Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov [32]
Jessie never saw things that way. On similar occasions in the past, she had said, “It’s your silly loyalty index. I’m so tired of hearing everyone praise you for being so full of a sense of duty. Think of yourself once in a while. I notice the ones on top don’t bring up the topic of their own loyalty index.”
Baley lay in bed in a state of stiff wakefulness, letting Jessie calm down. He had to think. He had to be certain of his suspicions. Little things chased one another and fitted together in his mind. Slowly they were building into a pattern.
He felt the mattress give as Jessie stirred.
“Lije?” Her lips were at his ears.
“What?”
“Why don’t you resign?”
“Don’t be crazy.”
“Why not?” She was suddenly almost eager. “You can get rid of that horrible robot that way. Just walk in and tell Enderby you’re through.”
Baley said coldly, “I can’t resign in the middle of an important case. I can’t throw the whole thing down the disposal tube just anytime I feel like it. A trick like that means declassification for cause.”
“Even so. You can work your way up again. You can do it, Lije. There are a dozen places where you’d fit into Service.”
“Civil Service doesn’t take men who are declassified for cause. Manual labor is the only thing I can do; the only thing you could do. Bentley would lose all inherited status. For God’s sake, Jessie, you don’t know what it’s like.”
“I’ve read about it. I’m not afraid of it,” she mumbled.
“You’re crazy. You’re plain crazy.” Baley could feel himself trembling. There was a familiar, flashing picture of his father in his mind’s eye. His father, moldering away toward death.
Jessie sighed heavily.
Baley’s mind turned savagely away from her. In desperation, it returned to the pattern it was constructing.
He said, tightly, “Jessie, you’ve got to tell me. How did you find out Daneel was a robot? What made you decide that?”
She began, “Well …” and just ran down. It was the third time she had begun to explain and failed.
He crushed her hand in his, willing her to speak. “Please, Jessie. What’s frightening you?”
She said, “I just guessed he was a robot, Lije.”
He said, “There wasn’t anything to make you guess that, Jessie. You didn’t think he was a robot before you left, now did you?”
“No-o, but I got to thinking …”
“Come on, Jessie. What was it?”
“Well … Look, Lije, the girls were talking in the Personal. You know how they are. Just talking about everything.”
Women! thought Baley.
“Anyway,” said Jessie. “The rumor is all over town. It must be.”
“All over town?” Baley felt a quick and savage touch of triumph, or nearly that. Another piece in place!
“It was the way they sounded. They said there was talk about a Spacer robot loose in the City. He was supposed to look just like a man and to be working with the police. They even asked me about it. They laughed and said, ‘Does your Lije know anything about it, Jessie?’ and I laughed, and said, ‘Don’t be silly!’
“Then we went to the etherics and I got to thinking about your new partner. Do you remember those pictures you brought home, the ones Julius Enderby took in Spacetown, to show me what Spacers looked like? Well, I got to thinking that’s what your partner looked like. It just came to me that that’s what he looked like and I said to myself, Oh, my God, someone must’ve recognized him in the shoe department and he’s with Lije and I just said I had a headache and I ran—” Baley said, “Now, Jessie, stop, stop. Get hold of yourself. Now why are you afraid? You’re not afraid of Daneel himself. You faced up to him when you came home. You faced up to him fine. So—”
He stopped speaking. He sat up in bed, eyes uselessly wide in the darkness.
He felt his wife move against his side. His hand leaped, found her lips and pressed against them. She