The Asses of Balaam Page 5

it. Something in him rebelled at the thought of aspecies becoming extinct, no matter how great the need. He wonderedif it would be possible for the biologists and the geneticists totrace the evolution of the animal. He hoped so. At least they deservedthat much.

  * * * * *

  Dodeth Pell delayed returning to his own city; he wanted to wait untilthe final results had been brought in before he returned to hisduties. The delay turned out to be a little longer than heexpected--much longer, in fact. The communicator in his temporary roombuzzed, and when he answered, Wygor's voice came to him, a rush ofexcited words that didn't make any sense at all at first. And when itdid make sense he didn't believe it.

  "What?" he squealed. "_What?_"

  "I said," Wygor repeated, "that the report has come back from thepesticide column! They've found no trace of any such animal as we'vedescribed! They're nowhere to be found, in or near the clearing!"

  "I think," said Dodeth very calmly, "that I'll take a little trip overto the Brightside and take up permanent residence there. It's going tobe pretty hot for me around here before long."

  And he cut the connection without waiting for Wygor's answer.

  * * * * *

  The armored car jounced across the grassland at high speed. Behind it,two more cars followed, each taking care not to run exactly in thetracks of the one ahead, so that there would be as little damage aspossible done to the grass.

  In the lead car, Dodeth Pell watched the forest loom nearer, wonderingwhat sort of madness he would find there this time. Beside him, theEldest Keeper dozed gently, in the way that only the very young or thevery old can doze. It was just as well; Dodeth didn't feel much liketalking.

  This time, as they approached the clearing, he didn't bother to tellthe car to stop two miles away. If the animals were gone, there was nopoint in being cautious. All through the wooded area, he could seeoccasional members of the pesticide robots. He told the car to stop atthe base of the little rise that he used before as a vantage point.Then, without further preliminaries, he got out of the car and marchedup the slope to take a look at the clearing. Overhead, the burningspark of the Yellow Sun cast its pale radiance over the landscape.

  At the ridge, he stopped suddenly and ducked his head. Then he grabbedhis field glasses and took a good look.

  The animals had built themselves a few crude-looking shelters out ofthe logs, but he hardly noticed that.

  There were four of the animals, in plain sight, standing guard!

  The others were obviously inside the rude huts, asleep!

  Great galloping fungus blight! Was he out of his mind? What was goingon around here? Couldn't the robots _see_ the beasts?

  "That's very odd," said the voice of the Eldest Keeper in puzzledtones. "I thought the robots said they'd gone away. Lend me your fieldglasses."

  As he handed the powerful glasses over to the Keeper, who had followedhim up the hill, Dodeth said: "I'm glad you can see them. I thoughtmaybe my brain had been short-circuited."

  "I can see them," said the Eldest Keeper, peering through the glasses.Then he handed them back to Dodeth. "Let's get back down to the car. Iwant to find out what's going on around here."

  At the car, the Eldest Keeper just scowled for a moment, looking veryworried. By this time, the other two cars had pulled up nearby,discharging their cargo of two more Keepers apiece. While the EldestKeeper talked in low tones with his colleagues, Dodeth stalked over toone of the pesticide robots who was prowling nearby.

  "Found anything useful?" he asked sarcastically, knowing that sarcasmwas useless on a robot.

  "I'm not looking for anything useful, sir. I'm looking for the animalswe are supposed to destroy."

  "You come over and tell the Eldest Keeper that," Dodeth said.

  "Yes, sir," the robot agreed promptly, rolling along beside Dodeth ashe returned to where the Keepers were waiting.

  "What's going on here?" the Eldest demanded curtly of the robot. "Whyhaven't you destroyed the animals?"

  "Because we can't find them, sir."

  "What's your name?" the Eldest snapped.

  "Arike, sir."

  "All right, Arike," said the Eldest somewhat angrily. "Stand by fororders. You'll repeat them to the other robots, understand?"

  "Yes, sir," said the robot.

  "All right, then," said the Eldest. "First, you take a run up thathill and look into that clearing. You'll see those creatures in thereall right."

  "Yes, sir. I've seen those creatures in there."

  The Eldest Keeper exploded. "Then get in there and obey your orders!Don't you realize that their very existence threatens the life of allof us? They must be eliminated before our whole culture is destroyed!Do you understand? Obey!"

  "Yes, sir," said the robot. His voice sounded odd, but he spun aroundand went to pass the word on to the other robots. Within minutes, moreand more of the pesticide robots were swarming towards and into theclearing. They could hear rumbling noises from the clearing--lowgrunts that were evidently made by animals who were trapped by theencircling robots.

  And then there was a vast silence.

  Dodeth and the Keepers waited.

  Not a shot was fired.

  It was as though a great, sound-proof blanket had been flung over thewhole area.

  * * * * *

  "What in the Unknown Name of the Universal Motivator is going onaround here?" said Dodeth in a hushed tone. He wondered how many timeshe had asked himself that.

  "We may as well take a look," said the Eldest Keeper.

  Two hundred pesticide robots were ranged around the perimeter of theclearing, their weapons facing inward. Not a one of them moved.

  Inside the circle of machines, the twenty wygorex stood motionless,watching the ring of robots. Now and then, one of them gave a deep,coughing rumble, but otherwise they made no noise.

  Dodeth Pell could stand it no longer. "Robots!" He shouted as loudlyas he could, his voice shrill with urgency. "I order you to fire!"

  It was as though he hadn't said a word. Both robots and wygorexignored him completely.

  Dodeth turned and yelled to one of the patrol robots that wasstanding nearby. "You! What's your name?"

  "Arvam, sir."

  "Arvam, can you tell what it is those things have done to the robots?"

  "They haven't done anything, sir."

  "Then why don't the robots fire as they've been told?" Dodeth didn'twant to admit it, even to himself, but he was badly frightened. He hadnever heard of a robot behaving this way before.

  "They can't, sir."

  "They _can't_? Don't they realize that if those things aren't killed,we may all die?"

  "I didn't know that," said the patrol robot. "If we do not kill them,then you may be killed, and you have ordered us to kill them, but ifwe obey your orders, then we will kill them, and that will mean thatyou won't be killed, but they will, so we can't do that, but if wedon't then you _will_ be killed, and we must obey, and that means wemust, but we can't, but if we don't we will, and we can't so we mustbut we can't but if we don't you will so we must but we can't butwe--" He kept repeating it over and over again, on and on and on.

  "Stop that!" snapped Dodeth.

  But the robot didn't even seem to hear.

  Dodeth was really frightened now. He looked back at the five keepersand scuttled toward them.

  "What's wrong with the robots?" he asked shrilly. "They've neverfailed us before!"

  The Elder Keeper looked at him. "What makes you think they've failedus now?" he asked softly.

  Dodeth gaped speechlessly. The Eldest didn't seem to be making anymore sense than the patrol robot had.

  "No," the Keeper went on, "they haven't failed us. They have served uswell. They have pointed out to us something which we have failed tosee, and, in doing so, have saved us from making a catastrophicerror."

  "I don't understand," said Dodeth.

  "I'll explain," the Elder K
eeper said, "but first go over to thatpatrol robot and tell him quietly that the situation has changed.Tell him that we are no longer in any danger from the wygorex. Thenbring him over here."

  * * * * *

  Dodeth did as he was told, without understanding at all.

  "I still don't understand, sir," he said bewilderedly.

  "Dodeth, what would happen if I told Arvam, here, to fire on you?"

  "Why ... why, he'd _refuse_."

  "Why should