* * * * *
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
accomplished 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 mid-winter 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 together, 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 kidnapping 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 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."
"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 counter-measures 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, irritably, "In Heaven's name, man,
what do you suggest we do, then?"
"Nothing," said Lynn. "Call their bluff. Live as we have lived and
gamble that They won't dare break the stalemate for the sake of a
one-bomb headstart."
"Impossible!" said Jeffreys. "Completely impossible. The welfare of all
of Us is very largely in my hands, and doing nothing is the one thing
I cannot do. I agree with you, perhaps, that X-ray machines at sports
arenas are a kind of skin-deep measure that won't be effective, but it
has to be done so that people, in the aftermath, do not come to the
bitter conclusion that we tossed our country away for the sake of a
subtle line of reasoning that encouraged do-nothingism. In fact, our
counter-gambit will be active indeed."
"In what way?"
Presidential Assistant Jeffreys looked at Breckenridge. The young
Security officer, hitherto calmly silent, said, "It's no use talking
about a possible future break in the stalemate when the stalemate is
broken now. It doesn't matter whether these humanoids explode or do
not. Maybe they _are_ only a bait to divert us, as you say. But the
fact remains that we are a quarter of a century behind in robotics, and
that may be fatal. What other advances in robotics will there be to
surprise us if war does start? The only answer is to divert our entire
force immediately, _now_, into a crash program of robotics research,
and the first problem is to find the humanoids. Call it an exercise
in robotics, if you will, or call it the prevention of the death of
fifteen million men, women and children."
Lynn shook his head, helplessly, "You _can't_. You'd be playing into
their hands. They want us lured into the one blind alley while they're
free to advance in all other directions."
Jeffreys said, impatiently, "That's your guess. Breckenridge has made
his suggestion through channels and the government has approved, and we
will begin with an all-Science conference."
"All-Science?"
Breckenridge said, "We have listed every important scientist of every
branch of natural science. They'll all be at Cheyenne. There will
be only one point on the agenda: How to advance robotics. The major
specific sub-heading under that will be: How to develop a receiving
device for the electromagnetic fields of the cerebral cortex that will
be sufficiently delicate to distinguish between a protoplasmic human
brain and a positronic humanoid brain."
Jeffreys said, "We had hoped you would be willing to be in charge of
the conference."
"I was not consulted in this."
"Obviously time was short, sir. Do you agree to be in charge?"
Lynn smiled briefly. It was a matter of responsibility again. The
responsibility must be clearly that of Lynn of Robotics. He had the
feeling it would be Breckenridge who would really be in charge. But
what could he do?