Time and Again

XLV

Trevor missed with three clips in a row. He shook his head sadly.

"You're sure of this?" he asked the man across the desk.

The man nodded, tight-lipped.

"It might be android propaganda, you know," said Trevor. "They're clever. That's a thing you never must forget. An android, for all his bowing and his scraping, is just as smart as we are."

"Do you realize what it means?" the man demanded. "It means…"

"I can tell you what it means," said Trevor. "From now on we can't be sure which of us are human. There'll be no sure way of knowing who's human and who's an android. You could be an android. I could be…"

"Exactly," said the man.

"That's why Sutton was so smug yesterday afternoon," said Trevor. "He sat there, where you are sitting, and I had the impression that he was laughing at me all the time…"

"I don't think Sutton knows," said the man. "It's an android secret. Only a few of them know it. They certainly wouldn't take a chance on any human knowing it."

"Not even Sutton?"

"Not even Sutton," said the man.

"Cradle," said Trevor. "Nice sense of fitness that they have."

"You're going to do something about it, certainly," said the man impatiently.

Trevor put his elbows on the desk and matched careful fingertips.

"Of course I am," he said. "Now listen carefully. This is what we'll do…"