"Have they done any theorizing?" the general asked worriedly.
"They have." The civilian chuckled sardonically. "They've decided we're trying for another Mars shot--a big one, this time."
The general exhaled sharply. "That's too close for comfort. How do they figure?"
"They figure we're amassing material at Moonbase One. They figure we intend to build the ship there, with the loads of stuff that we're sending up in the rockets."
"_What?_" General Layton opened his mouth, then closed it. Then he began to laugh.
Donna Tedesco pushed the papers across Brian Taggert's desk. "Check them yourself, Brian. I've gone over them six ways from Septuagesima, and I still can't see any other answer."
Taggert frowned at the papers and tapped them with a thoughtful finger, but he didn't pick them up. "I'll take your word for it, Donna. At least for right now. If we get completely balled up, we'll go over them together."
"If you ask me, we've already completely balled up."
She looked at him pleadingly. "Can you think of any other explanation?"
"Nor can I. There it is. Every single one of his valid predictions, every single one of his precognitive intuitions--_without exception_--has been based on the actions of human beings. He can predict stock market fluctuations, and family squabbles, and South American election results. His disaster predictions, every one of them, were due to _human_ error, _human_ failure--not Acts of God. He failed to predict the earthquake in Los Angeles; he missed the flood in the Yangtze Valley; he knew nothing of the eruption of Stromboli. All of these were disasters that took human lives in the past three weeks, and he missed every one of them. And yet, he managed to get nearly every major ship, airplane, and even automobile accident connected with his subjects.
"Seven of his subjects had relatives or friends who were hurt or killed in the earthquake-flood-eruption sequence, but he didn't see them. Yet he could pick up such small things as a nephew of one of the men getting a bad scald on his arm.
"In the face of that, how can we rely on his one prediction about a meteor striking Moonbase One?"
Taggert rubbed his forehead thoughtfully. "I don't know," he said slowly. "There must be a connection somehow."