"Very good," I nodded, throwing the last lock on my trap. "That means
he knows all about this battleship."
"The subject has no knowledge of the battleship," the robot said
coldly. "All of his statements concerning the construction of this ship
were true."
Now it was my turn for the gaping and eye-popping act while Ferraro
pulled himself together. He had no idea I wasn't interested in his
other hanky-panky, but could tell I had had a low blow. It took an
effort, but I managed to get my mind back into gear and consider the
evidence.
If President Ferraro didn't know about the battleship, he must have
been taken in by the cover-up job. But if he wasn't responsible--who
was? Some militaristic clique that meant to overthrow him and take
power? I didn't know enough about the planet, so I enlisted Ferraro on
my side.
This was easy--even without the threat of exposure of the documents
I had found in his files. Using their disclosure as a prod I could
have made him jump through hoops. It wasn't necessary. As soon as I
showed him the different blueprints and explained the possibilities he
understood. If anything, he was more eager than I was to find out who
was using his administration as a cat's-paw. By silent agreement the
documents were forgotten.
We agreed that the next logical step would be the Cenerentola
Spaceyards. He had some idea of sniffing around quietly first, trying
to get a line to his political opponents. I gave him to understand
that the League, and the League Navy in particular, wanted to stop the
construction of the battleship. After that he could play his politics.
With this point understood he called his car and squadron of guards and
we made a parade to the shipyards. It was a four-hour drive and we made
plans on the way down.
* * * * *
The spaceyard manager was named Rocca, and he was happily asleep when
we arrived. But not for long. The parade of uniforms and guns in the
middle of the night had him frightened into a state where he could
hardly walk. I imagine he was as full of petty larceny as Ferraro. No
innocent man could have looked so terror-stricken. Taking advantage of
the situation, I latched my motorized lie detector onto him and began
snapping the questions.
Even before I had all the answers I began to get the drift of things.
They were a little frightening, too. The manager of the spaceyard that
was building the ship had no idea of its true nature.
Anyone with less self-esteem than myself--or who had led a more honest
early life--might have doubted his own reasoning at that moment. I
didn't. The ship on the ways _still_ resembled a warship to six
places. And knowing human nature the way I do, that was too much of a
coincidence to expect. Occam's razor always points the way. If there
are two choices to take, take the simpler. In this case I chose the
natural acquisitive instinct of man as opposed to blind chance and
accident. Nevertheless I put the theory to the test.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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