“He wrote a book—”
Buster’s thoughts broke off in wild confusion.
“So he wrote a book.”
“Look, doc, I shouldn’t have said that,” whined Buster. “I wasn’t supposed to say it. You caught me unawares.”
“You should have made me believe Charlie was down there, all chummy with Elmer, waiting to talk me out of my foolishness. Elmer will chalk one up on you for this.”
“Elmer doesn’t need to know,” suggested Buster. The footsteps stopped. The tower swam in silence.
“I’ll think about it,” Lathrop finally said. “But I’m not promising anything. If I had a robot that tried to hide things from me, I’d junk him in a hurry.”
“Aren’t you going to come down, doc?”
“Nope,” said Lathrop. “You come up. I’m waiting for you. I have the gun ready. I won’t stand for any monkey business.”
The footsteps started again, slowly, reluctantly. They climbed for a long minute, then stopped again.