All that mattered was the pulse of life.
Comfort.
And it must be kept.
I did my duty, he told himself. My willing, almost eager, duty. I still am doing it.
I acted the part, he told himself, and I think I acted well. I acted a part when I carried the challenge to Asher Sutton's room. I acted a part when I came to him as a part of the estate duello… the saucy, flippant part of any common android.
I did my duty for him…and yet not for him, but comfort, for the privilege of knowing and believing that neither I nor any other living thing, no matter how lowly it may be, will ever be alone.
I hit him. I hit him on the button and I knocked him out and I lifted him in my arms and carried him.
He was angry at me, but that does not matter. For his anger cannot wash away a single word of the thing he gave me.
Thunder shook the house, and the window, for a moment, flared with sudden crimson.
Herkimer came to his feet and ran to the window and stood there, gripping the ledge, watching the red twinkle of dwindling rocket tubes.