[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Page 85
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
With a glance at Mirta, Tansaw stepped inside. He knew, absolutely knew, that
this was the way the robot had gone.
But he also knew he didn t much like the idea of tracking a robot who was
capable of thinking in terms of diversionary tactics. And that second piece of
knowledge did much to remove the savor from the first piece.
They moved into the gloomy interior of the building. There was very little
inside, merely a forest of packing cases that had never been cracked open.
Hades was full of such buildings--designed, built, stocked with equipment by
robots and forgotten. Most of the ghost buildings were like this one, wholly
complete, but left vacant. The ghosts were gifts from on high to criminal
gangs of all sorts, ideal places to meet, to hide out, perfect headquarters
from which to run their scams and crimes.
It looked as if this building had gotten all the way to furniture delivery
before being shut down. The crates were neatly stacked everywhere, turning the
first floor into a maze of hiding places. And then there were the floors above
and the subbasements and service tunnels below. Even if the rogue had come in
here, how the hell would they ever know it, or find him?
Then Mirta grabbed his arm and pointed her handlamp down at the floor.
Dust. The floor was covered in a smooth, perfect film of dust--with one set of
distinctly robotic footprints leading off into the interior, moving at a
smooth and confident pace.
The two deputies followed the line of footprints through the canyons of
packing cases. They led straight for a stairwell, its door standing open.
Moving cautiously, Mirta and Tansaw went inside, to be greeted by a cool
breeze blowing down the shaft, which apparently also served as part of the
ventilator system. But the air currents meant no dust deposits here. No
footprints. Damn it. All right, then. Up or down? Which way did he go?
 He headed straight for the stairs, Mirta said, her voice a loud whisper.
 So what does that tell us? Tansaw asked.
 That he knows where he s going. He must have a good internal map system. He s
not moving in a panic. He s got a plan, he s thinking ahead.
 Which means he must have figured out that heading up isn t going to do him
any good. We d be able to seal off the building and bottle him up. So he went
down into the service tunnels. That was always bad news. The tunnels went
everywhere, to allow the maintenance robots to bring in supplies and services
without adding to street congestion. And despite all official statements to
the contrary, every cop knew there were lots of tunnels that did
not appear on any map. Some had just been dug and then forgotten, some had
been deliberately erased from the map memories--and some had been dug by
robots in the employ of enterprising freelancers of one sort or another.
 Right. Mirta holstered her gun and pulled her tracker/mapper out of her
tunic. She worked the controls and consulted the screen.  Not so bad around
here, she said.  I only show one main horizontal shaft connecting to this
building.
 Can we seal it before he can use it to get to another tunnel? All the
tunnels--all the official tunnels, at least--were equipped with heavy-duty
vault-style doors.
 We can try, Mirta said.  It ll be close, one way or the other. She brought
her comm mike around to her mouth.  This is Deputy 1231, in rapid pursuit of
suspect. Request immediate seals on all accesses to city tunnel number A7
B26. She listened to her headset for a moment, and Tansaw felt as much as
heard a series of muffled, far-off clanging thuds.  That ought to do it, she
said.  If he didn t get out of B26 before we sealed it, we have him now.
Tansaw looked up at his partner and nodded.  It s time to call in the others,
he said.
CALIBAN heard the booming thuds of the tunnel doors slamming shut. He had been
moving at a fast, steady, walking pace in the narrow tunnel, but now he broke
into a run, hurrying for the end. He came upon it all too soon and knew he was
Page 86
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
in deep trouble. This door was meant for a full-security seal. He tried to
force it open, but obviously it had been specifically designed to be beyond a
robot s strength, with a locked and armored control panel as well. He
consulted his datastore map.
Tunnel A 7 B26 was  H -shaped, with the access to the building above in the
center of the cross member, and the four ends of the vertical members linking
into the main city tunnel system. The tunnel itself was barren, nothing but
bare walls, floors, and ceilings, with glow lamps set into the ceiling s
overhead crossbeam supports. The beams looked to be some sort of plasteel,
twenty centimeters square in cross section, spaced at five-meter intervals.
Suddenly Caliban had an idea. He consulted his datastore and confirmed that
humans saw in a far more limited range of light wavelengths than he did.
Nor, it appeared, did their bodies provide any source of built-in
illumination. He turned around and hurried back down the tunnel, at top speed,
yanking out the glow lamps, crushing them, heaving the debris in all [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]