"The what?"
"Introducing robots."
"Occasionally." The Commissioner's tone was not one of any particular interest.
"Did he ever explain what Spacetown's point was?"
"Oh, improve health, raise the standard of living. The usual talk; it didn't impress me. Oh, I agreed with him. I nodded my head and all that. What could I do? It's just a matter of humoring them and hoping they'll keep within reason in their notions. Maybe some day..."
Baley waited but he didn't say what maybe - some - day might bring.
Baley said, "Did he ever mention anything about emigration?"
"Emigration! Never. Letting an Earthman into an Outer World is like finding a diamond asteroid in the rings of Saturn."
"I mean emigration to new worlds."
But the Commissioner answered that one with a simple stare of incredulousness.
Baley chewed that for a moment, then said with sudden bluntness, "What's cerebroanalysis, Commissioner? Ever hear of it?"
The Commissioner's round face didn't pucker; his eyes didn't blink. He said evenly, "No, what's it supposed to be?"
"Nothing. Just picked it up."
He left the office and at his desk continued thinking. Certainly, the Commissioner wasn't that good an actor. Well, then.
At 16:05 Baley called Jessie and told her he wouldn't be home that night nor probably any night for a while. It took a while after that to disengage her.
"Lije, is there trouble? Are you in danger?"
A policeman is always in a certain amount of danger, he explained lightly. It didn't satisfy her. "Where will you be staying?"
He didn't tell her. "If you're going to be lonely tonight," he said, "stay at your mother's." He broke connections abruptly, which was probably just as well.
At 16:20 he made a call to Washington. It took a certain length of time to reach the man he wanted and an almost equally long time to convince him he ought to make an air trip to New York the next day. By 16:40, he had succeeded.
At 16:55 the Commissioner left, passing him with an uncertain smile. The day shift left en masse. The sparser population that filled the offices in the evening and through the night made its way in and greeted him in varied tones of surprise.
R. Daneel came to his desk with a sheaf of papers.
"And those are?" asked Baley.
"A list of men and women who might belong to a Medievalist organization."
"How many does the list include?"
"Over a million," said R. Daneel. "These are just part of them."
"Do you expect to check them all, Daneel?"
"Obviously that would be impractical, Elijah."
"You see, Daneel, almost all Earthmen are Medievalists in one way or another. The Commissioner, Jessie, myself. Look at the Commissioner's - " (He almost said, "spectacles," then remembered that Earthmen must stick together and that the Commissioner's face must be protected in the figurative as well as the literal sense.) He concluded, lamely, "eye ornaments."
"Yes," said R. Daneel, "I had noticed them, but thought it indelicate, perhaps, to refer to them. I have not seen such ornaments on other City dwellers."
"It is a very old-fashioned sort of thing."
"Does it serve a purpose of any sort?"
Baley said, abruptly, "How did you get your list?"
"It was a machine that did it for me. Apparently, one sets it for a particular type of offense and it does the rest. I let it scan all disorderly conduct cases involving robots over the past twenty-five years. Another machine scanned all City newspapers over an equal period for the names of those involved in unfavorable statements concerning robots or men of the Outer Worlds. It is amazing what can be done in three hours. The machine even eliminated the names of non-survivors from the lists."
"You are amazed? Surely you've got computers on the Outer Worlds?"
"Of many sorts, certainly. Very advanced ones. Still, none are as massive and complex as the ones here. You must remember, of course, that even the largest Outer World scarcely has the population of one of your Cities and extreme complexity is not necessary."
Baley said, "Have you ever been on Aurora?"
"No," said R. Daneel, "I was assembled here on Earth."
"Then how do you know about Outer World computers?"
"But surely that is obvious, partner Elijah. My data store is drawn from that of the late Dr. Sarton. You may take it for granted that it is rich in factual material concerning the Outer Worlds."
"I see. Can you eat, Daneel?"
"I am nuclear-powered. I had thought you were aware of that."
"I'm perfectly aware of it. I didn't ask if you needed to eat. I asked if you could eat. If you could put food in your mouth, chew it, and swallow it. I should think that would be an important item in seeming to be a man."
"I see your point. Yes, I can perform the mechanical operations of chewing and swallowing. My capacity is, of course, quite limited, and I would have to remove the ingested material from what you might call my stomach sooner or later."
"All right. You can regurgitate, or whatever you do, in the quiet of our room tonight. The point is that I'm hungry. I've missed lunch, damn it, and I want you with me when I eat. And you can't sit there and not eat without attracting attention. So if you can eat, that's what I want to hear. Let's go!"
Section kitchens were the same all over the City. What's more, Baley had been in Washington, Toronto, Los Angeles, London, and Budapest in the way of business, and they had been the same there, too. Perhaps it had been different in Medieval times when languages had varied and dietaries as well. Nowadays, yeast products were just the same from Shanghai to Tashkent and from Winnipeg to Buenos Aires; and English might not be the "English" of Shakespeare or Churchill, but it was the final potpourri that was current over all the continents and, with some modification, on the Outer Worlds as well.