“Here,” he said, passing it to Rick. “Read this. Mc. Crae Enterprises is announcing its revolutionary new line of security robots. According to that release, demonstrator sets will be available for shipment to interested customers within three weeks.”
“And it will take us a week just to get there,” Rick moaned. “Hosato…”
He stopped. Hosato was sitting with the layout maps in his hands, a vague smile on his face.
“What is it?” Rick asked.
“I believe the man has a plan,” the Hungarian observed.
“You’re right.” Hosato smiled. “Just an outline right now, but I think the details can be worked out. Sasha, you and James are going in with a tour group. Once you’re in the complex, you get to Turner’s office, activate the terminal, and change the program.”
“And what will you be doing in the meantime?” the former security chief asked archly.
“Me?” Hosato’s smile broadened. “I’ll be creating a diversion.”
Hosato watched the Ravensteel robots from his chosen place of concealment in a cluster of boulders up the slope from the ore vein. For nearly five hours now he had sat motionless, studying the machines as they labored at their task.
Below him the giant machines gouged and sliced monstrous hunks of ore from the exposed vein, lifting them into the waiting transport machines. As each transport in its turn was filled, it turned and began its trek back to the Ravensteel complex, another lurching forward to take its place at the fill point.
From his vantage point Hosato could see the long, broken line of transports trundling over the horizon, and its sister line of transports returning empty for another load.
“The tour ship is approaching,” Rick’s voice came in his ear.
“Acknowledged,” Hosato replied.
The Hungarian had been true to his word. Though not accompanying them, he had been more than generous in providing them with equipment. The surface suit Hosato was currently wearing was a vast improvement over the bulky affair he had tried to don in the Mc. Crae sand crawler. Its built-in communications system allowed him to maintain constant contact with Rick, waiting in the ship, while its close fit allowed him a freedom of movement he would not have believed possible in a surface suit. Most important, he could wear his invisibility suit over it.
Having received Rick’s signal, Hosato broke the seal of his Ninja suit. For this job, he wanted to be seen.
On the ground beside him were two tripod-mounted rifle blasters, more gifts from the Hungarian. Hosato picked one up and carefully eased it forward. The robots were still rumbling about their programmed tasks, unaware of his presence as he chose his first target and settled the cross hairs of his weapon on it.
He gently depressed the two firing lugs, and the weapon responded, a pencil-thin beam of energy darting forth, momentarily locking marksman and target together. At the other end of the beam, his target robot, the one farthest away of those visible to him, ground to a sudden halt.
Hosato waited several seconds, then triggered the weapon twice more in rapid succession. His second target, a robot at the ore face, imitated the first, jolting to rigid immobility. The third, loading a large chunk of ore onto a transport, went amok. Lurching forward, it rolled over the waiting transport unit, crushing it like a toy, and headed blindly into a rock formation. There, its forward momentum stopped, it began to slowly dig itself into the side of the abutment.
Hosato did not pause to watch the results of his marksmanship. He was busy firing sporadically but carefully into the robots below him. Then he rose and stepped from his hiding place, standing boldly in the open as he surveyed his handiwork.
Hosato smiled at the carnage. Nearly fifty robots had been seriously disabled or destroyed by his assault. About half a dozen robots still partially functioned. To be specific, though their movement might be impaired, their internal units that maintained communications with the central coordinating computer back at the Ravensteel complex were still fully active, as were their camera units. He had listened well when Rick outlined the operational modules of ore robots and their internal arrangement.
Terribly sloppy, instigating an attack and then failing to complete the carnage, particularly failing to break the enemy’s communication chain. It’s just the sort of blunder you would expect from a professional security guard suddenly assigned to play soldier.
There was even one fully operational robot down there. It was currently sitting far back in a shadowy ravine watching him. He couldn’t see it, but he had noted its retreat and deliberately allowed it to occur.
Aside from ensuring that data of his appearance would be relayed to Ravensteel, it was a good sign. The robot’s self-preserving maneuver, a clear break in pattern from its normal mining activity, indicated that someone or something at Ravensteel was feeding it new instructions. Whether it was the central coordinating computer or one of its human monitors did not matter. His attack had been noted, and counter-measures were already underway.
Smiling, he turned and headed over the crest of the ridge toward his rendezvous with the ship and with Rick. Mission accomplished. Ravensteel had experienced an attack on their operations by an obviously hostile force. Now, who on Griinbecker’s Planet would qualify as a hostile force. When the retaliation strike came, whom would it be directed against?
Hosato’s smile broadened. The robots at Mc. Crae were about to experience a diversionary attack that would be impossible to ignore.
“Still nothing?” Hosato asked anxiously, peering over Rick’s shoulder at the bank of instruments.
He was totally unfamiliar with the sensor system and ignorant of how to read the dials and wave patterns, but the action gave him a much-needed activity.
“If there was, I’d tell you!” Rick snapped. “Now, will you quit asking me the same question every thirty seconds?”
“I don’t understand it,” Hosato said, shaking his head. “They should have done something by now.”
Their shirk was concealed a short distance from the Mc. Crae complex. Inside, the two men waited to monitor the Ravensteel counterattack, an attack that had failed to develop.
“Maybe they recognized you,” Rick suggested. “Sasha and I both told you it was a mistake to leave Gedge alive.”
“And all of us agreed that if I were recognized, they’d assume I was acting under orders from Mc. Crae,” Hosato retorted. “Either way, it adds up to Mc. Crae as the target for their retaliation.”
“I bet they went after the Mc. Crae ore robots,” Rick said firmly. “Punishment equal to the crime or some such. 'They hit our miners, we hit their miners!' Just because they come after Mc. Crae doesn’t mean they’ll attack the main complex.”
“If they hit the ore robots, they’re in for a rude surprise,” Hosato said grimly. “Mc. Crae robots shoot back. When the humans of Ravensteel get fired on by robots, they’ll have to believe our story. Once our 'killer-robot' report is accepted, Ravensteel has to attack the complex just out of self-preservation.”
“But will they do it today?” Rick argued. “Corporations take forever to make decisions, and even longer to act on them. That’s assuming, of course, they get the report at all. What happens if no one survives the attack on the ore robots?”
Hosato made his decision.
“You’re right, Rick. There are too many variables. Too many ifs. I should have seen it in the plan. I’m just not used to working with a team!”
“Come on, Hosato, take it easy,” Rick said soothingly. “There’s nothing we can do now.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Rick. There’s something I can do, and I’m going to do it. I’m going in myself.”
Rick was openly taken aback at the idea.
“You’re nuts!” he declared. “We’ve gone over it a hundred times. It’s suicide for you to go in there alone.”
“The tour group’s in there already, right?” Hosato pressed. “Sasha and James are waiting for a diversion. You know Sasha. Do you think she’ll back away from it just because the attack doesn’t come. If it’s suicide for me to go in there armed and with all my equipment, what chance do the two of them have. A boy and a one-armed woman. Against the whole security network?”
