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.Think of yourselfonce in a while.I notice the ones on top don t bringup the topic of their own loyalty index. Baley lay in bed in a state of stiff wakefulness, let-ting Jessie calm down.He had to think.He had to becertain of his suspicions.Little things chased oneanother and fitted together in his mind.Slowly theywere 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. Youcan get rid of that horrible robot that way.Just walkin and tell Enderby you re through. Baley said coldly, I can t resign in the middle ofan important case.I can t throw the whole thing84 Caves of Steel 6/23/03 10:08 AM Page 85THE CAVES OF STEELdown the disposal tube just anytime I feel like it.Atrick like that means declassification for cause. Even so.You can work your way up again.Youcan do it, Lije.There are a dozen places where you dfit into Service. Civil Service doesn t take men who are declassi-fied for cause.Manual labor is the only thing I cando; the only thing you could do.Bentley would loseall inherited status.For God s sake, Jessie, you don tknow 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 couldfeel himself trembling.There was a familiar, flashingpicture 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 des-peration, 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? Whatmade you decide that? She began, Well. and just ran down.It wasthe 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 youguess that, Jessie.You didn t think he was a robotbefore you left, now did you? No-o, but I got to thinking. Come on, Jessie.What was it? 85 Caves of Steel 6/23/03 10:08 AM Page 86ISAAC ASIMOV Well.Look, Lije, the girls were talking inthe Personal.You know how they are.Just talkingabout everything. Women! thought Baley. Anyway, said Jessie. The rumor is all overtown.It must be. All over town? Baley felt a quick and savage touchof triumph, or nearly that.Another piece in place! It was the way they sounded.They said there wastalk about a Spacer robot loose in the City.He was sup-posed to look just like a man and to be working withthe police.They even asked me about it.They laughedand 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 thinkingabout your new partner.Do you remember those pic-tures you brought home, the ones Julius Enderby tookin Spacetown, to show me what Spacers looked like?Well, I got to thinking that s what your partner lookedlike.It just came to me that that s what he looked likeand I said to myself, Oh, my God, someone must verecognized him in the shoe department and he s withLije and I just said I had a headache and I ran Baley said, Now, Jessie, stop, stop.Get hold ofyourself.Now why are you afraid? You re not afraidof Daneel himself.You faced up to him when youcame home.You faced up to him fine.So He stopped speaking.He sat up in bed, eyes use-lessly wide in the darkness.He felt his wife move against his side.His handleaped, found her lips and pressed against them.She86 Caves of Steel 6/23/03 10:08 AM Page 87THE CAVES OF STEELheaved against his grip, her hands grasping his wristand wrenching, but he leaned down against her themore heavily.Then, suddenly, he released her.She whimpered.He said, huskily, Sorry, Jessie, I was listening. He was getting out of bed, pulling warmPlastofilm over the soles of his feet. Lije, where are you going? Don t leave me. It s all right.I m just going to the door. The Plastofilm made a soft, shuffling noise as hecircled the bed.He cracked the door to the livingroom and waited a long moment.Nothing happened.It was so quiet, he could hear the thin whistle ofJessie s breath from their bed.He could hear the dullrhythm of blood in his ears.Baley s hand crept through the opening of thedoor, snaking out to the spot he needed no light tofind.His fingers closed upon the knob that con-trolled the ceiling illumination.He exerted the small-est pressure he could and the ceiling gleamed dimly,so dimly that the lower half of the living roomremained in semidusk.He saw enough, however.The main door wasclosed and the living room lay lifeless and quiet.He turned the knob back into the off position andmoved back to bed.It was all he needed.The pieces fit.The patternwas complete.Jessie pleaded with him. Lije, what s wrong? Nothing s wrong, Jessie.Everything s all right.He s not here. 87 Caves of Steel 6/23/03 10:08 AM Page 88ISAAC ASIMOV The robot? Do you mean he s gone? For good? No, no.He ll be back.And before he does,answer my question. What question? What are you afraid of? Jessie said nothing.Baley grew more insistent. You said you werescared to death. Of him. No, we went through that.You weren t afraid ofhim and, besides, you know quite well a robot cannothurt a human being. Her words came slowly. I thought if everyoneknew he was a robot there might be a riot.We dbe killed. Why kill us? You know what riots are like. They don t even know where the robot is, dothey? They might find out. And that s what you re afraid of, a riot? Well Sh! He pressed Jessie down to the pillow.Then he put his lips to her ear. He s come back.Now listen and don t say a word.Everything s fine.He ll be gone in the morning and he won t be back.There ll be no riot, nothing. He was almost contented as he said that, almostcompletely contented.He felt he could sleep.He thought again: No riot, nothing.And nodeclassification.88 Caves of Steel 6/23/03 10:08 AM Page 89THE CAVES OF STEELAnd just before he actually fell asleep, he thought:Not even a murder investigation.Not even that.The whole thing s solved.He slept.89 Caves of Steel 6/23/03 10:08 AM Page 907.EXCURSION INTOSPACETOWN.Police Commissioner Julius Enderby polished hisglasses with exquisite care and placed them upon thebridge of his nose.Baley thought: It s a good trick.Keeps you busywhile you re thinking what to say, and it doesn t costmoney the way lighting up a pipe does.And because the thought had entered his mind, hedrew out his pipe and dipped into his pinched store ofrough-cut.One of the few luxury crops still grown onEarth was tobacco, and its end was visibly approach-ing.Prices had gone up, never down, in Baley s life-time; quotas down, never up.Enderby, having adjusted his glasses, felt for theswitch at one end of his desk and flicked his doorinto one-way transparency for a moment. Where ishe now, by the way? He told me he wanted to be shown through theDepartment, and I let Jack Tobin do the honors. Baley lit his pipe and tightened its baffle carefully
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