Suspicion

Chapter 8. Identity Crisis

Derec hurried into the apartment to buzzing activity. Arion was there, and Euler, plus Eve and several utility robots. There was also a rather frail-looking machine with multiple appendages that Derec surmised to be a med-bot.

The living room seemed different, much squatter, but he really wasn’t paying attention.

“Friend Derec… Euler began, hurrying to intercept Derec as he crossed the living room floor.

“Where is she?” he asked, still moving.

“The bedroom,” Euler said. “She has regained consciousness and is resting. I do not think you should try and see her just yet.”

“Nonsense,” Derec said, hurrying past him. “I’ve got to see her.”

“But you don’t underst… ”

“Later,” Derec said, moving down the hallway. There were now two bedroom doors. He opened one to an empty room, then turned to the other, pushing the stud. It slid open. Katherine was sitting up in bed, her face drained of all color, her eyes red.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Her eyes focused on him, then grew wide in horror.

“Noooo!” she screamed, hands going to her straining face.

Derec ran to her and took her by the shoulders. She kept screaming, loudly, hysterically, her body vibrating madly on the bed.

“You’re dead!” she yelled. “Dead! Dead!”

“No!” he yelled. “I’m here. It’s all right. It’s all… ”

Euler was pulling him away from her, robots filling the room. “What are you doing?” he yelled. “Let go, I… ”

“You must leave now,” Euler said, lifting him bodily in the air and carrying him, Katherine’s screams still filling the apartment.

“Katherine!” he called to her as Euler carried him out the door. “Katherine!”

Euler carried him all the way to the living room, then simply held him there, the med-bot slipping into her bedroom and sliding the door closed, muffling the screams somewhat.

“Put me down!” Derec yelled. “Would you put me down?”

“You must not go in there,” Euler said. “It is dangerous for Katherine if you go in there.”

He felt the anger draining out of him. “What’s going on?” he asked sheepishly. “What’s happened to her?”

“She’s suffered some sort of emotional trauma,” the supervisor said. “May I put you down?”

“Believe me,” Derec said, “at this point, I don’t want to go back in.”

Euler set him gently on the floor. Derec rubbed his arms to get the circulation back into them.

“I am sorry if I caused you any discomfort,” Euler said. “Truly.”

“It’s all right,” Derec replied. “Tell me what happened.”

Thunder crashed loudly outside, both Derec and Euler turning to look at the building thunderheads through the open patio door. They were in for another bad one. From the bedroom, the sounds of screaming had died to occasional whimpers.

“Katherine found the body of David,” Euler said, “and had a utility robot cut into the sealed room that contained it.” The robot swiveled its head to take in the rest of the room. “Perhaps it is better to have Arion witness the story. He was present for it.” He motioned for the human-like machine to join the discussion.

“Friend Derec,” Arion said as he moved up close. “I had no idea that seeing the body would have this kind of effect on Friend Katherine. I would never have allowed her to come close to it had I known.”

“I understand,” Derec said. “Just tell me what happened.”

“She was examining the deceased,” Arion said, “when she called me in to help her roll the body over. I, of course, complied. She screamed when she saw the face, then lapsed into a state of unconsciousness.”

“She’s been disconsolate ever since,” Euler said. “Most peculiar. She persisted in the belief that the dead man was you.”

“Why would she do that?” he asked, moving to sit at the table. Arion’s CRT was busily finding the cube roots of ten-digit numbers.

“I don’t know,” Euler said. “Perhaps because the body looked like yours.”

Derec sat up straight, staring hard. “You mean… just like me?”

The robots looked at one another. “Perfectly,” Arion said.

“Doesn’t that strike you as odd?” Derec said, dumbfounded, still not believing the information.

“No,” Euler said.

“I don’t understand,” Derec said. “When you first saw me, didn’t you take note of the similarity of our appearances?”

“Yes,” Euler said, “but it didn’t mean anything to us.”

“Why not?”

Arion spoke up. “Why should it? We’ve only seen three human beings. Robots certainly can look exactly alike, why not humans? We knew you and Katherine were different, but that didn’t mean that you and David couldn’t be the same. Besides, we knew that David was dead; so, consequently, we knew that you couldn’t be David. Simple.”

