Robot Adept by Piers Anthony Page A

Stile.
    She looked at him and made a wicked smile. Then she took him in her arms and kissed him. Any watcher would have sworn that it was male kissing female, rather than vice versa.
    The transport delivered them directly to Citizen Blue’s suite. There were no servants there, so no awkwardness about identities.
    Should they maintain their emulations? They realized that they had to, because Bane had Sheen’s body. It was strange, seeing himself in the mirror, looking so like his other self’s mother! So they settled down and watched news features on the screen, and waited.   An hour passed. Then the entrance chime sounded.
    The entry vid showed Bane and Agape.
    “They’re back!” Agape exclaimed, hurrying to the entrance. She touched the admit button as Bane came up behind her.
    Suddenly Bane froze. His body had gone nonresponsive; it was as if it had been disconnected. He couldn’t even speak.
    Agape stepped forward—and the two figures jumped up to take her by the arms. Astonished, she tried to draw back, but they put a bag over her head.   Bane realized that these were not Citizen Blue and his robot wife, Sheen. They were impostors, similar to the serf with Blue’s emblem—but he could not act.   “When you are ready to cooperate, send word,” the Citizen figure said to Bane. “Then you may see her again.”
    Appalled, he watched them haul Agape back to a waiting vehicle. They had used a ruse to capture her after all!
    Then a new figure showed up—and this one also looked like Citizen Blue. “Now there are two ways we can do this,” he said.
    The Sheen-figure whirled and leaped at him.   A net shot from the wall and wrapped about her, lifting her up and suspending her in the air.   “That was the second way,” the Blue figure said.   The first Blue figure tried to run, but another net trapped him similarly.
    Bane recovered use of his body. “Agape!” he cried, running to her.
    Serfs appeared. They hauled away the two netted figures. “I wanted to catch them in the act,” Citizen Blue explained. “Now I have proof.”
    Agape had dissolved into jelly, but when she felt Bane’s touch she recovered and reformed, this time assuming her normal female shape.
    Sheen appeared. They returned to the suite, and a machine servitor approached to transfer computer brains. Bane had his own—or rather Mach’s—body back.
    “We have been watching, but until they made their move, it was pointless to act,” Blue explained. “They were watching all the planetary ports, and indeed, all the exits from Hardom; there was no chance to get Agape out. But they gained nothing by keeping her bottled up here; they had to gain direct possession of her. So we tempted them by arranging a game beyond the protected region, and they finally took the bait.”
    “The bait!” Bane exclaimed, horrified.
    “The seemingly vulnerable pair,” Blue said. “Unfortunately, they were more determined than we expected; they arranged to send false signals of normalcy, so that we believed they had not struck. It was a good thing you thought to seek the help of the self-willed machines.”
    “They helped us,” Bane agreed, feeling somewhat dazed as he remembered. “I knew not that this body came so readily apart!”
    “Now that they have made their move, they will be trying more openly,” Bane continued. “They have shown a certain cleverness in their efforts. We shall have to hide Agape until we can get her offplanet.”
    “Then hide me with her!” Bane exclaimed.  
    “Yes. But you may not enjoy the manner of concealment.”
    “I enjoy not the need for separation,” Bane said. “Needs must I be with her while I can.”
    “I believe we have worked out a situation in which you can be together without suspicion,” Blue said. “But you will have to be careful and alert, because it is risky.”
    “It be risky just acting in a play!” Bane exclaimed, and they laughed.
    “We shall set the two of you up as a menial robot and