The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Velvet Glove, by Harry Harrison

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Title: The Velvet Glove

Author: Harry Harrison

Release Date: July 21, 2009 [EBook #29471]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_SF writer and editor Harry Harrison explores a not too distant
future where robots--particularly specialist robots who don't know
their place--have quite a rough time of it. True, the Robot Equality
Act had been passed--but so what?_

the
velvet
glove

_by ... Harry Harrison_

New York was a bad town for robots this year. In fact,
all over the country it was bad for robots....

Jon Venex fitted the key into the hotel room door. He had asked for a
large room, the largest in the hotel, and paid the desk clerk extra for
it. All he could do now was pray that he hadn't been cheated. He didn't
dare complain or try to get his money back. He heaved a sigh of relief
as the door swung open, it was bigger than he had expected--fully three
feet wide by five feet long. There was more than enough room to work in.
He would have his leg off in a jiffy and by morning his limp would be
gone.

There was the usual adjustable hook on the back wall. He slipped it
through the recessed ring in the back of his neck and kicked himself up
until his feet hung free of the floor. His legs relaxed with a rattle as
he cut off all power from his waist down.

The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on
it, plenty of time to skim through the newspaper. With the chronic worry
of the unemployed, he snapped it open at the want-ads and ran his eye
down the _Help Wanted--Robot_ column. There was nothing for him under
the Specialist heading, even the Unskilled Labor listings were bare and
unpromising. New York was a bad town for robots this year.

The want-ads were just as depressing as usual but he could always get a
lift from the comic section. He even had a favorite strip, a fact that
he scarcely dared mention to himself. "Rattl