The med-bot came gliding down the hall, moving quickly up to Derec. “She’s calm now,” the robot said. “She’s lightly sedated with her own pituitary endorphins, and wants to see you.”

Derec stood, uneasy after the last time. “It’ll be all right?” he asked the med-bot.

“I believe she understands the situation now,” the med-bot responded in a gentle, fatherly voice.

“I’d like to see her alone,” he told the others.

Euler nodded. “We’ll wait out here.”

He moved down the hall, unsure of his feelings. It had hurt him to see her in such pain, hurt him emotionally. She could get on his nerves so badly, yet seemed such an integral part of him.

He knocked lightly on her door, then opened it. She sat up in bed, her face still sad. She held her arms out to him. “Oh, Derec… ”

He hurried to the bed, sitting next to her, holding her. She began to sob gently into his shoulder. “I was so afraid,” she said. “I thought… thought… ”

“I know,” he said, stroking her hair. “Arion told me. I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she said, then pulled away from him. “Oh, Derec. I know we’ve walls between us… but please believe me, I have no idea what this place is and what’s going on here.”

“I believe you,” he said, reaching up to wipe tears from her eyes. He smiled. “Don’t worry about that now. How are you doing?”

“Better,” she said. “The med-bot stuck me a couple of times, but it really helped. All I’ve got is a headache.”

Thunder rolled again outside. “Good,” he said. “It looks like we’re locked in for the night anyway. What do you say we send the robots away, get some dinner sent up, and compare notes. I’ve got a lot to tell you.”

“Me, too,” she said. “It sounds good.”

They had a vegetable soup for dinner that was the best thing Derec had eaten for quite some time. The rains pounded frenetically outside, but Derec didn’t worry so much since he figured the precautions taken by Euler and Rydberg would, at least, get them through the night. And the best he could do now was to live day to day. Even Arion’s entertainment was beginning to diversify. The CRT was exhibiting an animated game of tennis played by computer-generated stick figures on a slippery surface. It was actually quite amusing.

After the servo had cleared the dishes away and left, they made themselves comfortable on the couch and recounted the details of the day. Derec, for reasons he wasn’t quite sure of, left out the fact that there were no hyperwave transmission stations on the planet. Counting on Katherine’s experiences to help him, he listened alertly to her account of the discovery of the body.

“The fact that he looked just like you,” she asked when she’d finished, “what does it mean?”

“To begin with,” he said, “it finally knocks the idea of our trip to Robot City being an accident right out the air lock. We were brought here; why, I don’t know. The dead man is either the one who brought us or was brought himself. We’ll have to continue to ferret that out. What interests me more is the fact that the city-robot works independently. I believe that the city is somehow replicating itself as a defensive measure. If it operates independently, the supervisors may not be able to stop it.”

“What does that mean?”

He looked at her. “It means that I’ve got to.”

“That brings us back to our same old argument,” she said, darkening a bit. “The city or the murder investigation.”

“Not necessarily,” he said, standing. “This should make you happy.” He walked back to the patio door and idly watched the downpour, feeling now that it could, eventually, be beaten. He turned back to her. “I believe that David and the city alert and replication are inexorably linked.”

She jumped up, excited, and ran to him, throwing her arms around him. “You’re going to help me solve the murder, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” he laughed, returning the embrace. “Tomorrow we go back to the body and pick up where you left off.” He moved away from her and intertwined his fingers. “It’s all like this, all connected. If we can put a few of the pieces together, I’ll bet the rest fall into place. Whatever, or whoever, killed David, is the reason for the alert.”

“First thing in the morning, we’ll have Eve take us back there.”

“Not first thing,” he said. “First thing, I’ve set up a brief meeting with the supervisors at the Compass Tower.”

“Why?”

“Two reasons. First, I want to ask them some questions about their underground operations; and second, I want to be able to poke around the building for a bit.”

“Looking for the office?”

He nodded. “1-1 said it was fully furnished. I bet we’ll find answers there.”

Her face got suddenly serious. “I hope you find the kind of answers you’re looking for,” she said.