On the morning of May 9, Toivo left for Kharkov to meet with the clairvoyant Hirota and to close the case on the visit of the Wizard for good.
[End of Document 9]
DOCUMENT 10: T. Glumov: Theme 009 “A Visit from an Old Lady”
Addendum to Report 061/99
DOCUMENT 11: T. Glumov: Memorandum on The Institute of Eccentrics
DOCUMENT 12: T. Glumov: A Working Phonogram
DOCUMENT 13: T. Glumov: Information on the Events at Little Pesha.
DOCUMENT 14: Glumov Requests a Leave of Absence to visit Pandora.
Permission Denied.
REPORT COMCON-2
No.017/99 Urals-North
Date: 9 May 99
FROM: T. Glumov, Inspector
THEME: 009 “A Visit from an Old Lady”
CONTENTS: Addendum to report No.016/99
Susumu Hirota, a.k.a. Senrigan, received me in his office at 10:45. He is a short, well-built old man who looks much older than his age. He is quite taken with his “gift,” and uses any opportunity to demonstrate the gift: your wife is having problems at work… she will definitely fly to Pandora; don’t hope that it will be settled without her… this pen was a present from a friend, and you forgot to give it to your wife… And so on, in the same manner. Rather unpleasant, I might add. The Wizard’s Exit, according to him, looked like this: “He must have been afraid that I would learn something secret about him, and he turned to flee. It never occurred to him that I saw him as an empty whitish screen with a single contrast detail. After all, he is a creature from another world…”
T. Glumov
[End of Document 10.]
IMPORTANT! REPORT COMCON-2
No.018/99 Urals – North
Date: 9 May 99
FROM: T. Glumov, Inspector
THEME: 009 “A Visit from an Old Lady”
CONTENTS: The Institute of Eccentrics is interested in the witnesses to the incident in Little Pesha.
During my conversation with the dispatcher on duty at the Institute of Eccentrics, on May 9 at 11:50 the following incident took place.
In talking to me, the duty dispatcher, Temirkanov, was simultaneously transferring data from the display terminal into the main computer very quickly and professionally. The data appeared on the control display and were in this format: surname, name, patronymic; (apparently) age: town (place of birth? place of residence; place of work?);profession; a certain six-digit index. I had not been paying attention to the display until it read:
KUBOTIEVA ALBINA MILANOVNA 96 BALLERINA ARKHANGELSK 001507
Then two surnames that said nothing to me, and then:
KOSTENETSKY KIR 12 SCHOOLBOY PETROZAVODSK 001507
A reminder: these two are witnesses of the incident in Little Pesha, of my report No.015/99 of 7 May.
Apparently, I must have lost self-control for a few seconds, because Temirkanov asked what was so amazing. I got out of it by saying that l was surprised to see Albina Kubotieva, a ballerina my parents had always talked about, being wild balletomanes; it seemed strange to see her name here; was the Great Albina a metapsychological talent, too? Temirkanov laughed and said that it wasn’t ruled out. According to him, all the branches of the Institute receive a steady list of people who theoretically could be of interest to the metapsychotogists. The majority of the information comes from the terminals of clinics, hospitals, first-aid stations, and other medical establishments equipped with standard psychoanalyzers. In the Kharkov branch alone, hundreds of candidates are listed over a twenty-four-hour period, but they’re almost all useless: “eccentrics” make up only one hundred-thousandth of a percent of all the candidates.
In the situation at hand, I felt it was proper to change the topic.
T. Glumov
[End of Document 11.]
WORKING PHONOGRAM
Date: 10 May 99
INTERLOCUTORS: M. Kammerer, head of UE department; T. Glumov, inspector
THEME: 009 “A Visit from an Old Lady”
CONTENTS: Institute of Eccentrics is a possible object for theme 009.
KAMMERER: Curious. You notice things, though, fellow. What an eye! But you have a theory ready, I’m sure. Go on.
