Chapter 6 Chapter Six Midnight Whispers

On the top floor of the most affluent subdivision in the city, there is a natural sunroom.This natural sunroom uses a quartz partition with movable metal fixtures to keep the air out and let in the daylight.The wives and daughters of New York City governors and high-ranking officials can get their skin tanned there.And every night, a strange thing happens there. It will be dark. Except there, in the rest of the city there is no distinction between day and night at all.Even artificial sunrooms for the masses. (Mass artificial sunrooms use artificial ultraviolet light, and millions of people are occasionally allowed in for a photoshoot at strictly scheduled times.) The day-night cycle of time is completely manipulated by humans.

Institutions in the city could easily operate three eight-hour shifts a day or four six-hour shifts a day if they wanted to.It doesn't matter if you do the "day shift" or the "night shift" anyway.The lighting is endless and the work is continuous without any difficulty.Every once in a while, municipal reformers make such proposals on the grounds that they will improve economic efficiency. But no one ever accepted. Earth society has given up many early habits of life for so-called economic benefits, including space, privacy, and even much of free will.However, these are all products of civilization and have not existed for more than 10,000 years.

However, there is a habit of sleeping at night as long as human beings have existed.This habit has been going on for a million years, and it is not easy to give up.Even if you can't see the night, the lights in the apartment will dim at night, and the pulse of the whole city will slow down.In a closed city, although it is impossible to judge day and night according to the changes of natural phenomena, human beings can still follow the silent command of the hand of time and follow the habit of waking up during the day and sleeping at night. At this moment, the highway belt is empty, the noise of life has quieted down, and the crowds shuttling through the huge alleyways have disappeared.New York City is lying quietly, in a dark, unnoticed corner of the earth.Its inhabitants are asleep.

Elijah Belle was still up.He was lying in bed, the lights in the apartment were out, but he still couldn't sleep. In the darkness, Jessie lay motionless beside Bailey.He could neither feel nor hear her move. On the other side of the wall, R. Daniel Oliva was standing, or lying down (Bailey didn't know which position). Bailey whispered to his wife, "Jessie!" After a while, he whispered, "Jessie..." The dark figure wrapped under the sheet around him moved slightly. "What's up?" "Jessie, don't embarrass me." "You should have told me."

"How am I going to tell you? I was going to tell you when I figured out a way to do it. Oh, my God! Jessie" "Hush!" Bailey's voice returned to a whisper. "How did you find out? Don't you want to tell me?" Jessie rolled over to face him.He could feel her eyes watching him in the darkness. "Elia..." Her voice was as soft as air, "Can he hear us? That thing?" "If we whisper it he won't hear." "How do you know? Maybe he has special ears that can hear very small sounds. The robots of the people in the outside world are very capable and can do all kinds of things."

Bailey knew this too.Propaganda for robots always emphasizes the miraculous functions of robots in the outer world, their endurance, their special sentience, and the thousand novel services they provide to human society.However, in Bailey's view, this kind of publicity is tantamount to dismantling his own platform.Earthlings hate robots even more because robots are superior to themselves. He said softly, "Daniel won't. They made him into a human on purpose, they want him to behave like a human, so he only has human consciousness." "how do you know?" "If he's more perceptual than a human being, he'll be unintentionally showing non-human responses, and there's more opportunity to give away. Then he'll be doing too much, knowing too much."

"Oh, maybe." The two fell silent. After a while, Bailey spoke again: "Jessie, you just let this matter go, wait until... Hey, honey, it's not fair for you to lose your temper." "Having lost your temper? Oh, Ilya, you're so stupid. I'm not angry. I'm scared. I'm scared to death." She grunted and grabbed his pajamas tightly. They hugged quietly, and Bailey's original feeling of being misunderstood gradually turned into worry and concern. "Why, Jessie? There's nothing to be afraid of! He's not dangerous at all, and I swear he won't hurt anyone."

"Can't you get rid of him?" "It's official business in the bureau. How can I get rid of it? You know I can't." "What business? Tell me, Ilya." "Oh! Jessie, what's wrong with you?" He reached out to touch her face and patted her gently.Her cheeks were wet. He carefully wiped the corners of her eyes with the sleeve of his pajamas. "Hey," he said softly, "you really look like a little girl." "Whatever it is, tell someone else from the Bureau to do it, please, Ilya!" Bailey's tone hardened a little. "Jessie, you have been a police wife for so long, you should know that a mission is a mission."

