The Music Master

by F. L. Wallace

He smiled ironically. He had never hoped for an audience, and now he had one. It was a debut he didn't care for.

He struck the opening bars of the concerto. The keys rippled under his fingers. He played with the uninspired competence that was expected of a music robot.

It was time for the trumpets to come in, but they didn't. And the violins were long overdue with a repeat of his opening phrase. The orchestra was supposed to play with the piano and it wasn't doing so. Danny looked at the audience; something was wrong: even they knew it. What was it? Danny glanced over his shoulder at the orchestra.

The robots stood there uneasily, dummy instruments poised. Not a sound came from the mechanism concealed in their bodies. For some reason they could not follow his lead.

He let a note drop from his fingers and stared around. It wasn't going the way he had planned. The announcer stepped into the gap.

"Due to an unexpected technical failure, we are unable to present the concerto as scheduled. There will be a brief delay and then the main event of the evening will follow."

Ad libbing, of course. The announcer didn't know what had happened. But he had observed that Danny was playing and the orchestra was not. It would seem logical to him that the fault lay in the orchestra and not with the piano.

Actually, Danny now realized, it was the reverse. The piano robot was the leader of the orchestra. It was different; it coordinated the activities of the other robots, gave them the rhythm, a purpose. Better musician or not, Danny couldn't fill that role. He was a man, not a machine, and his mind did not function on an electronic level.

Danny glanced at the wings of the stage. No matter what he did now he was lost. The robot piano master stood out of sight of the audience and the announcer, broken arms drooping. Beside him were half a dozen members of the psych squad.

The audience was restless, and puzzled. As full as the auditorium was, there was room for a few more men who slipped in quietly and took their stations by the exits. They were probably armed.