Attlebish transferred his regard to Daneel and seemed to be considering. His voice was gentler. "There is nothing going on here that need concern anyone outside the planet."
"Gruer thought otherwise and my partner heard him." This was no time to cavil at a lie.
Daneel turned to look at Baley, at the Earthman's last statement, but Baley paid no attention. He drove on: "I intend to pursue this investigation. Ordinarily, there's nothing I wouldn't do to get back to Earth. Even just dreaming about it gets me so restless I can't sit. If I owned this robot infested palace I'm living in now, I'd give it with the robots thrown in and you and all your lousy world to boot for a ticket home.
"But I won't be ordered off by you. Not while there's a case to which I've been assigned that's still open. Try getting rid of me against my will and you'll be looking down the throats of space based artillery.
"What's more, from now on, this murder investigation is going to be run my way. I'm in charge. I see the people I want to see. I see them. I don't view them. I'm used to seeing and that's the way it's going to be. I'll want the official approval of your office for all of that."
"This is impossible, unbearable - "
"Daneel, you tell him."
The humanoid's voice said dispassionately, "As my partner has informed you, Agent Attlebish, we have been sent here to conduct a murder investigation. It is essential that we do so. We, of course, do not wish to disturb any of your customs and perhaps actual seeing will be unnecessary, although it would be helpful if you were to give approval for such seeing as becomes necessary as Plainclothesman Baley has requested. As to leaving the planet against our will, we feel that would be inadvisable, although we regret any feeling on your part or on the part of any Solarian that our remaining would be unpleasant."
Baley listened to the stilted sentence structure with a dour stretching of his lips that was not a smile. To one who knew Daneel as a robot, it was all an attempt to do a job without giving offense to any human, not to Baley and not to Attlebish. To one who thought Daneel was an Auroran, a native of the oldest and most powerful militarily of the Outer Worlds, it sounded like a series of subtly courteous threats.
Attlebish put the tips 0f his fingers to his forehead. "I'll think about it."
"Not too long," said Baley, "because I have some visiting to do within the hour, and not by viewer. Done viewing!"
He signaled the robot to break contact, then he stared with surprise and pleasure at the place where Attlebish had been. None of this had been planned. It had all been impulse born of his dream and of Attlebish's unnecessary arrogance. But now that it had happened, he was glad. It was what he had wanted, really to take control.
He thought: Anyway, that was telling the dirty Spacer!
He wished the entire population of Earth could have been here to watch. The man looked such a Spacer, and that made it all the better, of course. All the better.
Only, why this feeling of vehemence in the matter of seeing? Baley scarcely understood that. He knew what he planned to do, and seeing (not viewing) was part of it. All right. Yet there had been the tight lift to his spirit when he spoke of seeing, as though he were ready to break down the walls of this mansion even though it served no purpose.
Why?
There was something impelling him beside the case, something that had nothing to do even with the question of Earth's safety. But what?
Oddly, he remembered his dream again; the sun shining down through all the opaque layers of the gigantic underground Cities of Earth.
Daneel said with thoughtfulness (as far as his voice could carry a recognizable emotion), "I wonder, Partner Elijah, if this is entirely safe."
"Bluffing this character? It worked. And it wasn't really a bluff. I think it is important to Aurora to find out what's going on on Solaria, and that Aurora knows it. Thank you, by the way, for not catching me out in a misstatement."
"It was the natural decision. To have borne you out did Agent Attlebish a certain rather subtle harm. To have given you the lie would have done you a greater and more direct harm."
"Potentials countered and the higher one won out, eh, Daneel?"
"So it was, Partner Elijah. I understand that this process, in a
less definable way, goes on within the human mind. I repeat, however, that this new proposal of yours is not safe."
"Which new proposal is this?"
"I do not approve your notion of seeing people. By that I mean seeing as opposed to viewing."
"I understand you. I'm not asking for your approval."
"I have my instructions, Partner Elijah. What it was that Agent Hannis Gruer told you during my absence last night I cannot know. That he did say something is obvious from the change in your attitude toward this problem. However, in the light of my instructions, I can guess. He must have warned you of the possibility of danger to other planets arising from the situation on Solaria."
Slowly Baley reached for his pipe. He did that occasionally and always there was the feeling of irritation when he found nothing and remembered he could not smoke. He said, "There are only twenty thousand Solarians. What danger can they represent?"
"My masters on Aurora have for some time been uneasy about Solaria. I have not been told all the information at their disposal - "
"And what little you have been told you have been told not to repeat to me. Is that it?" demanded Baley.
Daneel said, "There is a great deal to find out before this matter can be discussed freely."
"Well, what are the Solarians doing? New weapons? Paid subversion? A campaign of individual assassination? What can twenty thousand people do against hundreds of millions of Spacers?"