,
doubt enters. If that sort of thing goes on, he becomes disobedient
because he doesn't believe that the man is his father.

"I'm afraid I'm putting it a little crudely, but you get the idea."

"Yeah," said Mike. For all he knew, there might be some merit in the
girl's idea; he knew that philosophers had talked of the "basic goodness
of mankind" for centuries. But he had a hunch that Leda was going about
it wrong. Still, this was no time to argue with her. She seemed calmer
now, and he didn't want to upset her any more than he had to.

"That's what you've been working on with Snookums?" he asked.

"That's it."

"For eight years?"

"For eight years."

"Is that the information, the data, that makes Snookums so priceless,
aside from his nucleonics work?"

She smiled a little then. "Oh no. Of course not, silly. He's been fed
data on everything--physics, subphysics, chemistry, mathematics--all
kinds of things. Most of the major research laboratories on Earth have
problems of one kind or another that Snookums has been working on. He
hasn't been given the problem _I_ was working on at all; it would bias
him." Then the tears came back. "And now it doesn't matter. He's insane.
He's lying."

"What's he saying?"

"He insists that he's never broken the First Law, that he has never hurt
a human being. And he insists that he has followed the orders of human
beings, according to the Second Law."

"May I talk to him?" Mike asked.

She shook her head. "Fitz is running him through an analysis. He even
made me leave." Then she looked at his face more closely. "You don't
just want to confront him and call him a liar, do you? No--that's not
like you. You know he's just a machine--better than I do, I guess....
What is it, Mike?"

_No_, he thought, looking at her, _she still thinks he's human.
Otherwise, she'd know that a computer can't lie--not in the human sense
of the word._

_Most people, if told that a man had said one thing, and that a computer
had given a different answer, would rely on the computer._

"What is it, Mike?" she repeated.

"Lew Mellon," he said very quietly, "is dead."

The blood drained from her face, leaving her skin stark against the
bright red of her hair. For a moment he thought she was going to faint.
Then a little of the color came back.

"Snookums." Her voice was whispery.

He shook his head. "No. Apparently he tried to jump Vaneski and got hit
with a stun beam. It shouldn't have killed