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thousand years ago looked to those ancient minds. "
"Burning up the Galaxy?" Dors said hollowly. "Making it safe for the precious
humans, " Hari said.
"For this, " Daneel said, "they wish revenge. But why now?"
"They are at last able... and they finally detected you robots, distinguishing
you from the tiktoks. "
Daneel asked stonily, "How?"
"When they found the sims I had revived. Working backward from them, to me,
they found Dors. Then you. "
"They can survey that widely?" Dors asked. Hari said, "All digital information
from surveillance cameras, from snooper pickups, microdevices
they can fish in that sea. "
"You helped them, " Daneel said.
"For the good of the Empire I made my deal with them. "
Daneel said, "They first killed the Lamurkians, when turned on my robots.
Assigning a dozen tiktoks to each, they overwhelmed our kind. "
"All of us?" Dors whispered.
"About a third of us escaped. " Daneel allowed himself a hard smile. "We are
far more capable than nese... automatons. " Hari nodded sadly. "That was not
in the deal.
They... used me. " "I think we are all being used. " Daneel cast a sour gance
at Hari. "In different ways. " "I had to do it, friend Daneel. " Dors stared
at Hari. "I scarcely know you. " Hari said softly, "Sometimes being human is
harder than it looks. "
Dors' eyes flashed. "Aliens slaughtering my kind!" "I had to find a solution "
She said, "Robots, especially the humaniforms
they're servants, they "
"My love, you are more human than anyone I've known. " " But murder!"
"There was going to be murder anyway. The ancient memes could not be stopped.
" Hari sighed and realized how far he had come. This was power, hovering above
all and seeing the world as a vast arena, its clashes unending. He had become
part of that and knew he could not go back to being the simple mathist ever
again.
Dors demanded, "Why are you so sure? You could have told us, we could "
"They knew you already. If I had stalled, they would have taken you two, gone
hunting for the rest. "
Daneel asked sternly, "And... for us?" "Both of you I saved. Part of the deal.
" Daneel wilted then. "Thank you... I
suppose. " Hari gazed at his old friend, eyes misting. "You... are carrying
too much weight. "
Daneel nodded. "I carried out the imperative and obeyed you. "
Hari nodded. "Lamurk. I was there. Your insects fried him. " "Or appeared to.
"
"What?" Hari stared as Daneel pressed a button on his wrist, then turned to
the office door. Through it, pausing slightly for the security screen, stepped
a man of unremarkable looks in a brown workman's coverall.
"Our Mister Lamurk, " Daneel said. "That isn't " Hari then saw the subtle
resemblances. The nose had been trimmed, cheeks filled out, hair thinned and
browned, ears sloped back. "But I saw him die!"
"So you did. The voltage he took fully stopped him for a bit, and had my
disguised guards not begun proper treatment at the site, he would have stayed
dead. " "You could pull him back from that?"
FOUNDATION'S FEAR
569
"It is an ancient craft. "
"How long can a human remain dead before ?"
"About an hour, at low temperatures. We had to work much faster than that, "
Daneel said in measured tones.
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"Honoring the First Law, " Hari said.
"Shading it a bit. There is no lasting harm done to Lamurk. Now he will devote
his talents to better ends. "
"Why?" Hari realized that Lamurk had said nothing. The man stood attentively,
watching Daneel, not Hari. "I do have certain positive powers over human
minds. An ancient robot named Giskard gave me limited sway over the neural
complexities of the human cerebral cortex. I have altered Lamurk's motivations
and trimmed some memories. "
"How much?" Dors asked suspiciously. To her, Hari realized, Lamurk was still
an enemy until proven otherwise.
Daneel waved a hand. "Speak. " "I understand that I have erred. " Lamurk spoke
in a dry, sincere voice, without his usual fire. "I apologize, especially to
you, Hari. I cannot recall my offenses, but I regret them. I shall do better
now. "
"You do not miss your memories?" Dors probed. "They are not precious, " Lamurk
said reasonably. "An endless chain of petty barbarities and insatiable
ambitions, as nearly as I can recall. Blood and anger. Not great moments, so
why preserve them? I will be a better person now. "
Hari felt both wonder and fear. "If you could do this, Daneel, why do you
bother to argue with me? fust change my mind!"
Daneel said calmly, "I would not dare. You are different from others. "
"Because of psychohistory? Is that all that holds you back?"
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GREGORY BEN FORD
"That, yes. But you also did not have the brain fever when young. That makes
my skills useless. For example, I could not sense your plot to use the tiktoks
against the Lamurk faction, when we met in that open, public place, to enlist
my robots' help. "
"I... see. " To Hari it was sobering to see by how slender a thread his
dealings had hung. Merely missing a childhood disease!
"I am looking forward to my future tasks, " Lamurk said flatly. "A new life. "
"What tasks?" Dors asked.
"I will go to the Benin Zone, as regional manager. A responsibility with many
exciting challenges. "
"Very good, " Daneel said approvingly.
Something in the blandness of all this sent a chill . down Hari's spine. This
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