: that miserable thing is heading right toward me. From that I deduce that it wants me. I should get on the other side of the tree and stay there."
"It's not a wall, Dad. The robot can walk around the tree."
And the robot called out, "Master Baley, I have a message for you. You are wanted at Headquarters."
The robot stopped, waited, then said again, "Master Baley, I have a message for you. You are wanted at Headquarters."
"I hear and understand," Baley said tonelessly. He had to say that or the robot would have continued to repeat.
Baley frowned slightly as he studied the robot. It was a new model, a little more humaniform, than the older models were. It had been uncrated and activated only a month before and with some degree of fanfare. The government was always trying for something anything - that might produce more acceptance of robots.
It had a grayish surface with a dull finish and a somewhat resilient touch (perhaps like soft leather). The facial expression, while largely changeless, was not quite as idiotic as that of most robots. It was, though, in actual fact, quite as idiotic, mentally, as all the rest.
For a moment, Baley thought of R. Daneel Olivaw, the Spacer robot, who had been on two assignments with him, one on Earth and one on Solaria, and whom he had last encountered when Daneel had consulted him in the mirror-image case. Daneel was a robot who was so human that Baley could treat him as a friend and could still miss him, even now. If all robots were like that -
Baley said, "This is my day off, boy. There is no necessity for me to go to Headquarters."
R. Geronimo paused. There was a trifling vibration in his hands. Baley noticed that and was quite aware that it meant a certain amount of conflict in the robot's positronic pathways.' They had to obey human beings, but it was quite common for two human beings to want two different types of obedience.
The robot made a choice. It said, "It is your day off, master. - You are wanted at Headquarters."
Ben said uneasily, "If they want you, Dad - "
Baley shrugged. "Don't be fooled, Ben. If they really wanted me badly, they'd have sent an enclosed car and probably used a human volunteer, instead of ordering a robot to do the walking and irritate me with one of its messages."
Ben shook his head. "I don't think so, Dad. They wouldn't know where you were or how long it would take to find you. I don't think they would want to send a human being on an uncertain search."
"Yes? Well, - let's see how strong the order is. - R. Geronimo, go back to Headquarters and tell them I'll be at work at 09:00." Then I sharply, "Go back! That's an order!"
The robot hesitated perceptibly, then turned, moved away, turned again, made an attempt to come back toward Baley, and finally remained in one spot, its whole body vibrating.
Baley recognized it for what it was and muttered to Ben, "I may have to go. Jehoshaphat!"
What was troubling the robot, was what the roboticists called an equipotential of contradiction on the second level. Obedience was the Second Law and R. Geronimo was now suffering from two roughly equal and contradictory orders. Robot-block was what the general population called it or, more frequently, roblock for short.
Slowly, the robot turned. Its original order was the stronger, but not by much, so that its voice was slurred. "Master, I was told you might say that. If so I was to say - I - " It paused, then added hoarsely, "I was to say - if you are alone."
Baley nodded curtly to his son and Ben didn't wait. He knew when his father was Dad and