He looked at Busch, who looked at Cowles, who asked: "Does Eddie solve any problems closer to our own time, Dr. Smith?" "Of course...." "Did Eddie come up with the idea for that Atlas stabilizing cylinder?" "Certainly." General Sanders moved a step closer to the bed. "Any other ideas like that?" he inquired eagerly. Dr. Smith's smile was neither wholly supercilious nor merely self-assured. It was a little of both, plus a lot of pure satisfaction at being stage center with his favorite subject. He cocked his head back and stared down his stump of a nose. "You're working on a missile defense system for bombers, aren't you?" he challenged General Sanders. "What about it?" hedged the General. "Have you learned how to design a finned missile which can be launched across the bomber's airstream without being thrown off course?" General Sanders ignored a warning glance from Amos Busch. "Do you ... does this Eddie know how to do it?" "Eddie says it doesn't matter!" "What?" "Eddie says what difference does it make if the missile is thrown off course by the airstream--as long as you can reorient it into a compensated trajectory. We were working on a new gyroscope principle that might do the trick...." FBI Agent Cowles was always the personification of courtesy, but he could assert himself when necessary. He did so now. "Excuse me, General," he interrupted, "but first there are some other matters we must go into with Dr. Smith." The General nodded reluctantly. He took out an envelope and made some notes of his own on the back of it. "Now, Dr. Smith," said Cowles, "let's get back to the explosion.... Why do you feel someone wanted to destroy you and Eddie?" "I believe they had copied Eddie's circuit design and wanted to make sure another one wasn't built--at least in the immediate future." "Why not?" Dr. John O'Hara Smith showed a neat flair for timing as he waited just long enough to build suspense, before answering: "Because Eddie knew that our security system for safeguarding the missile program is about as up to date as the horse and buggy!" His words couldn't have been better chosen to startle his audience. Amos Busch took them as a personal affront. "Horse and buggy!" he snorted. "You'd better spell that out, Dr. Smith!" Smith's reply was prompt and precise: "Eddie has concluded that human methods and minds alone are not enough to cope with security issues in an area where even the simplest technical problems must be handled by intricate computing devices...." His owlish eyes moved from one man to another, trying to judge whether they were following him. "You see, Gentlemen," he went on, "the technology we are dealing with is so unbelievably complex that the possibilities for espionage are multiplied infinitely beyond the capacity of a human intellect to grasp and evaluate...." "For example," demanded General Sanders.