Oscar left that classified section of the lab shortly thereafter and almost immediately once into the general sections ran into Blankenship - or rather, the robot posing as Blankenship. He was glad for Rudy's warning to give him a chance to prepare his words and hide his reaction.

"How is Colonel Austin this morning?" the robot asked solicitously.

Oscar forced himself to look sad. He didn't have to fake barely getting any sleep last night; that was true enough. "I'm afraid he took a turn for the worse last night," he replied. "Excuse me, but I have to go check some things in my office. I was up most of the night."

The robot nodded with a sympathetic expression that made Oscar want to hit him. "Of course. I was afraid when he tackled me last night that Austin might be heading for a crisis. He was so clearly delirious, and the fever was overcoming him."

"I really must go check on a few things. I'll see you later, Dr. Blankenship." Oscar turned away and headed for his office.

(SMDM)

It was getting close to noon when Rudy came into his office, entering without knocking. He was holding a small electronic chip as a child might hold a Christmas toy. "We've got him," he said with satisfaction. "Assuming we're right, that is, and that he's a robot. If I can insert this, it should track all transmissions nicely."

"How's Steve?" Oscar asked.

"Doing better all the time. He's definitely on the mend. Which is not to say that you can send him back out on another case immediately."

"Oh, I know. He's going to get a nice vacation."

"Yes. Unfortunately, we're going to have to settle this robot issue first, because frankly, if I released him before we had all the answers, I don't trust him not to take off on his own to get them." Rudy smiled fondly, then got down to business. "Okay, I'm going to need 20 minutes." Oscar looked at his watch. "I'll be with Steve in the safe room, with both of us out of sight as you first come in the door. If you can arrange for somebody to call that phone exactly in 20 minutes, you can be coming through the door and have the phone ring a split second before the robot shuts down. When the door is reopened, you can just sound like you've been on the phone the whole time. We're going to have to move quickly; can't possibly buy more than a couple of minutes of down time here without making his maker suspicious."

"Sounds like a plan." Oscar stood, then looked at his watch one final time. "Go."

(SMDM)

It worked perfectly. Oscar fetched the robot, saying he wanted to show him a new, interesting experiment that he hadn't had time to on the former tour. The robot went with him willingly. The safe room was standing open invitingly, and the phone rang just as Oscar and the robot stepped through and Oscar shut the door behind him.

In the next second, the robot froze, an electronic rock in the middle of the room. Steve and Rudy peeled themselves off their hiding places against the front wall on either side of the door.

"Now," said Steve with satisfaction, "let's dig into this imposter."