Adam Link: Robot Vol. 2 by Eando Binder

Book Details

Volume 2 of three volumes of the complete Adam Link: Robot stories by Eando Binder. Adam Link and Eve Link face gangsters, con men and an invasion on the Mexican border! Not to mention what might be called a “child”…

Adam Link, Robot Detective (1940) – Adam Link, the strangest character ever to gain the status of a human being, finds a new field for his talents and dons human guise to become a detective.
Chapter I
Chapter II – My Disguise
Chapter III – My First Clue
Chapter IV – I Am “Taken for a Ride”
Chapter V – The Crime Ring
Chapter VI – I Go to the Rescue
Chapter VII – I Face a “Monster”
Chapter VIII – The Final Hour

Adam Link, Champion Athlete (1940) – Adam Link decides that the only way he can prove his human qualities is to match sportsmanship with sportsmanship competing with humans in the sport world
Chapter I
Chapter II – A Great Idea
Chapter III – Adam Link, Champion
Chapter IV – A Challenge
Chapter V – The Race
Chapter VI – A Kidnapping!

Adam Link Fights a War (1940) – Adam Link constructed his robots for peace, to prove their worth in Man’s world. But when the crushing Panzer blitzkrieg surged over the Mexican border, he had to lead them to war!
Chapter I
Chapter II – First-Class Heel
Chapter III – Arrival of Mary
Chapter IV – Mary in Trouble
Chapter V – The Fifth Column
Chapter VI – Adam Link in War!
Chapter VII – Adam Link, Strategist
Chapter VIII – The Poison of Jealousy
Chapter IX – Adam Link, Blitzkriegist
Chapter X – Robot-Krieg!

Eando Binder is the pen-name used by brothers, Earl Andrew Binder (1904-1965) and Otto Binder (1911-1974).

Files:

1. AdamLink-Vol2.epub

Also available on Barnes & Noble

Adam Link, Champion Athlete

Chapter I

“I  WANT to file citizenship papers,” I said. “I am Adam Link, the robot.”

The official, Dahlgren by name, stared at me. I suppose it is strange to hear a metal being talk. To be confronted by a manlike creation—alloy legs and body, featureless face of metal, jingling internal hum, and all—and realize it has a mind of its own. That it is living!

Jack Hall and Tom Link, my friends, stood beside me. Also Eve, my companion robot and my mental mate. We had decided, after long discussion, to try this. I had the complete papers drawn up, with Tom’s help, for both Eve and myself. Our first “naturalization” papers.

“Impossible!” snapped the official finally. His face reddened. He felt we were making a fool of him. “Citizenship is granted only to—uh—human beings.”

Tom spoke up sharply.

“Can you show me that statement, in black and white? The laws read that any person, regardless of race, color, creed or nationality, may apply for citizenship.”

Dahlgren was taken aback. I was a little amused. Regardless of race, the laws say. Even beings from another world would be eligible by that loose term. Ridiculous thought. But still, I’m afraid you humans have been too smugly assured that in all the universe there can only be intelligent beings like yourself.

“Person!” scoffed Dahlgren. “Is he a person?”

He looked me up and down with a stiff smile. “It’s quite obvious that he’s nothing more than a clever, mechanical apparatus. A robot that walks and talks. A machine. You can’t label that a ‘person’. What you want is a patent!”

He did not mean to be insulting. He simply failed to realize I had a brain.

Eve and I looked at each other. What of our minds? You don’t patent a mind.

Tom tried pleading.

“Don’t look at it that way,” he cried. “They have personality and character of their own, like any of us. They have minds. They think, reason, know the difference between right and wrong. They want to live in our world, as full-fledged members. They’ve done good already. You know their story——”

He went on briefly, in summary.

For two years I had passed through a quiet human period of adjustment to life since my creation. I had been hounded as a Frankenstein slayer of my creator, sat patiently through a court trial, and won freedom—and legal human status. I had conducted a consultant business, and rebuilt slums with the money gained. I had strangely stirred the heart of a human girl. I had created a robot mate for myself, to live as humans live normally, in pairs. With Eve, I had broken up a criminal ring in this midwestern city.

Now, all those tumultuous events behind me, I felt I had a place in human society. I wanted to become a citizen, and the forerunner of others of my kind. We could do civilization much good.

TOM stressed that, in conclusion. “You know how they broke up this city’s biggest crime ring. Could any human have done better—or as much?”

Dahlgren gave Eve and me a grudging look of admiration, for that. But he shook his head stubbornly.

“Still, they aren’t human beings— legally.”

Tom smiled triumphantly, having maneuvered the discussion to that angle. “Adam Link is a human being, legally. You read about his trial. He was duly entered in the civil court records. I can furnish them. Also Eve Link, through her trial, is legally a human being!”

Dahlgren looked as though he had been driven into a corner.

“Technically,” he floundered.

“Perhaps,” Tom shot back. “But I think it’s up to you to prove he isn’t human—legally. You can’t ignore court records. Do you know what Adam Link can do if you refuse to take up this matter? He can sue you!”

Dahlgren pondered that, half angrily, half worriedly.

“I’ll send the papers to Washington, to higher authorities,” he acceded. “I won’t take the responsibility myself.” He went on, almost spitefully. “I guarantee you they won’t accept it. They’ll throw it out on technicalities. Where was Adam Link born? Who were his parents? Things like that—”

His eyes narrowed shrewdly then.

“There’s more to this than just awarding Adam and Eve Link citizenship, for their good deeds. The question is, do we want more robots to follow, parading up and down our streets as full-fledged citizens, accorded all the privileges of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?”

“What do you mean?” I demanded, and I think my mechanical voice was rather stentorian. “That you think robots might become a menace?”

It was that, of course. Yet I couldn’t blame him for the stand he took. It was, after all, a situation no man had ever faced before, in all human history. Not even Solomon would have seen a clear answer.

I knew the thoughts streaming vaguely through his mind. He was being asked to make room, in human society, for alien beings. For the first of the future robot race. How could he take the tremendous responsibility of that step? How could he be sure some frightful catastrophe might not result?

Frankenstein! A robot race gone Frankenstein! If that happened, he would be blamed. And every official in Washington would feel the same, and shy from the decision.”

Excerpt From: Eando Binder. “Adam Link: Robot Vol. 2.”