"Then, why did you choose you?" "Juliel..." she froze in his arms. "I knew it! Why didn't you tell Julier to find someone else to do this kind of nasty job? You are too tolerant, Ilya, this is simply" "Okay, okay." He reassured her. She was silent, her body trembling slightly. Bailey thought: She'll never understand. Since their engagement, Julier has been the subject of a feud between their husbands and wives.Juliel was Bailey's senior in the Municipal Administration Academy for two years, and he was also a friend.After graduation, Bailey passed a series of aptitude tests and neurological analysis, and when he was waiting to be distributed to the police unit, Julier had not only become a policeman, but had also been transferred to the plainclothes team to work.

Bailey ran behind Julier all the way, but the disparity between the two became more and more different.Honestly, it's no one's fault.Bailey is capable and efficient, but he lacks a certain quality that Julier possesses.Julier was a born executive.He is very comfortable in the hierarchical bureaucracy. Julier wasn't particularly bright, and Bailey knew that.He has some quirks and faults, such as he can sometimes appear too naive, boasting about his medievalist talk every once in a while.But he got on well with everyone; he took no offense to anyone; he took orders with grace and deliberation, and gave them with gentle firmness.He even got on well with people from outside the world, to the point of groveling, which Baley never did.If he spends half a day with them, he's bound to get angry, and while he's never really talked to outsiders, he knows he's going to get over it, but they trust him, and that's what makes Julier so useful to New York City .

