"Will we get to see any of this top secret research?" Stella asked the nearest quietly smiling young man.
"I doubt it," he said. "Of course, the war's over now. We don't know what orders we'll get concerning you two."
"What became of the robot?" Larry asked. "I hope you destroyed him the minute you could."
"No. It should be here any minute now, Larry," the quietly smiling young man said. He was holding his drink without having touched it.
Larry looked around the large room. It seemed almost crowded now with quietly smiling young men who held their tall cocktail glasses without sipping them. And all the quietly smiling young men were watching him and Stella.
The moment seemed to lift out of time and suspend itself on the peak of a crest, stationary. There was no fear, nor even any realization that anything was wrong. Stella, beside him, was saying something happy and gay, but his ears weren't listening. It was one of those moments in time where the past is like a page you have just read, and the future is on a page about to be turned. You hold the continuity, even the sense of half a phrase. Your thoughts, your emotions, pause for what is to come.
A door opened fifty feet away. The robot entered the room. Its two lens eyes were fixed on them. Its microphone wands slanted slightly toward them. It took a few steps with the casual self-assurance of a man.
The quietly smiling young men were still looking at Larry. They seemed indifferent about the presence of the robot.
Then one of them near Larry said, "We were going to destroy you, of course. We had no use for you. However, 2615 talked us out of it. He seems to have a great deal of resentment in his make-up. I think he wants to take it out on you two."