s taped to do."

"Okay; wait a minute."

They couldn't see the archway to the power plant, or even the robot
that had Matsui penned up, but after a few minutes they saw it soaring
away, clutching a big wire basket full of broken boxes and other
rubbish. It headed for the mutually repelling swarm of robots around
the door that wouldn't open for them. Conn and Anse and Jerry ran
toward the rear, joined by Clyde Nichols, who popped up from behind a
pile of spools of electric wire. They made it just before the
coffin-shaped thing that had carried off the aircar came over to
investigate.

"You want to be careful back there," Matsui told them, as they started
toward the temporary safety of the power plant. "All the
reactor-repair robots are there; don't get _them_ on the warpath
next."

Of course! There were always repair-robots at a power plant, to go
into places no human could enter and live. Behind the collapsium
shielding, they wouldn't have been activated.

"Let's have a look at them. What kind?"

"Standard reactor-servicers; the same we used at the administration
center."

Matsui opened the door, and they went into the power plant. Conn and
Matsui put on the service-power and activated the two supervisors;
they, in turn, activated their workers. It was tricky work getting
them all outside the collapsium-walled power-plant area; each worker
had to be passed through by the supervisor inside, under Matsui's
control. Because of the close quarters at which they worked inside the
reactor and the converter, they weren't fitted with anticollision
repulsors, and, working under close human supervision, they all had
audiovisual pickups. It took some time to get adequate screens set up
outside the collapsium.

Finally, they were ready. Their two supervisors went up to the
ceiling, one controlled by Conn and the other by Matsui. The larger,
egg-shaped shop-labor supervisors were still moving in irregular
orbits; those of the workers still able to receive commands were
trying to obey them, and the rest were jammed in a swarm at the other
end.

First one, and then the other of the labor-boss robots were captured.
They were by now at the end of what might, loosely, be called their
wits. They weren't used to operating without orders, and had been
sending out commands largely at random. Now they came to a stop, and
then began moving in tight, guided circles; one by one, the worker
robots still able to heed them were brought