Unicorn Point (5 page)

“Sir,” Mach said respectfully.

“You have the information?”

“Yes, sir.”

Tan smiled with genuine warmth. “We are very close, after a tedious delay. This may be the batch that puts us over.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Because once we have enough basic information from the Book of Magic in Phaze, and the Oracle here is able to compile it, we shall finally have the mechanism to achieve key leverage in the monetary arena. It is amazing how closely magic parallels financial dealings! You know what that means?”

“Yes, sir.”

“State it in your own words.”

“The Contrary Citizens will be able to use their wealth to control the government of the frame of Proton, and Citizen Blue and his allies will no longer be able to prevent this.
 
Thus victory for you.”

Tan rubbed his hands together. “It has been long in coming! Blue has used every conceivable mode of interference and delay. But under the terms of the agreement he had to allow you and Bane access to the Oracle, and that has made the difference.”

“For the precise hours that his grandchild visits him,” Mach agreed. For that had been the nature of the hard-fought compromise: Oracle for Nepe, in Proton, and Book of Magic for Flach, in Phaze. That was why the Citizens and Adepts put no obstacles in the way of these visits. Indeed, they would be glad to allow more time.

“In two hours you will have your session with the Oracle, and obtain the translation of your information,” Tan said. “I believe that this will indeed mark the turning point. The matter will therefore no longer require my personal attention. I will assign an associate to work with you.”

“As you wish, sir,” Mach said, surprised. Citizen Tan had always evinced keen interest in this project, despite his enmity to Mach and Bane.

“I shall turn this matter over to her now,” Tan said. He snapped his fingers.

A young woman entered the room. She was a serf, for she was naked, and well formed. Mach’s gaze traveled to her face—and he stifled his dismay. “Tania,” he said.
 

“Naturally I trust my sister to represent my interests competently,” Citizen Tan said. “You have some objection?”

“No, sir,” Mach said quickly. But this was a meaningless denial, as the others knew; he preferred to remain well away from this dangerous woman. He had snubbed her other self in Phaze, and made mischief for her here in Proton, when he was helping Fleta escape. Tania had a score or two to settle with him.

“How nice,” Tania said, approaching him. Her eyes, hair and skin were tinted tan like those of her twin brother; she was naked but clothed in this color. “I’m sure we shall get along intimately.” She came to a stop immediately before him, and put her arms around him, and pressed in closely.
 
Mach was a robot, and he was in his own body now. That meant that he had complete control over his physical reactions. This was fortunate, for Tania had undeniable sex appeal, and evidently intended to tease him with it. She was a bad woman, selfish and cruel, but that seemed not to detract from her allure.

Citizen Tan disappeared. Mach was alone with Tania. At least he did not have to say “sir” to her. She had great power, because of her relationship to the Citizen, but she was legally another serf. “What is your intent?” he inquired, attempting to disengage.

“It occurred to me that you have no romantic interest in this frame, Mach,” she said. “Since we have to work closely together anyway, we might as well enjoy it.”

“You know I am a robot,” he said tightly. “You should have no interest in my type.”

“If truth be told, I am bored with human men, and with androids,” she said. “You are not just any robot; you are the most advanced model on the planet, and you have demonstrated abilities worthy of any living male. I believe you will be interesting.”

“I am married.”

“Not in Proton. Come, Mach, kiss me.”

“There is no requirement that I do such a thing.”

“Shall I tell my brother that you are uncooperative?”

“Obviously Citizen Tan will react in whatever manner he has decided to. Why should you wish to initiate a type of relationship that can only complicate a strained situation?”

“I doubt you need to know that,” she said. “But I don’t doubt you can figure it out for yourself. Now kiss me, and we shall proceed.”

“Proceed with what?”

She laughed, her breasts moving against him. “Assimilation of your new information, of course. Did you think to have your desire of me within minutes?”

“I have no desire of you!”

“Perhaps not yet.” She lifted her face, waiting.
 
Mach realized that she intended to establish her control over the situation by making him do what she chose. She could have no physical desire for him; it was not in her nature as either an aloof woman or the sister of a Citizen. Obviously sex was merely a tool to her—in this case, a tool to embarrass him. If he didn’t kiss her, she would require more of him, making him regret his resistance.

He lowered his face and kissed her. He felt a surge of guilt, thinking of Fleta. But he damped it down, realizing that he really had no choice. Perhaps after playing with him for a time, Tania would lose interest, as a cat did with a dead bird.
 
Tania broke, with a flicker of irritation. “As if you mean it,” she said. “Again.”

“Whatever I show, I will not mean it,” he said.

“Perhaps not yet,” she repeated, waiting.
 
He kissed her again, as if he meant it. Unfortunately his circuits were cued to a degree to his actions; it was a feed back loop that normally enhanced his human emulation. That meant that to an extent he did mean it, at least for the moment. This time she was satisfied. “Now speak the formulae,” she said.

“They will be meaningless to you.”

“But they will be recorded. They may not be meaningless to our analysts.”

He doubted that, because in five years no one other than the Oracle had been able to make sense of the strange statements he had brought from the Book of Magic. It was as if the magic were in some alien language that only the Oracle spoke. That was another reason that progress had been so slow.

However, he was obliged to humor her. He spoke the formulae, and Tania listened as if interested. It did not take long.

“Now we shall send the child on her way, and go to the Oracle,” she said.

Nepe! He had almost forgotten her! He was getting more human all the time, and suffering the liabilities of the state.
 
A true machine forgot nothing that was not expressly erased.
 
Of course he was no longer a true machine; half his current experience was human, in Phaze. There he was called the Robot Adept (or, as the natives had it, “Rovot”), but he was really a living man with considerable power of magic. Per haps it wasn’t surprising that the human liabilities as well as the human delights carried across the frames.
 
