Eros at Zenith: Book 2 of Tales of the Velvet Comet by Mike Resnick Page B

ALL OF MY HYPOTHESES ARE AS VALID AS YOUR OWN.
    “You simply don't understand human psychology.”
    YOU ARE IN ERROR.
    “Bunk.”
    I CAN ANALYZE YOU, ALLOWING FOR ERROR DUE TO MY LIMITED INFORMATION.
    “Go ahead.”
    YOU ARE A COMPULSIVE OVERACHIEVER.
    YOU UNDERSTAND THE SOCIAL GRACES, AND CHOOSE TO IGNORE THEM. YOU ARE OPENLY AMBITIOUS. YOU ARE “Hold it,” said Crane. “That's not psychology—it's memory. You heard the Dragon Lady say all that at lunch.”
    THEN I MUST BE MORE PERSONAL.
    “Go ahead.”
    YOU ARE SEXUALLY ATTRACTED TO THE BLACK PEARL. YOU “You're crazy!” snapped Crane.
    WHEN YOU WERE WITH HER YOUR HEARTBEAT AND BLOOD PRESSURE INCREASED, YOUR SKIN WAS FLUSHED, AND YOU BREATHED MORE RAPIDLY, A RESPONSE THAT OCCURRED TO A LESSER DEGREE EACH TIME HER NAME WAS MENTIONED BY THE DRAGON LADY OR MYSELF. THIS IS MY UNDERSTANDING OF SEXUAL ATTRACTION.
    “Well, you're wrong.”
    I WILL ANALYZE BOTH YOUR ANSWER AND YOUR CURRENT PHYSICAL CONDITION AND REACH A CONCLUSION.
    “Don't bother.”
    I AM COMPELLED TO, FOR IF IT SHOULD TRANSPIRE THAT YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF ANALYZING YOUR OWN PSYCHOLOGY, THIS IN TURN MAKES YOUR CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE KILLER SUSPECT.
    “I'm ordering you to let the subject drop,” said Crane.
    I CANNOT. I POSSESS A HIGHER DIRECTIVE TO SEARCH FOR, ANALYZE, AND CORRECT ANY AND ALL PROGRAMMING ERRORS.
    “Look, she was very pretty, okay?” said Crane uncomfortably.
    AND YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO HER?
    “I'm attracted to all pretty women.”
    YOUR RESPONSE TO THE BLACK PEARL WAS OF A GREATER MAGNITUDE. I SHALL HAVE TO CONTINUE ANALYZING THE SITUATION.
    “Then do it with some other part of your goddamned brain and let's get back to business.”
    IF YOU WISH.
    “I wish the whole subject had never come up,” growled Crane. “Now where were we?”
    WE WERE DISCUSSING HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY.
    “Well, we're all through discussing human psychology!”
    PRIOR TO THAT, WE WERE ANALYZING YOUR HYPOTHESIS.
    “We're not analyzing it—we're accepting it, at least for the time being,” said Crane, trying to keep his temper in check. “That means that the murder was committed to frighten a third party. Now, it stands to reason that Infante and the third party knew each other, or else his death wouldn't have been necessary.”
    YOU ARE JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS. IF INFANTE AND THE THIRD PARTY DID NOT KNOW EACH OTHER, THEN YOUR ENTIRE HYPOTHESIS IS WRONG.
    “They had to,” said Crane irritably. “I'm telling you—that body was moved for the sole purpose of being found. Now, there are a lot of crazy reasons for doing it, but forcing a third party's hand is the only sane one.” He paused. “So it seems to me that the very best way to handle this is to keep the lid on the whole thing. If it becomes obvious that we're not going to allow the third party to know about the murder, we're going to nudge the killer into making another move. After all, he's working with some kind of time limit.”
    HIS NEXT MOVE MAY BE TO KILL AGAIN.
    “I doubt it. Infante wasn't picked at random.”
    YOU HAVE NO EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE OF THAT.
    “Of course I do. How many patrons would be willing to help breach the security system solely to follow someone else into a tramway tunnel? Probably Infante did some business on a regular basis with the third party, the killer got wind of it, and was offering to help him or threatening to blackmail him. But whatever the reason, Infante was the key. Now, if Infante was in business for himself, there's nobody left to kill—and if he worked for someone else, there's a good chance we can keep the news from his employer long enough to force the killer to try something else.”
    SUCH AS MURDER.
    Crane shook his head vigorously. “He's not going to kill the third party. If he wanted to do that, he'd have done it already and not bothered with Infante. He wants him to do something or stop doing something, and since we've short-circuited his message he's going to have to send another