Darmanian authorities.'
'None,' Jubal said.
'And without a mark on his work record, Reiss would have no reason to pass up his application for a job.'
Jubal still could not accept the devious resurrection of the past. He said, 'But the man embezzled the money. He knows he did. Knowing he was guilty, wouldn't he be relieved at getting off so lightly? When he'd had time to think it over, would he feed his hatred until he was willing to commit murder?'
'People have killed for less,' St. Cyr said. 'And it may just be possible that he was not lying to you when he told you that sob story about dependent children and a sick wife. If you'll excuse my saying so, you are not a proper judge of human emotions, not sensitive enough to such things to distinguish between a lie and the truth.'
Jubal apparently was willing to accept the judgment. He said nothing more, but he looked at Alicia and took her hands and held her beside him, close.
'Question?' Tina asked.
'Yes?'
'How could Walter Dannery have known the circumstances of daily life in this house? He would have had to be familiar with so much to have so minutely programmed Teddy. For instance, he would have to know about the wolf skins in storage, about Dane's superstitions—'
'Not at all,' St. Cyr interrupted. 'All that Dannery needed to do was implant the prime directive: 'Kill everyone in the Alderban family, but protect yourself against discovery.' He would have needed a number of qualifying directives, of course: 'Choose an exotic means of murder; establish suspects outside of yourself; to all overt intents and purposes, perform according to the Three Laws of Robotics…' He may even have chosen the werewolf scheme, since he lived on Darma and may have known the legends. After that, however, it was up to Teddy to work out a viable plan for the extermination of the family. Remember that a master unit has a fantastic capacity for the storage of new data, while its logic circuits are four times as large and eight times better than those in the bio-computer that I wear. With the minimum of directives, Teddy could have worked out the rest of it.'
'Now what do we do?' Alicia asked.
'We call Teddy in here and ask him to open his service panel for inspection. Unless I miss my guess, I believe he will obey. We simply shut him down.'
'Like pulling a plug,' Hirschel said.
St. Cyr crossed the room, opened the door and said, 'Teddy?'
Teddy did not respond.
St. Cyr stepped into the hall. 'Teddy, come here, please.'
He received no answer.
'Where is he?' Hirschel asked.
'Gone,' the cyberdetective said. 'I seem to have guessed wrong. Apparently he was eavesdropping through the house computer.'
FOURTEEN: Confrontation with the Killer
Hirschel maintained a small arsenal in his suite on the fifth level — pistols, rifles, revolvers, traps, and more insidious devices — and it was here that they armed themselves before making a thorough search of the mansion. Conventional weapons, for the most part, were useless against a robot, because the projectiles from few rifles — and from no handgun known — could be expected to pierce quarter-inch multi-pressed steel. In Hirschel's collection, however, were four vibra-beam weapons, guns that projected a powerful but rapidly dissipating beam of sound, carried and magnified in a high-intensity laser that moved on a line-of-sight between hunter and target. The light was visible as a quick flash, the sound beyond the range of the human ear. In close quarters, the weapon could kill a man and pretty well mangle the innards of a robot. Two of Hirschel's pieces were rifles, which he and St. Cyr chose, since they were more familiar with weaponry and would know how to use a rifle within the confines of a room, if the opportunity should come for that Tina and Dane took the pistols.
'We'll stay together,' St. Cyr said. 'Dane and I will walk abreast, Jubal and Alicia behind us, Hirschel and Tina at the rear. Keep your eyes open; we won't hear him coming if he doesn't want us to.'
In the corridor, St. Cyr picked up the nearest phone link to the house computer and directed it to turn on and keep on every light in the mansion. Teddy had night vision. They didn't. He further ordered the house to shut down all but one elevator, which only they would be permitted to use. Without curiosity, the computer obeyed.
'Can a master unit override the orders I just gave the house?' the detective asked Jubal.
'No.' Tired. Confused. Rich, yes, but what did that matter now?
'Perhaps, if he tampered with it—'
Jubal shook his head fiercely. 'The house computer is a perpetual care unit that repairs itself. It's housed in the rock strata under the mansion, sealed up tight. There is absolutely no way that Teddy could have gotten to it.'
'Good enough,' St. Cyr said. He was beginning to feel as if it was all so much ritual from this point on, the obligatory chase before the inevitable ending. 'We'll leave the bag of evidence in Hirschel's room. It contains Teddy's gun and claw, his two major weapons. That makes him less dangerous but not harmless, so watch your back while we're checking out the rest of these rooms.' In fifteen minutes the fifth level was cleared. St. Cyr lifted the phone link to the house computer and said, 'I want you to lock all the doors, patio doors and windows on the fifth level, inside and out I don't want you to unlock them except when you're told to do so by a human voice.'
'Yes, sir.'
He hung up and turned back to the others, grimaced and picked up the phone again.
'Yes?' the house asked.
'Can you distinguish between human voices and tapedeck constructions?'
The house said that it could.
He hung up again, 'Let's go down a level,' he said to the others.
The fourth level was clean, the lights burning brightly, the rooms still and deserted.
St. Cyr directed the house computer to lock all of the doors and windows as they left.
'Yes, sir,' it said.
It sounded polite and obedient. He
He was startled by the bio-computer's comment, chiefly because it was the first thing it had contributed since St. Cyr had begun to explain the nature of the crime to the family gathered in the kitchen.
They went down to the third level.
The library was clean.
So was Jubal's den, and Alicia's music room.
When they entered the main sitting room, where they had gathered to discuss the case on St. Cyr's first night in the mansion, Teddy drifted rapidly toward them, a dart gun affixed to the stump of his right arm. But that was impossible, St. Cyr thought. They had left the gun behind them, locked in Hirschel's room.
Teddy fired.
The dart stung St. Cyr's neck.
He plucked it out, though he knew it was too late. Evidently Teddy had been prepared for any contingency: He had manufactured two dart pistols.
Behind him, the others were hit too; they cried out and plucked the darts angrily from their chests and legs and arms, tossed them away. When he turned he saw that Teddy appeared to be a good marksman, for everyone was reacting as if he had been hit.
A second dart bit the detective's thigh. He pulled it loose, wondering:
Hirschel went down on one knee, the rifle already up against his shoulder.
Why didn't I react that fast? St. Cyr wondered. He dropped into the familiar firing position to make up for lost
