have always been as changed and I would have no memory of what I was before I was I changed."
"Then how do you know the reprogramming was minor?"
"Since Dr. Fastolfe never saw any need of correcting what Miss Vasilia did - or so he once told me - I can only suppose the changes were minor. You might ask Miss Vasilia, sir."
"I will," said Baley.
"I fear, however, that she will not answer, sir."
Baley's heart sank. So far he had questioned only Dr. Fastolfe, Gladia, and the two robots, all of whom had overriding reasons to cooperate. Now, for the first time, he would be facing an unfriendly subject.
37
Baley stepped out of the airfoil, which was resting on a grassy plot, and felt a certain pleasure in feeling solidity beneath his feet.
He looked around in surprise, for the structures were rather thickly spread, and to his right was a particularly large one, built plainly, rather like a huge right-angled block of metal and glass.
"Is that the Robotics Institute?" he asked.
Daneel said, "This entire complex is the Institute, Partner Elijah. You are seeing only a portion and it is more thickly built up than is common on Aurora because it is a self-contained political entity. It contains home establishments, laboratories, libraries, communal gymnasia, and so on. The large structure is the administrative center."
"This is so un-Auroran, with all these buildings in view at least judging from what I saw of Eos - that I should think there would be considerable disapproval."
"I believe there was, Partner Elijah, but the head of the Institute is friendly with the Chairman, who has much influence, and there was a special dispensation, I understand, because of research necessities." Daneel looked about thoughtfully. "It is indeed more compact than I had supposed."
"Than you had supposed? Have you never been here before, Daneel?"
"No, Partner Elijah."
"How about you, Giskard?"
"No, sir!" said Giskard.
Baley said, "You found your way here without trouble and you seem to know the place."
"We have been suitably informed, Partner Elijah," said Daneel, "since it was necessary that we come with you."
Baley nodded thoughtfully then said, "Why didn't Dr. Fastolfe come with us?" and decided, once again, that it made no sense to try to catch a robot off-guard. Ask a question rapidly or unexpectedly - and they simply waited until the question was absorbed and then answered. - They were never caught off guard.
Daneel said, "As Dr. Fastolfe said, he is not a member of the Institute and feels it would be improper to visit uninvited."
"But why is he not a member?"
"The reason for that I have never been told, Partner Elijah."
Baley's eyes turned to Giskard, who said at once, "Nor I, sir."
Did not know? Were told not to know? - Baley shrugged. It did not matter which. Human beings could lie and robots be instructed.
Of course, human beings could be browbeaten or maneuvered out of a lie - if the questioner were skillful enough or brutal enough - and robots could be maneuvered out of instruction - if the questioner were skillful enough or unscrupulous enough - but the skills were different and Baley had none at all with respect to robots.
He said, "Where would we be likely to find Dr. Vasilia Fastolfe?"
Daneel said, "This is her establishment immediately before us."
"You have been instructed, then, as to its location?"
"That has been imprinted in our memory banks, Partner Elijah - "
"Well, then, lead the way."
The orange sun was well up in the sky now and it was clearly nearing midday. As they approached Vasilia's establishment, they stepped into the shadow of the factory and Baley twitched a little as he felt the temperature drop immediately.
His lips tightened at the thought of occupying and settling worlds without Cities, where the temperature was uncontrolled and subject to unpredictable, idiotic changes. - And, he noted uneasily, the line of clouds at the horizon had advanced somewhat. It could also rain whenever it wished, with water cascading down.
Earth! He longed for the Cities.
Giskard had walked into the establishment first and Daneel held out his arm to prevent Baley from following.
Of course! Giskard was reconnoitering.
So was Daneel, for that matter. His eyes traversed the landscape with an intentness no human being could have duplicated. Baley was certain that those robotic eyes missed nothing. (He wondered why robots were not equipped with four eyes equally distributed about the perimeter of the head - or an optic strip totally circumnavigating it. Daneel could not be expected to, of course, since he had to be