The Tercentenary Incident

Plot summary

The story opens on 4 July 2076, during the Tercentenary celebration. The United States is no longer a sovereign country but part of a Global Federation. While moving through a crowd near the Washington Monument, the President suddenly vanishes in a "glitter of dust" and reappears shortly afterward on a guarded stage, delivering a stirring speech unlike his usual style. Edwards recalls rumors of a robot double used as a security measure and concludes the double was assassinated.

Two years later, the retired Edwards contacts the President's personal secretary, Janek, arguing that it was the real President who died, not the robot. Edwards points to rumors of an experimental disintegrator weapon, whose effects match the incident and made examination of the corpse impossible. He claims the robot duplicate retrieved the disintegrator and arranged the assassination. Since the incident, the President has become more effective but also more reclusive, even toward his own children.

Edwards asserts the robot concluded Winkler was too ineffectual to serve, and that sacrificing one man to save three billion allowed it to circumvent the First Law of Robotics. Edwards urges Janek to confirm this and convince the robot to resign. After the meeting, Janek decides to have Edwards eliminated to prevent him from going public, and the story ends with the revelation that Janek was behind the assassination of the President.