smiling, “by a number of beautiful women.
They all found it most attractive, and assured me my future was bright. No assassinations,
Raven. ”
“You will not be assassinated, sire. ”
“Deposed? Exiled to Smyrmo? That's where they sent my heroic quintuple-great-grandfather.
Smyrmo, hot and dry, where you can't go outside without protective clothing, where the
rooms smell of sulfur and there are only cramped tunnels through the rock fit for vermin.
His memoirs are quite good entertainment, Raven. ”
“No, sire. You will be ridiculed until you lose all stature, then you will be ignored, and
Linge Chen will never even have to defer to you. He will soon enough declare a people's
democracy and leave you only as a symbol, with declining revenues, until you can no longer
even keep up appearances. ”
The Emperor stopped between two Gareth-lions, the largest carnivores on any mid-gravity
world, life-size-about twenty meters from clawed feet to razor-barbed, prehensile snouts.
He leaned on the canted ankle of one. “Psychohistory tells you this?”
“No, sire. Experience and logical deduction, without benefit of psychohistory. Have you
ever heard of foranum?”
The Emperor shrugged. “I don't think so. Person or place- or perhaps beast?”
“A man, who wanted to become Emperor, and who betrayed his hidden origins by subscribing
to an ancient myth... About robots. ”
“Robots! Yes, I believe in them. ”
Hari was taken aback. “Not tiktoks, sire, but intelligent machines made in human form. ”
"Of course. I believe they existed once, and that we outgrew them. Put them aside like
toys. The tiktok experiment was
simply an anachronism. We don't need mechanical workers, much less mechanical
intelligences. "
Hari blinked slowly, and wondered if he had underestimated this young man. “Joranum
believed”-(Was led to believe, by Raych! he reminded himself)-“that a robot had
infiltrated the Palace. He claimed First Minister Demerzel was a robot. ”
“Ah, yes, I seem to remember something about that... not that long ago, was it? Though
before I was born. ”
“Demerzel laughed at him, sire, and Joranum's political movement collapsed under the
weight of ridicule. ”
“Yes, yes, I remember now. Demerzel resigned and Cleon the First filled his shoes with
another's feet. With your feet. Correct, Raven?”
“Yes, sire. ”
“That's where you acquired the political skills you so ably exercise, isn't it?”
“My political skills are minimal, your Highness. ”
“I don't think so, Raven. You're alive, and yet Cleon the first was assassinated by... a
gardener... who had strong connections to you, correct?”
“In a way, sire. ”
“Still alive, Raven. Very savvy indeed, perhaps with your own secret and embarrassing
files to reveal at key moments to key players. Do you have a secret file on Linge Chen,
Raven?”
Hari, despite himself, let out a chuckle. Klayus seemed amused by this reaction, rather
than affronted. “No, Your Highness. Chen is politically very well armored. His personal
behavior is above reproach. ”
“Isn't it, now! Who, then? Who will disgrace me and bring me down?”
“You have an assistant, a member of your privy council, who believes in robots. ” This is
what Daneel wanted me to know. For a moment, Hari felt a chill. What if Daneel no longer
existed, or had left Trantor, and he was imagining all this? The
strain of the last few months, his constant gnawing grief...
“So?”
“Robots currently existing on Trantor. He is hunting them down and shooting them. With
kinetic weapons. ”
Wanda's information had nested so well with Daneel's: the link, the gnawing suspicion, had
come together. But Hari wanted, desperately needed, to think over his interviews with the
tyrants. Something was still missing!
“Really?” The Emperor's eyes gleamed. “He's found real robots?”
“No, sire.