they were lined up beautifully, feet spread apart, hands behind their hacks, every one in a natty green uniform, loosely fitted and with wide pockets. there was very little gender differential and one could only guess that some of the shorter ones were women. the hoods covered whatever hair they had, but then, gardeners were supposed to clip their hair quite short-either sex-and there could be no facial hair.
why that should be, one couldn't say. the word "tradition" covered it all, as it covered so many things, some useful, some foolish.
facing them was mandell gruber, flanked on either side by an assistant. gruber was trembling, his wide-opened eyes glazed.
hari seldon's lips tightened. if gruber could but manage to say, "the emperor's gardeners greet you all," that would be enough. seldon himself would then take over.
his eyes swept over the new contingent and he located raych.
his heart jumped a bit. it was the mustacheless raych in the front row, standing more rigid than the rest, staring straight ahead. his eyes did not move to meet seldon's; he showed no sign of recognition, however subtle.
good, thought seldon. he's not supposed to. he's giving nothing away.
gruber muttered a weak welcome and seldon jumped in.
he advanced with an easy stride, putting himself immediately before gruber, and said, "thank you, gardener first-class. men and women, gardeners of the emperor, you are to undertake an important task. you will be responsible for the beauty and health of the only open land on our great world of trantor, capital of the galactic empire. you will see to it that if we don't have the endless vistas of open undomed worlds, we will have a small jewel here that will outshine anything else in the empire.
"you will all be under mandell gruber, who will shortly become chief gardener. he will report to me, when necessary, and i will report to the emperor. this means, as you can all see, that you will be only three levels removed from the imperial presence and you will always be under his benign watch. i am certain that even now he is surveying us from the small palace, his personal home, which is the building you see to the right-the one with the opal-layered dome-and that he is pleased with what he sees.
"before you start work, of course, you will all undertake a course of training that will make you entirely familiar with the grounds and its needs. you will-?
he had, by this time, moved, almost stealthily, to a point directly in front of raych, who still remained motionless, unblinking.
seldon tried not to look unnaturally benign and then a slight frown crossed his face. the person directly behind raych looked familiar. he might have gone unrecognized if seldon had not studied his hologram. wasn't that gleb andorin of wye? raych's patron in wye, in fact? what was he doing here?
andorin must have noticed seldon's sudden regard, for he muttered something between scarcely opened lips and raych's right arm, moving forward from behind his back, plucked a blaster out of the wide pocket of his green doublet. so did andorin.
seldon felt himself going into near-shock. how could blasters have been allowed onto the grounds? confused, he barely heard the cries of "'treason!" and the sudden noise of running and shouting.
all that really occupied seldon's mind was raych's blaster pointing directly at him and raych looking at him without any sign of recognition. seldon抯 mind filled with horror as he realized that his son was going to shoot and that he himself was only seconds from death.
