“Remember the alderman? Well, a few weeks ago some of the streets downtown were blocked off, for repairs. Traffic was rerouted—right by that building site. It’s been siphoned off there, and it’s so crowded that dirt trucks would tangle up the whole business. Of course it’s temporary”—Arnie laughed shortly—“temporary until Smeith is forced out. Then the traffic will be rerouted again, and Ajax can wangle their permit.”
“Oh,” Gallegher looked over his shoulder at the machine. “There may be a way—”
The door buzzer rang. Narcissus made a gesture of inquiry.
Gallegher said, “Do me another favor, Arnie. I want to get Smeith down here to my lab, quick.”
“All right, vise him.”
“His visor’s tapped. I don’t dare. Can you hop over and bring him here, right away?”
Arnie sighed. “I certainly earn my commissions the hard way. But O. K.”
He faded. Gallegher listened to the door buzzer, frowned, and nodded to the robot. “See who it is. I doubt if Cuff would try anything now, but—well, find out. I’ll be hi this closet.”
He stood in the dark, waiting, straining his ears, and wondering. Smeith—he had solved Smeith’s problem. The machine ate dirt. The only effective way to get rid of earth without running the risk of a nitrogen explosion.
Eight hundred credits, on account, for a device or a method that would eliminate enough earth—safely—to provide space for an underground office building, a structure that had to be mostly subterranean because of prior-leased air rights.