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force of robots on hand. 
 Makes sense to me, Devray said.  I ve been wondering about that. If all they
had wanted was a simple diversion, there wasn t any need to go to the lengths
they did.
 That s a good explanation, Fredda said,  but I think you ve got to think
about the psychology of the whole plan too. There s something theatrical about
it all. It s complicated, it s full of grand gestures.
 Whoever set this up, Kresh said.  The ringleader. That s the person we
should be thinking about, not a cipher like Ottley Bissal. He s no one at all.
It s who he might lead us to that I m interested in. So far, about the one
thing we can say for sure about the ringleader is that it wasn t Bissal.
 That theatrical angle,  Devray said.  A person like that wouldn t want to
miss the show.
 What do you mean? Fredda asked.
 I mean if the ringleader is the sort of person with a flair for the dramatic
you re talking about, and if he or she has an ego big enough to think about
killing the Governor--then that person would be there.  Devray thought for a
moment, and nodded to himself.  Our ringleader would want to be there,
watching the show he or she had set up, gloating over it. There would be no
real danger in watching it unfold. He or she would have so many cutouts and
layers of security that the team s own operatives wouldn t know who the boss
was. But the boss would be there, watching it happen. An audience of one. 
 Point taken, Kresh said.  It would be an insane risk for the leader of the
plot to be within a hundred kilometers of the place--but people who kill
planetary leaders aren t altogether sane. All right, there we are at the
staged fight. 
 The fight draws the attention of the party-goers, Devray went on,  and
distracts enough of the Ranger security guards inside the house so Bissal can
get to the storage room with the robots. Alternately, the fight provides the
excuse for the guards being drawn off, as they were already suborned in the
first place. They are my people, but they are also human. It is possible that
Huthwitz was not the only dirty Ranger in all this. But I will say in defense
of the Rangers that they are not used to serving as sentries. They don t get
much training in it. Robots do that sort of thing. It was only because robots
were not supposed to be in evidence last night for political reasons that
Grieg asked for human guards.
 And if he had stuck with robot guards, he d be alive this morning,
Kresh said.  That s another reason the plotters must have chosen last night--
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at a regular Spacer party, there would have been throngs of robots around,
serving the food, offering drinks and so on, and they would have stayed on
after the party, remained in the house. There would have been a dozen
different types of robots, from a dozen different sources. There would be no
way to deactivate them all at one go before the event. The reception last
night was all human service, Rangers serving as bartenders and waiters, and
they went home when they were done. Cinta Melloy thought it was strange that
Grieg was alone in the house, but that wasn t the strange part. The strange
part was that he had none of his own household robots along.
 In any event, Bissal uses the diversion of the fight to get to the storeroom
and wait. You, Sheriff Kresh, investigate the staged fight, and while you are
otherwise involved, the three supposed SSS agents come in and take Blare and
Deam away, never to be seen again. The party goes on, with no apparent further
incident, but everyone more than a little paranoid. Shortly thereafter, the
Rangers on duty are sent down to activate the SPRs and deploy them. I
questioned the Rangers who did the job, and they said all fifty robots were
standing there, powered down, their chest access panels open. All the
Rangers had to do was push the power buttons and close the access doors. One
of the Sappers failed to activate, but the Rangers did not fuss with it very
much, figuring forty-nine security robots were enough. They were also a bit
anxious to get back to their own duty posts--understandable, with all the
commotion that had already taken place. 
 Unless they were the Rangers who were suborned, Kresh said.  That seems
farfetched, but there was a conspiracy. Sooner or later, someone or other will
suspect every single person at the reception of being in on the plot. And that
goes for all of us around this table. We have to be ready for that. 
 I m already checking the two Rangers who powered up the Sappers,
Devray said.  In any event, the plotters now had a houseful of rigged security
robots, and Bissal was in the basement with Fredda s Trojan robot. He might
have come out and starting unpacking his gear then, but if he had any sense at
all, he stayed in that closet, out of sight, waiting. Not the most relaxing
way to spend the evening. His nerves may have gotten a bit jangled by waiting
so long in the dark, which might explain some of the mistakes he made. Judging
by the integrator images, he was already a little jumpy when he arrived.
 The party ends. The guests leave. The Ranger waiters are eager to get the
place cleaned up and get out of there. They don t like being servants.
It s humiliating to be doing a robot s job, and it s not why they joined the
force. Maybe they are a little hurried, a little sloppy. Meantime, upstairs,
Grieg is having his usual series of end-of-the-evening meetings. The next to
last of these is with Tierlaw Verick--and I think we need to take another
crack at Verick. I don t think we got everything out of him. And he s got to
be a prime suspect in all this. Donald can say what he wants about Caliban and
Prospero, but if I were an assassin, I d want a human confederate in the
house, not a pair of robots.
 We re still holding him, Kresh said.  He s mad enough to bite the head off a
Sapper, but he s not going anywhere.
 Good, Devray said.  Anyway, according to Verick s statement, he said good
night to the Governor at the door. He encountered two robots matching
Caliban s and Prospero s descriptions coming in as he went out, and then went
to bed. He claims to have slept through the ruckus, and he seems to have been
overlooked in the initial room-to-room search.
 My people getting sloppy,  Kresh said.  And more damn suspects for the
conspiracy mill. Though what purpose pretending to overlook Verick might have,
I can t imagine.
 Caliban and Prospero meet with the Governor, Devray continued. 
According to Donald, they say they threatened the Governor with blackmail.
They may have participated in some way in the murder. Perhaps they removed the
modified range restrictors from the ground-floor robots. Maybe Bissal was
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doing that while they shot the Governor. But let s leave them out of it for
now. We don t really need them to explain the sequence of events. We can add
them later if we have to. Donald, what did they say happened after they talked
to Grieg?
 They say they left the Residence without noticing anything untoward and
walked back to Limbo. 
 In the driving rain? Kresh asked.
 Neither of them had access to an aircar, Donald said.  I would expect the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]