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Commander Donahue said, "Major Levinson, then" His eyes darkened "And yet I find that impossible to believe"

"Find what impossible to believe?" Lucky asked

"That he is a robot He&039;s the man who took the report He keeps our records I know him well and I swear that he can&039;t be a robot"

"We&039;ll question hi-" Lucky&039;s expression was so a robot; don&039;t ask hiht be one Do nothing to make him feel he&039;s under suspicion"

The commander looked astonished "Why not?"

"The Sirians have a way of protecting their robots Open suspicion er some explosive device within the major if he is indeed a robot"

The commander exhaled explosively "Space!"

Major Levinson showed the signs of strain that were universal a the men aboard the Jovian Moon, but he stood at brisk military attention "Yes, sir"

The commander said cautiously, "Councilman Starr has a few questions to ask"

Major Levinson shifted to face Lucky He was quite tall, topping even Lucky&039;s inches, with fair hair, blue eyes, and a narrow face

Lucky said, "All men were reported on board the Jovian Moon at the tune of take-off froht, major?"

"Yes, sir"

"Did you see each man individually?"

"No, sir I used the intercom Each man answered at take-off station or in his cabin"

"Each man? Did you hear each man&039;s voice? Each individual voice?"

Major Levinson looked astonished "I suppose so That&039;s not the sort of thing one remembers, really"

"Nevertheless it&039;s quite i you to remember"

The major frowned and bent his head "Well, noait Come to think of it, Norrich answered for Summers because Summers was hi the bathroom" Then, with a sudden spark of exciteht now"

Lucky held up a palet Norrich and send him up?"

Norrich came in on Major Levinson&039;s arm He looked bewildered He said, "Commander, no one seems to be able to find Red Summers What&039;s hap-pened to him?"

Lucky forestalled the co to find out Did you report Summers present when Major Levinson checked those aboard before we left Io?"

The blind engineer reddened He said tightly, "Yes"

"The major says you said Summers was in the bathroom Was he?"

"Well No, he wasn&039;t, Councilotten off ship for a moment to pick up some item of equipment he had left behind He didn&039;t want the co him out-pardon me, sir-for carelessness, and he asked me to cover for him He said he would be back well before take-off"

"Was he?"

"I I thought I had the impression he was Mutt barked, I think, and I was sure Su for uess I just didn&039;t give the ht at the ht away, and after that there was no ti"

Panner&039;s voice ca to alloff Everyone to stations"

The Jovian Moon was in space again, lifting itself against Jupiter&039;s gravity with powerful surges It was expending energy at a rate that would have bankrupted five ordinary vessels and only the fault tremor in the sound of the hyperatomics remained to show that the ship&039;s mechanism depended, in part, on loo the ship would now et back with only seventy per cent of original energy, when it could have been eighty-five or ninety

If we land on lo and et back with only fifty And I don&039;t knoe can stand another take-off"

But Lucky said, "We rowing large-sized once again in the visi-plate, Lucky said thoughtfully, "It&039;s not entirely certain we can find himan said incredulously, "You don&039;t think the Sirians actually picked hi place If he wanders off to so on his staying put He&039;d have to carry air, food, and water with hiical for him to stay put Particularly when he&039;d have no reason to expect us to co, Lucky He tried to kill you first thing Why should he want to do that, if he weren&039;t playing along with the Sirians?"

&039;True enough, Big for a spy Summers couldn&039;t be the spy He had no access to the leaked information Once it was clear to me that the spy was a robot, that cleared Su had detected emotion

in him, so he couldn&039;t be a robot and therefore couldn&039;t be the spy Of course that didn&039;t prevent hi a traitor and saboteur, and I should not have allowed the search for a spy to blind me to that possibility"

He shook his head and added, "This seems to be a case riddled with disappointment If it had been anyone else but Norrich who had covered for Summers, ould have had our robot The trouble is that Norrich is the only ly innocent reason to co-operate with Summers He was friendly with Sunorant that Summers never returned before take-off After all, he&039;s blind"

Bigman said, "Besides which, he showed emotion, too, so he can&039;t be the robot"

Lucky nodded "True enough" Yet he frowned and grew silent

Down, down they ca almost in the marks of their previous take-off The dots and smeared shadows in the valley resolved themselves into the equipment they had set up as they approached

Lucky was surveying the surface intently through the visiplate "Were any air tights left behind on Io?"

"No," said the coht, as you may notice, is fully expanded behind that rock formation Do you have the list of material unaccounted for 0n board?"

The commander delivered a sheet of paper without coo out after him I doubt that we&039;ll need help"