"It was Robert's idea, really," began Richard, "and he ought to be
telling the tale, but he is too modest to do so. Robert and I cooked up
the plan between us and told no one else. Just in case there was a leak
somewhere-and apparently there was!-Robert made a fuss about wanting to
offer his freighters to convey the probes to the deployment site. He
offered rather expensive freighters for service. Robert felt badly
about, well, about making a scene when we met with the President and
wanted to make up for it."
Robert glanced down at the table so as not to meet anyone's eyes, but
it was evident that the success of his plan was deeply gratifying to
him.
"The NME freighters were decoys. The real probes were sent out on SE
freighters to different spots along the face of deployment. They were
sent out without any fanfare whatever on the normal delivery schedule
we follow for all shipments to Mars and the Asteroid Belt. It would
never have done, anyway, to send the probes out in a tight bunch as the
seven NME freighters; deployment must be simultaneously effected from
several sites, and this is the command I just gave Captain Marks-Owens.
"If the pirates took the bait, then they would go back to their base
believing that they had stopped us. And if they didn't know about our
plans or the decoy, well, no harm done.
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