Objectively that was true. Subjectively I could have changed my mind about sharing my prize. They didn't think of that and I didn't mention it.
The last objection was silenced. They went about their preparations and I about mine.
We set up the decoy in Illinois. No real reason I suppose, except that most of us are allergic to desert, the logical place to build spaceport and ships. Deserts are hot, dry and bright, and there are few humans there. In our own way we're fond of men, though they may not think so.
Illinois it was, and if there was a note of incongruity in it, so much the better. A spaceship looked strange in the middle of the flat cornfields? Very well, it did. Let the robot investigator find out why it was there.
The creation was not difficult. There was a haze in the air and the fields were green, and the spaceship pointed a sleek nose toward the sky. It was impalpable from below. A farmer plowed right through the stern tubes without knowing they were there. An inconvenience only; we blacked him out as seen from above. The farmhouse we converted into a control tower and the barn became a disembarkation structure.
There were side manifestations of course. Dogs growled uneasily and barked, then ran away and hid in the woods. Roosters could not crow nor hens lay eggs. Milk curdled, in cows and cans, and all the butter turned rancid. Unfortunately we don't often use our entire minds—and when we do there are peripheral effects. However, no human in the area noticed us, and life went on pretty much as usual.
Radio reception was poor over all North America, and television was disrupted for a thousand miles. The disruption was deliberately planned. We had to attract the attention of the saucers, and that was the easiest way to do it. The radiation was supposed to represent a power leak from our hypothecated interstellar drive.
They came the second night and it was good they did. The strain was telling on everyone in the project. It's not easy to keep up such a big illusion.
The flight of saucers wheeled across the sky, lights out and undoubtedly ready for action. They had located us all right, and they wanted to see just what it was we had. But they couldn't find out from the air no matter how many times they passed over.