"I—I assumed I was wrong, sir. I've always been trained to respect the word of an officer. If Commander Dubrow said I was guilty and I didn't remember—well, sir, he had to be right!"
Harkness chuckled. "You know differently now. We've had a mind-probe run on Dubrow. It seems he was bribed by a group of private contractors to wreck the Patrol's project on Iapetus so they could get the job instead. He figured he'd have you tried for the crime, leaving him in the clear. So all he did was switch the action around and then hypnotize you into forgetting it."
"What's going to happen to him now?" Mannion asked.
"What else? He's being erased now. Commander Dubrow no longer exists."
Mannion shuddered. He remembered vividly that complex pile of machinery on the 14th Level.
"I guess I'm free, then," he said.
Harkness nodded. "I guess you are, young man. And next time don't be so ready to believe your own guilt."
"No, sir! I mean—yes, sir! I mean—"
It didn't matter. Mannion smiled at Harkness and took his wife in his arms. The case was closed and he was a free man and an officer in the Space Patrol.
And he was still Dan Mannion.