"Yes, you are. And I cut you out, in their minds, with words. The brown
ones read me and the black ones and the yellow ones, and I built you
up, in their minds--_and tonight they'll wait for a signal from you_."
"A signal from me? Are you--what--?"
"A signal from you. To those in the crowd, to those watching on the
video screens, the ones who are briefed and _know_ about rioting, about
how to steer a revolution. Think of the irony of it--man's prejudice
building the army of resentment and man's genius building the machines
that army can use to destroy man--white man. White man--first."
"First--?" Manny said. "You've dreams beyond tonight, Joe?"
Joe smiled disarmingly. "I use too many words. That one got away. We
can't think beyond tonight, now." He turned to Alix. "It's not an
involved signal, Alix. It's just one word. The word is 'kill'. From
_you_ it's more than a word, it's an order."
There was a knock at the door, and the sono-bray above the door said,
"Time to go up. Time for the big one."
All three were silent, and then Joe put a hand on Alix's shoulder. "You
can't give the signal from your back, Alix. You'd better be standing
up, when this one is over with."
Alix looked at Joe, trying to read behind those brown eyes. Alix said,
"I'll be standing up. There's never been a second I doubted that."
They went out, and there was a clamor, a ring of scribes in the
corridor beyond the showers. One of them voiced it for all of them,
"What the hell is this, Manny? Joe a cousin, or something. How about a
statement?"
Manny looked at them bleakly. "We hope to win, but we're up against a
superior being. It's in God's lap."
Cynical men, but they resented the blasphemy--coming from a robot.