by Mari Wolf
call to the Army that everything wassettled, arranged with Cybernetics for a rewiring on three hundredassorted 5-Types. Then I went home to a pot of Rob's coffee--the firstdecent brew I'd had in twenty-four hours.
On Saturday we delivered to the Army right on the dot. Jerry and Co.had worked overtime. Being intelligent made them better workers andnow they were extremely willing ones. They had their contract. Theywere considered men. And they could no longer read my mind.
I walked into my office Saturday afternoon and sat down by the radio.Jack and Chief Dalton looked across the room at me and grinned.
"All right, Don," Jack said. "Tell us how you did it."
"Did what?" I tried to act innocent, but I couldn't get away with it.
"Fooled those robots into going back to work, of course," he laughed.
I told them then. Told them the truth.
"I didn't fool them," I said. "I just thought about what would happenif they won their rebellion."
That was all I _had_ done. Thought about robots built to work who hadno work to do, no human pleasures to cater to, nothing but blank,meaningless lives. Thought about Jerry and his disappointment when hiscreatures cared not a hoot about his glorious dreams of equality. Allone night I had thought, knowing that as I thought, so thought theMorrison 5's.
They were telepaths. They had learned to think from me. They had notyet had time to really develop minds of their own. What I believed,they believed. My ideas were their ideas. I had not tricked them. Butfrom now on, neither I nor anyone else would ever be troubled by anandroid rebellion.
Jack and the Chief sat back open-mouthed. Then the Chief grinned, andboth of his chins shook with laughter.
"I always did say you were a clever one, Don Morrison," he said.
I grinned back. I felt I was pretty clever myself, just then.
It was at that moment that my youngest foreman stuck his head in thedoor, a rather stunned look on his face.
"Mr. Morrison," he said. "Will you come out here for a moment?"
"What's the matter now?" I sighed.
He looked more perplexed than ever. "It's that robot, Jerry," he said."He says he has a very important question to ask you."
"Well, send him in."
A moment later the eight-foot frame ducked through the doorway.
"I'm sorry to trouble you, Mr. Morrison," Jerry said politely. "Buttomorrow is voting day, you know. And now that we're men--well, wheredo we androids go to register?"
THE END
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