Amadiro had intended delay until the storm. That was obvious. He was to travel in the storm and he was to break down in the storm. Amadiro had studied Earth and its population; he boasted of that. He would know quite clearly just what difficulty Earthpeople would have with the Outside generally and with a thunderstorm in particular.
He would be quite certain that Baley would be reduced to complete helplessness.
But why should he want that?
To bring Baley back to the Institute? He had already had him, but he had had a Baley in the full possession of his faculties and along with him he had had two robots perfectly capable of defending Baley physically. It would be different now!
If the airfoil were disabled in a storm, Baley would be disabled emotionally. He would even be unconscious, perhaps, and would certainly not be able to resist being brought back. Nor would the two robots object. With Baley clearly ill, their only appropriate reaction would be to assist Amadiro's robots in rescuing him.
In fact, the two robots would have to come along with Baley and would do so helplessly.
And if anyone ever questioned Amadiro's action, he could say that he had feared for Baley in the storm; that he had tried to keep him at the Institute and failed; that he had sent his robots to trail him and assure his safety; and that, when the airfoil came to grief in the storm, those robots brought Baley back to haven. Unless people understood that it had been Amadiro who had ordered the airfoil tampered with (and who would believe that - and how could one prove it?), the only possible public reaction would be to praise Amadiro for his humanitarian feelings - all the more astonishing for having been expressed toward a subhuman Earthman.
And what would Amadiro do with Baley then?
Nothing, except to keep him quiet and helpless for a time. Baley was not himself the quarry. That was the point.
Amadiro would also have two robots and they would now be helpless. Their instructions forced them, in the strongest manner, to guard Baley and, if Baley were ill and being cared for, they could only follow Amadiro's orders if those orders were clearly and apparently for Baley's benefit. Nor would Baley be (perhaps) sufficiently himself to protect them with further orders - certainly not if he were kept under sedation.
It was clear! It was clear! Amadiro had had Baley, Daneel, and Giskard - but in unusable fashion. He had sent them out into the storm in order to bring them back and have them again - in usable fashion. Especially Daneel! It was Daneel who was the key.
To be sure, Fastolfe would be searching for them eventually and would find them, too, and retrieve them, but by then it would be too late, wouldn't it?
And what did Amadiro want with Daneel?
Baley, his head aching, was sure he knew - but how could he possibly prove it?
He could think no more. - If he could opacify the windows, he could make a little interior world again, enclosed and motionless, and then maybe he could continue his thoughts.
But he did not know how to opacify the windows. He could only sit there and look at the flagging storm beyond those windows, hear the whip of rain against the windows, watch the fading lightning, and listen to the muttering thunder.
He closed his eyes tightly. The eyelids made a wall, too, but he dared not sleep.
The car door on his right opened. He heard the sighing noise it made. He felt the cool, damp breeze enter, the temperature drop, the sharp smell of things green and wet enter and drown, out the faint and friendly smell of oil and upholstery that reminded him somehow of the City that he wondered if he would ever see again.
He opened his eyes and there was the odd sensation of a robotic face staring at him - and drifting sideways, yet not really moving. Baley felt dizzy.
The robot, seen as a darker shadow against the darkness, seemed a large one. He had, somehow, an air of capability about him. He - said, "Your pardon, sir. Did you not have the company of two robots?"
"Gone," muttered Baley, acting as ill as he could and aware that it did not require acting. A brighter flash of the heavens made its way through the eyelids that were now half-open.
"Gone! Gone where, sir?" And then, as he waited for an answer, he said, "Are you ill, sir?"
Baley felt a distant twinge of satisfaction within the inner scrap of himself that was still capable of thinking. If the robot had been without special instruction, he would have responded to Baley's clear signs of illness before doing anything else. To have asked first about the robots implied hard and close-pressed directions as to their importance.
It fit.
He tried to assume a strength and normality he did not possess and said, "I am well. Don't concern yourself with me."
It could not possibly have convinced an ordinary robot, but this one had been so intensified in connection with Daneel, (obviously) that he accepted it - He said, "Where have the robots gone, sir?"
"Back to the Robotics Institute."
"To the Institute? Why, sir?"
"They were called by Master Roboticist Amadiro and he ordered them to return. I am waiting for them."
"But why did you not go with them, sir?"
"Master Roboticist Amadiro did not wish me to be exposed to the storm. He ordered me to wait here. I am following Master Roboticist Amadiro's orders."
He hoped the repetition of the prestige-filled name with the inclusion of the honorific, together with the repetition of the word "order," would have its effect on the robot and persuade him to leave Baley where he was.
On the other hand, if they had been instructed, with particular care, to bring back Daneel, and if they were convinced that Daneel was already on his way back to the Institute, there would be a decline in the intensity of their need in connection with that robot. They would have time to think of Baley again. They would say -