He's not surprised Charlie is staring at him with overt disbelief and confusion and surprise. Ned, after all, had a frame of reference for robots, and he had gaped like a guppy when he'd first met Daneel. He'd thought - he remembers with a retroactive warmth - that he was being pranked.

"What about it seems like a mess to you?"

Because it's not - not to Ned's mind, anyway, but he can't know what's going on in Charlie's brain unless he says it out loud. He, unlike a couple of notable people around here, is not a mind-reader.