"Asimov, Isaac - Robot City 02 - Suspicion - Michael McQuay" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

Rydberg came in from the bedroom, where he had apparently been searching in case Katherine had been lying. ?Everything that can be done is being done,? he said. ?We appreciate your concern. Ours is every bit as great as yours.?
?I?m not concerned,? she said. ?I couldn?t care less.?
The robots exchanged glances. ?You don?t care about the possible loss of a human life?? Euler asked.
Katherine jumped up from the couch. ?You mean he could possibly be . . . be . . . ??
?Dead?? Rydberg helped. ?Of course. We warned you that it was dangerous.?
For the fiftieth time since Derec?s leaving, she hurried back to the balcony doorway and stared into the blank wall of water. He?d had been gone for several hours, far longer than he should have been. If anything had happened to him?
?Why did he go out?? Euler asked from beside her.
?Again!? she said loudly. ?That same question. Why do you keep asking me that??
?Because we don?t understand,? Rydberg said, moving up to join them. ?You must know that robots don?t lie.?
?Yes,? she replied.
?Then, when we said it was dangerous, why did he risk his life?? Euler asked.
?To begin with, his definition of danger might be different from yours,? she said. ?But beyond that, he wanted to know about this crazy city of yours more than he was afraid of the danger.?
?You mean,? Euler said, ?that he could have purposely risked his life just for the sake of curiosity??
?Something like that.?
?Astounding.?
?Let me ask you a question,? she said, poking Euler in his chest sensors with an index finger. ?If you want people to live here so much, why did you pick a place with such dangerous weather??
Rydberg seemed to hesitate, as if he were weighing the answer he was about to give by some sort of internal scale. ?The weather here is not naturally like this,? he said at last.
?Naturally,? she repeated, zeroing in on the key word. ?Does this mean that something has affected the weather adversely??
?Yes,? Euler said.
?What?? she asked.
?We cannot tell you that,? Rydberg said, and walked over to peer beneath the couch.
?Will it stop soon?? Kate asked.?
Probably within the next hour,? Euler said. ?At which time we can conduct an extensive search for Friend Derec.?
A thought struck Katherine. She wanted to suppress it, but couldn?t. ?Is this how the other man . . . David, died??
?He may have caused the rains,? Euler said. ?but he didn?t die from them.?
?I don?t understand.?
?It is quite late for humans,? Rydberg said, moving toward the door. ?You must sleep now or risk damaging your health.?
With that, the two supervisor robots moved silently into the hallway, the door sliding shut behind them.
Katherine was alone, except for the robot standing guard in the hallway outside. She moved to the couch and curled into a tight ball. ?Oh, David,? she cried into the sleeve of her jumper. ?Why did this have to happen??


CHAPTER 3
THE EXTRUDER

Derec rode the aqueduct like a log in a sluice, his body numb, his senses and his fate out of control. The waters raged in his ears as his entire existence turned on the simple act of trying to keep his head above water. Nothing else mattered; life had reduced itself to its essence. There was no fear, no time for it, and any yearnings to have his life pass before his eyes went unsatisfied, since he had no life to reflect upon. There was only the water and the numbing cold?and the ubiquitous companionship of Death.
His ride could have lasted a minute or an eternity?he was beyond calculating time?but when he felt himself free-falling in midair, his brain snapped to the new reality and questioned.
He was falling, surrounded by a hot, moist wind. A bare glow of light seemed to envelope him, but before he had a chance to appreciate it, he splashed into hot water.
He had gulped down water with his quickly sucked breath, and when he bobbed to the surface like a cork, he was choking and coughing, his head pounding with a heartbeat throb. He panicked, then forced himself into control when he realized the water he was in wasn?t flowing, but pooling.
As he treaded water, he found himself grateful to his former life for giving him the lifesaving advantage of swimming lessons. He leaned back and floated on his back, small currents pulling him this way and that. His body ached horribly from the battering he had taken in the aqueduct; every bit of strength had drained from him.
There was a ceiling of some sort above him, tiny lights making it dimly visible. The roar of waterfalls filled the hollow cavern completely, and he turned his head to the side to get a glimpse of his surroundings.
He was a hundred meters from the edge of a large square pool that stretched perhaps a thousand meters across. Red lights set at regular intervals bathed the entire area in an eerie glow. In the middle of each side of the pool were aqueduct runoffs, four in all, their cascades shimmering like fading pulsars in the red haze. These four runoffs provided the incredible noise that churned inside his head, all of it echoing within the confined space.
Where was he? A collection point of some kind, perhaps a reservoir. Any city needed a water supply. This was probably connected to a water treatment plant meant to sustain the human population that didn?t live there. This only strengthened Derec?s earlier speculation that this was not a city simply meant for robots. What was going on here was serious colonization.
Another realization occurred to him, too. The reservoir had saved his life. He had been showing the beginning signs of hypothermia during his wild ride down the aqueduct, but the hot water of the reservoir was thawing him out.
Why hot water? The water was definitely warmer than human body temperature, perhaps as much as fifteen degrees, and incredibly hot winds were raging through the chamber, competing with the charging runoff waters in loudness. In fact, the soothing heat and the rest were already beginning to lull his senses, and he realized that if he wasn?t careful, he could end up at the other end of the physical spectrum with hyperthermia. Whether hypo or hyper, though, the results were still the same. He was going to have to get out of the water or risk overburdening his heart.
Still on his back, he churned his legs lightly while propelling himself with his arms. There seemed to be robotic movement at the far end of the reservoir, but he didn?t have the strength to swim that far. Having no idea of which way to go, he simply moved toward the closest shoreline. The process was time-consuming, though, for the runoffs created their own currents.
He swam with leisure, but determination, taking the time to check out his body. He had taken a beating in his wild ride down the aqueduct, but besides general bruises, nothing major seemed to be wrong.
As he neared the edge of the pool, he could see that the runoff streams had slowed considerably, leading him to speculate that the rain had stopped outside. Fuzzy light was also beginning to seep in around the dark edges of the covered pool, and he realized that day had broken.
He finally reached the edge of the pool, its surface made from the same material as the rest of the city. Metal ladders were set at regular intervals around the edge, and he floated to the nearest one to begin his climb out.
The water was barely three meters from the top of the pool, and fortunately so, because as soon as Derec began his climb he knew he wasn?t doing well. His body, so light in the water, felt like it weighed a ton. The combination of emotional stress, the ordeal of the aqueduct, and the overheated water of the pool had all had an effect on his body. He dragged himself slowly up the ladder, then rolled, gasping, onto the edge of the pool and lay there.
He closed his eyes, just for a minute, and he was gone. He didn?t know how long he had slept, but when he awoke, it was with a start. A loud rumble assailed his hearing. He sat up quickly, darting his head around, and saw a large vehicle moving around the pool toward him, its engine noises amplified to a roar in the cavern-like surroundings.