THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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"Then," Conn continued, "we can tinker up something in the operating
room that'll turn out what will look like computation results. As far as
anybody outside ourselves will know, Merlin will still be solving
everybody's problems. We'll do like any fortuneteller; tell the customer
what he wants to believe and keep him happy."

More lies; lies without end. And now he'd have a machine to do his lying
for him, a dummy computer that[Pg 184] wouldn't compute anything. And
all he'd wanted, to begin with, had been a ship to haul some brandy to
where they could get a fair price for it.

Peace had returned. At first, it had been a frightened and uneasy peace.
The bluff?he hoped that was what it had been?by the Koshchei colonists
had shocked everybody into momentary inaction. In the twenty-four hours
that had followed, the forces of sanity and order had gotten control
again. Merlin existed and had been found. As for Travis's statement, the
old general had been bound by a wartime oath of secrecy to deny Merlin's