They emerged to the front office. The child was sitting on the desk, watching a cartoon on the receptionist’s screen, her little legs swinging and tapping the desk.
 
Nepe looked up immediately. “Were you surprised, Uncle?”

“You knew?” he asked, surprised again.

“Oh, sure. Did she vamp you yet?”

Mach froze, appalled at both the question and Tania’s likely reaction.

“Not yet,” Tania said, laughing.

“Oh, goody! Can I watch, then?”

“But—“ Mach started.

“Certainly,” Tania said. She turned back to Mach, and put her arms around him, drawing herself close. “Kiss me,” she said.

“This is pointless and unnecessary,” he said, not yielding.
 

“If you don’t,” Tania murmured, “I shall make demands on you that are apt to embarrass you before the child.” He knew her well enough to have no doubt of her sincerity.
 
Fuming in a manner that would have done credit to a living person, he bent his head to kiss her.

Nepe clapped her hands, applauding. “She’s making you do it!” she exclaimed. “I bet Tsetse she would!”

“Tsetse?” he repeated, chagrined at the openness of this matter.

“Tsetse—my receptionist,” Tania explained, misunderstanding. She pronounced the name as Nepe had, but with the t’s sounded. “I brought in my own personnel, since I am to handle this case. I named her, because she is good at making men sleep. Does she please you?”

“I have no interest in her,” Mach said. What a name to hang on such a pretty woman! Tania’s cruelty was showing.
 
Tania turned to the woman. “Take Nepe to her ship.”

“No, I’ll do that!” Mach said.

“So you do have an interest in her,” Tania said, “because she affects the welfare of your niece.”

“To that degree,” Mach agreed. What was Tania trying to do? He saw no consistent pattern in her actions.
 
Tania read his doubt. “I am showing you that there are ways and ways I can affect your interests if you cross me. We have a covenant, and no one will be hurt. But you could have to do things you dislike, and the child could witness things you prefer she did not. Now Tsetse will escort her safely to her ship, and you and I will dally on the way to the Oracle.
 
Need more be said?”

This ruthless woman would do whatever she thought would be effective in bending his will to hers. Already she had let him know that he would do what she wished in a social sense, or see her ire taken out on little Nepe. His robot logic made it clear: it was better to do whatever Tania wanted. If she overstepped her bounds, Citizen Tan would call her up short.
 
But that could mean having an affair with her. As a man or robot in the frame of Proton, he had no technical reason not to; his marriage to Fleta had no bearing here. But emotionally the prospect appalled him. His body was the one Bane used, when they exchanged, and so Agape was concerned, while his mind was in love with Fleta, making Fleta concerned. Thus it was not a simple matter of catering to the demands of a demanding woman without any emotional involvement, as a normal robot could do. There were deep social conflicts. That seemed to be why Tania was doing it.
 
Was it merely her normal cruelty, or was there some more sinister reason? He was profoundly dismayed by this devel opment.

“I’ll be fine. Uncle, and so will you,” Nepe said, jumping off the desk to take Tsetse’s hand. “Thanks for the game and the demstration!”

“You are welcome, Nepe,” he said, wishing he had never brought her here. Obviously he had played into Tania’s hands.
 
Yet the child seemed quite satisfied, and she was evidently not entirely innocent of the games adults played. This could not be accounted for by the malice of either Citizen Tan or his sister.

Nepe and the receptionist departed. Mach braced himself for Tania’s dalliance, seeing no alternative.
 
But she surprised him. “I have no greater personal or social interest in you, Mach, than you have in me, “she said.
 
“Certainly I have no need to coerce you into anything. I can have any plaything I desire, with no difficulty. I do confess that a challenge is intriguing, and you are a challenge, but at this stage I want only to impress on you the current realities.”

“You have done so,” he said gruffly.

“With that understanding, we may proceed to the Oracle.” Mach nodded grimly. The worst of it was that her evident personal interest in him, for whatever cynical reason, evoked a complementary interest; he was now aware of the beauty and texture of her body. Even her mind intrigued him. Fleta was straightforward and honest and positive and nice, and he loved her; Tania was devious and dishonest and negative and cruel, and he knew little of this type, and found it uncannily fascinating. Fleta was completely open; he always knew where she stood and how she felt. Tania was the opposite, which gave her the quality of mystery—and that lured him in the manner of a candle with a moth. He was disgusted with him self, but the lure remained.

She nodded in return, her eyes narrowing appraisingly. She was experienced enough to know the type of appeal she had for men. “The time will come when I do not have to tell you to kiss me,” she said. “Like all males, you are fascinated by bad women.”

Mach did not answer, as there was no honest refutation he could make. He set up a circuit mask that would detune his awareness of her physical features and prevent him from reacting to them, but there was no simple way to do the same for his emotion. He had learned too much of the living response, these past five years, and hardly cared to diminish that lest it affect his relationship with Fleta.
 
“Oracle,” Tania said to the desk. It responded to her voice, and put through the call to the Oracle. This took a minute, as the Oracle was a highly restricted apparatus. It had resided for many generations in Phaze, until Stile had engineered its exchange with the Book of Magic, making both fully operative.

“Sit at the desk,” she directed him.

“There is no need,” he said. “I do not fatigue.”

“I see you are after all a slow learner. Sit.” Mach circled the desk and took the comfortable chair vacated by the receptionist.

Tania followed, and sat in his lap. He had to do an emergency short-out of his tactile receptors in that region to prevent a reaction as her firm naked buttocks made contact.
 
There was no subtlety whatsoever in her approach, but it remained effective. “Every time you balk, I will react unpredictably,” she said, reaching across him to touch a button in the chair.