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assume so. Believe me, we've been waiting for any report that might imply sudden attacks
of amnesia or troublesome changes in personality. We've checked on thousands.' Amberley
of Science stared at his finger tips. 'I think ordinary measures won't work. The attack must
come from the Bureau of Robotics and I depend on the chief of that bureau.' Again eyes
turned sharply, expectandy, on Lynn. Lynn felt bitterness rise. It seemed to him that this was
what the conference came to and was intended for. Nothing that had been said had not
been said before. He was sure of that. There was no solution to the problem, no pregnant 88
suggestion. It was a device for the record, a device on the part of men who gravely feared
defeat and who wished the responsibility for it placed clearly and unequivocally on someone
else. And yet there was justice in it. It was in robotics that We had fallen short: And Lynn was
not Lynn merely. He was Lynn of Robotics and the responsibility had to be his. He said, 'I will
do what I can.' He spent a wakeful night and there was a haggardness about both body and
soul when he sought and attained another interview with Presidential Assistant Jeffreys the
next morning. Breckenridge was there, and though Lynn would have preferred a private
conference, he could see the justice in the situation. It was obvious that Breckenridge had
attained enormous influence with the government as a result of his successful Intelligence
work. Well, why not? Lynn said, 'Sir, I am considering the possibility that we are hopping
uselessly to enemy piping.' 'In what way?' 'I'm sure that however impatient the public may
grow at times, and however legislators sometimes find it expedient to talk, the government
at least recognizes the world stalemate to be beneficial. They must recognize it also. Ten
humanoids with one TC bomb is a trivial way of breaking the stalemate.' 'The destruction of
fifteen million human beings is scarcely trivial.' 'It is from the world power standpoint. It would
not so demoralize us as to make us surrender or so cripple us as to convince us we could
not win. There would just be the same old planetary death war that both sides have avoided
so long and so successfully. And all They would have accom- 89 plished is to force us to
fight minus one city. It's not enough.' 'What do you suggest?' said Jeffreys coldly. 'That They
do not have ten humanoids in our country? That there is not a TC bomb waiting to get
together?' 'I'll agree that those things are here, but perhaps for some reason greater than
just midwinter bomb madness.' 'Such as?' 'It may be that the physical destruction resulting
from the humanoids getting together is not the worst thing that can happen to us. What about
the moral and intellectual destruction that comes of their being here at all? With all due
respect to Agent Breckenridge, what if They intended for us to find out about the humanoids;
what if the humanoids are never supposed to get togethier, but merely to remain separate in
order to give us something to worry about?' 'Why?' 'Tell me this. What measures have
already been taken against the humanoids? I suppose that Security is going through the
files of all citizens who have ever been across the border or close enough to it to make
kidnaping possible. I know, since Macalaster mentioned it yesterday, that they are following
up suspicious psychiatric cases. What else?' Jeffreys said, 'Small X-ray devices are being
installed in key places in the large cities. In the mass arenas, for instance ' 'Where ten
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
humanoids might slip in among a hundred thousand spectators of a football game or an
air-polo match?' 'Exactly.' 'And concert halls and churches?' 'We must start somewhere. We
can't do it all at once.' 90 'Particularly when panic must be avoided,' said Lynn. 'Isn't that so?
It wouldn't do to have the public realize that at any unpredictable moment, some
unpredictable city and its human contents would suddenly cease to exist.' 'I suppose that's
obvious. What are you driving at?' Lynn said strenuously, 'That a growing fraction of our
national effort will be diverted entirely into the nasty problem of what Amberley called finding
a very small needle in a very large haystack. We'll be chasing our tails madly, while They
increase their research lead to the point where we find we can no longer catch up; when we
must surrender without the chance even of snapping our fingers in retaliation. 'Consider
further that this news will leak out as more and more people become involved in our
countermeasures and more and more people begin to guess what we're doing. Then what?
The panic might do us more harm than any one TC bomb.' The Presidential Assistant said [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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