Before Saxon could reply, Mercedes said, "General Atomic offered us all
a million credits. They did to me and Brand, I know. We reported it to
the T.I.S."
"Yeah," said Murdock with a frown. "Yeah, and we questioned them with
the lie-detector. Not once, but every time they left the building.
They were psychoanalyzed and searched. And every damned one of them
was certified loyal to Government. They never gave a sign that they'd
sold out to General Atomic, not a sign. Why, the bums acted as if they
didn't know it themselves."
"They didn't!" put in Saxon.
Their eyes swung back to the burly nuclear physicist. He read
scepticism, doubt, curiosity in their minds.
"What do you mean??" Murdock exploded.
"I mean just what I said. They actually didn't know that they had sold
out to General Atomic until after the Little Death. It's simple enough.
I'm surprised no one's thought of it before. Ever since Charcot back in
the nineteenth century....'"
"Hypnotism!" Villainowski burst out. "That's it, of course!
Post-hypnotic commands!"
Saxon nodded. "I wasn't sure. I'm not sure even yet." But he was. He
had known it the moment he had looked into Ileth's mind the day of the
mutiny.