In government, smooth diplomacy has always been far more useful than personal ability, so Julier rose through the ranks.When Bailey was still a C-5 criminal policeman, he had already been promoted to the chief of the bureau.Bailey wasn't particularly resentful of the disparity, but he was a human being, and regret was always inevitable.On the contrary, Julier, who never forgets the past friendship between the two, often tries his best to help Bailey in some strange ways, trying to make up for the regret caused by his own success. For example, this time, he assigned Bailey to cooperate with R. Daniel because of this mentality.The task is difficult and unpleasant, but there is no doubt that it also means a great opportunity for advancement.Although he tried to conceal his intentions by saying that he wanted Bailey's help that morning, Bailey understood that he was actually giving him a chance, and this opportunity could be given to others. Jessie's attitude towards things is different from Bailey's.In a similar situation in the past, she said: "It's not about your nasty loyalty record. I'm so tired of hearing everyone praise you for being responsible. Sometimes you should think about yourself! Those high Did the key people mention their own loyalty?" At this moment, Bailey was lying stiff with his eyes open, waiting for Jessie to calm down.He had to think about it.He had to clarify his doubts.I hope that these chaotic thoughts will gradually have a clear rationale. Jessie moved, he felt the mattress give in. "Elia?" Her voice was right next to his ear. "What's up?" "Why don't you resign?" "Don't get crazy." "Why not?" Suddenly, she was almost eager. "So you can get rid of that horrible robot. You just go into Julier's office and tell him you quit." Bailey's reaction was lukewarm: "I can't quit halfway through an important case, and I can't just throw the whole thing in the trash as I please. It's going to get demoted." "Even so, you can still find a way to climb up again. You can do it, Ilya, and you are capable enough to work in many different departments of the police department." "Government agencies don't need to be demoted for any reason. The only thing I can do at that time is manual labor, and so will you. Bentley will lose all inheritable status. My God, Jessie! You don't understand at all This kind of thing." "I've read it in the book, and I'm not afraid at all." She murmured. "You're crazy, you're crazy!" Bailey could feel himself shaking.A familiar figure floated in his mind, that was his father, the father who died in decadence. Jessie sighed heavily. Bailey suppressed the rising and falling thoughts, and put the topic that Jessie had brought up to the back of his mind.As soon as he changed his mind, he immediately came to the question he was eager to pursue. "Jessie, you must tell me," he said firmly, "How did you find out that Daniel is a robot? How did you decide?" "Uh" she spoke and then stopped.She wanted to explain several times, but couldn't continue. He squeezed her hand tightly and encouraged her to speak up. "Come on, Jessie, what are you afraid of?" "I'm only guessing, Ilya," she said. "Jessie, there's nothing that would lead you to guess that. You didn't think he was a robot before you went out, did you?" "Right. But I always think about..." "Come on, Jessie, what's going on?" "Uh...you know, Ilya, we talk in the women's private room. You know they talk about everything." Bailey thought: Oh, woman! "Anyway," Jessie said, "the rumors have spread all over the city, for sure." "What spread throughout the city?" Bailey almost felt like winning a battle, and Jessie finally said it after being stalemate for so long. Things are finally coming together. "Anyway, that's what they said. They said they heard there was an out-of-world robot coming into the city. The robot was working with the police and looked like a human. And they asked me if I knew. They had a good chat. Happy, and asked me: 'Jessie, do you, Elijah, know about this?' I also smiled and answered them: 'Stop talking nonsense!'” "Then we went to the screening room, and I couldn't help but think of your new colleagues. Do you still remember those photos you brought back? They were taken by Julier in Space City, and you brought them back to show me what people from outside the world look like. I can't help but think that your colleague looks exactly like the outsider in the photo. I just automatically associate him with that. I'm so confused, I say to myself, God! When he was in the shoe store Someone must have recognized him, and he was with Elijah... so I said I had a headache and ran back." "Wait a minute, Jessie, wait a minute, calm down. Why are you so scared? You're not afraid of Daniel himself. You dared to face him when you came back, you acted calmly and bravely, you..." He suddenly Shut up and sit up.In the darkness where he couldn't see his fingers, he opened his eyes and listened intently. He felt Jessie move beside him.Suddenly, he reached out to touch Jessie's mouth and covered it.Jessie struggled hard, grabbed his wrist and pulled hard.He tightened his grip on her mouth.Jessie sobbed softly. "I'm sorry, Jessie." His voice was a little hoarse. "I was just paying attention to the movement in the house." He got out of bed as he said, and put on warm rubber shoes. "Ilya, where are you going? Don't go away!" "It's okay, I just went to the door to have a look." He walked around the end of the bed, and the rubber shoes on his feet stepped on the floor, making a soft rubbing sound.He gently opened the door a crack and waited by the door for a long time.Nothing happened.The only silence in the room was Jessie's soft breathing on the bed, and he could even hear the rhythm of the blood flowing in his ears. Bailey carefully stretched his hand out of the crack of the door, even with his eyes closed, he could touch that place.With his fingers, he clasped the small knob that controls the brightness of the ceiling, and turned it with the lightest and lightest force.There was a faint light from the ceiling, but the light was very weak, and the living room was still submerged in half darkness. But enough is enough.There was enough light for him to see what he wanted to see.The door to the apartment was closed, and the living room was silent. He turned off the controls and went back to bed. This is what he wants.All his doubts were answered. Jessie asked him, "Is something wrong, Elijah?" "It's okay, Jessie, it's okay, everything's fine. He's not here anymore." "The robot? You mean he's gone? Not coming back?" "No, it's not. He'll be back. Will you answer my question before he comes back?" "what is the problem?" "What are you afraid of?" Jessie fell silent. Bailey became aggressive. "You said you were terrified." "I'm afraid of him." "No, we've talked about that. You're not afraid of him, and you know very well that a robot can't hurt a human being." "I think..." she said slowly, "If everyone knew he was a robot, there might be a riot. We would be killed." "Who will kill us?" "You know what a riot looks like." "But they don't even know the robot is there, do they?" "They might find out." "That's what you're afraid of, riot?" "Uh" "Shhh!" He pushed Jessie back onto the pillow. Then he whispered in her ear, "He's back. Now listen to me, Jessie, keep quiet. Everything is fine. He's leaving tomorrow morning and won't be coming back. And he won't There was rioting, everything was fine." When he said these words to Jessie, he was almost satisfied, almost completely satisfied. No riots, nothing.Will not be downgraded.he thinks. Before falling asleep, he was still thinking: Don't even have to investigate the murder, not even this one, the whole problem has been solved... He finally fell asleep.