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No wonder they were worried about Bean's lack of participation in their little mind game. It made him an unknown quantity. It made him dangerous.
Now it was even more dangerous for Bean to play than ever. Not playing might make them suspicious and fearful -- but in whatever move they planned against him, at least they wouldn't know anything about him. While if he did play, then they might be less suspicious -- but if they did move against him, they would do it knowing whatever information the game gave to them. And Bean was not at all confident of his ability to outplay the game. Even if he tried to give them misleading results, that strategy in itself might tell them more about him than he wanted them to know.
And there was another possibility, too. He might be completely wrong. There might be key information that he did not have. Maybe no fleet had been launched. Maybe they hadn't defeated the Buggers at their home world. Maybe there really was a desperate effort to build a defensive fleet. Maybe maybe maybe.
Bean had to get more information in order to have some hope that his analysis was correct and that his choices would be valid.
And Bean's isolation had to end.
"Nikolai," said Bean, "you wouldn't believe what I found out from those maps. Did you know there are nine decks, not just four?"
"Nine?"
"And that's just in this wheel. There are two other wheels they never tell us about."
"But the pictures of the station show only the one wheel."
"Those pictures were all taken when there *was* only one wheel. But in the plans, there are three. Parallel to each other, turning together."
Nikolai looked thoughtful. "But that's just the plans. Maybe they never built those other wheels." "Then why would they still have maps for them in the emergency system?"
Nikolai laughed. "My father always said, bureaucrats never throw anything away."
Of course. Why hadn't he thought of that? The emergency map system was no doubt programmed before the first wheel was ever brought into service. So all those maps would already be in the system, even if the other wheels were never built, even if two-thirds of the maps would never have a corridor wall to be displayed on. No one would bother to go into the system and clean them out.