“Not me. Sorry.”
“Mannie,” Wyoh said suddenly, “ask Mike.”
I stared. “You serious?”
“Quite serious. If anyone can figure out odds, Mike should be able to. Don’t you think?”
“Um. Possible.”
“Who, if I may ask,” Prof put in, “is Mike?”
I shrugged. “Oh, just a nobody.”
“Mike is Mannie’s best friend. He’s very good at figuring odds.”
“A bookie? My dear, if we bring in a fourth party we start by violating the cell principle.”
“I don’t see why,” Wyoh answered. “Mike could be a member of the cell Mannie will head.”
“Mmm . . . true. I withdraw objection. He is safe? You vouch for him? Or you, Manuel?”
I said, “He’s dishonest, immature, practical joker, not interested in politics.”
“Mannie, I’m going to tell Mike you said that. Professor, he’s nothing of the sort–and we need him. Uh, in fact he might be our chairman, and we three the cell under him. The executive cell.”
“Wyoh, you getting enough oxygen?”
“I’m okay, I haven’t been guzzling it the way you have. Think, Mannie. Use imagination.”
“I must confess,” said Prof, “that I find these conflicting reports very conflicting.”
“Mannie?”
“Oh, hell.” So we told him, between us, all about Mike, how he woke up. got his name, met Wyoh. Prof accepted idea of a self-aware computer easier than I accepted idea of snow first time I saw. Prof just nodded and said, “Go on.”
But presently he said, “This is the Warden’s own computer? Why not invite the Warden to our meetings and be done with it?”
We tried to reassure him. At last i said, “Put it this way. Mike is his own boy, just as you are. Call him rational anarchist, for he’s rational and he feels no loyalty to any government.”
“If this machine is not loyal to its owners, why expect it to be loyal to you?”
“A feeling. I treat Mike well as I know how, he treats me same way.” I told how Mike had taken precautions to protect me. “I’m not sure he could betray me to anyone who didn’t have those signals, one to secure phone, other to retrieve what I’ve talked about or stored with him; machines don’t think way people do. But feel dead sure he wouldn’t want to betray me and probably could protect me even if somebody got those signals.”
“Mannie,” suggested Wyoh, “why not call him? Once Professor de la Paz talks to him he will know why we trust Mike. Professor, we don’t have to tell Mike any secrets until you feel sure of him.”
“I see no harm in that.”
“Matter of fact,” I admitted, “already told him some secrets.” I told them about recording last night’s meeting and how I stored it.
Prof was distressed, Wyoh was worried. I said, “Damp it! Nobody but me knows retrieval signal. Wyoh, you know how Mike behaved about your pictures; won’t let me have those pictures even though I suggested lock on them. But if you two will stop oscillating, I’ll call him, make sure that nobody has retrieved that recording. and tell him to erase–then it’s gone forever, computer memory is all or nothing. Or can go one better. Call Mike and have him play record back into recorder, wiping storage. No huhu.”
“Don’t bother,” said Wyoh. “Professor, I trust Mike–and so will you.”
“On second thought,” Prof admitted, “I see little hazard from a recording of last night’s meeting. One that large always contains spies and one of them may have used a recorder as you did, Manuel. I was upset at what appeared to be your indiscretion–a weakness a member of a conspiracy must never have, especially one at the top, as you are.”
“Was not member of conspiracy when I fed that recording into Mike–and not now unless somebody quotes odds better than those so far!”
“I retract; you were not indiscreet. But are you seriously suggesting that this machine can predict the outcome of a revolution?”
“Don’t know.”
“I think he can!” said Wyoh.
“Hold it, Wyoh. Prof, he could predict it fed all significant data.”
“That’s my point, Manuel. I do not doubt that this machine can solve problems I cannot grasp. But one of this scope? It would have to know–oh, goodness!–all of human history, all details of the entire social, political, and economic situation on Terra today and the same for Luna, a wide knowledge of psychology in all its ramifications, a wide knowledge of technology with all its possibilities, weaponry, communications, strategy and tactics, agitprop techniques, classic authorities such as Clausewitz, Guevera, Morgenstern, Machiavelli, many others.”