GLUMOV: The final conclusion or the reasoning?
KAMMERER: The reasoning, please.
GLUMOV: It’s easiest to assume that the names of Albina and Kit were sent to Kharkov by some enthusiast of metapsychology. If he had been a witness to the event in Little Pesha, he could have been amazed by the anomalous reaction of those two, and reported his observations to competent authorities. I thought about it: at least three people could have that. Basil Neverov, the emergency-squad man. Oleg Pankratov, lecturer and former astroarchaeologist. And his wife Zosya Lyadova, artist. Of course, they weren’t witnesses in the narrow meaning of the word, but in the present situation it doesn’t matter… Without your permission, I did not risk talking to them, even though I consider it a possibility — to just clear it with them, did they give information to the Institute or not…
KAMMERER: There’s an even simpler way…
GLUMOV: Yes, the index. Ask the Institute. But that way is no good, and here’s why. If it was a volunteer enthusiast, it’ll be cleared up, and there won’t be anything to talk about. But I’d like to look at another version. To wit: there were no volunteer informants, but there was a special observer from the Institute of Eccentrics.
GLUMOV: Let’s assume that there was a special observer from the Institute of Eccentrics at Little Pesha. That would mean that some psychological experiment was going on there, with the aim of sorting out, say, normal people from extraordinary people. For Instance, to then seek “eccentricity” among the extraordinary people. In that case, one of two things. Either the Institute of Eccentrics is an ordinary research center, where ordinary researchers work and set up ordinary experiments — however dubious morally, but in the final analysis intended for the benefit of science. But then it is not clear where they get the technology that far surpasses even the prospective capabilities of our embryomechanics and our bioconstruction.
(Pause)
GLUMOV: Or the experiment in Little Pesha was organized not by people, as we had assumed before. Then in what light do we see the Institute of Eccentrics?
(Pause)
GLUMOV: Then the Institute is no institute, the eccentrics are no eccentrics at all, and the personnel is not working on metapsychology at all.
KAMMERER: On what, then? What are they doing and who are they?
GLUMOV: You mean you don’t consider my arguments convincing again?
KAMMERER: On the contrary, my boy. On the contrary! They are too convincing, your arguments. But I would like you to formulate your idea directly, dryly, and unambiguously. As if in a report.
GLUMOV: All right. The so-called Institute of Eccentrics is actually a weapon of the Wanderers to sort out people according to a sign unknown to me for now. That’s it.
KAMMERER: And consequently, Danya Logovenko, the deputy director there, my longtime friend —
GLUMOV: (interrupting) No! That would be too fantastic. But perhaps your Danya Logovenko had been sorted out a long, long time ago. His longtime acquaintance with you doesn’t guarantee against it. He’s been sorted out and works with the Wanderers. Like all the personnel at the Institute, not to mention the “eccentrics.”…
GLUMOV: They’ been sorting for a least twenty years. When they had enough sorted ones, they organized the Institute, put in their chambers of sliding frequencies, and under the excuse of searching for “eccentrics” check out ten thousand people a year… And we don’t even know how many other institutions like that there are under the most varied labels.
(Pause)
GLUMOV: And the Wizard ran off back to Saraksh not because he was insulted or had a stomach ache. He sensed the Wanderers! Like our whales and the lemmings… “When the blind see the seeing” -that’s about you and me. “Me sees the mountains and forests and doesn’t see a thing” — that’s also about us, Big Bug!
(Pause)
GLUMOV: So we can be the first people in history to catch the Wanderers red-handed.
KAMMERER: Yes. And it all began with two names which you accidentally noticed on the display. By the way, are you sure it was no accident’! (quickly) All right, all right, let’s skip it. What do you suggest?
GLUMOV: Me?
KAMMERER: Yes, you.
GLUMOV: We-ell, if you want my opinion… The first steps, I think, are obvious. First of all, we must determine if the Wanderers are there and figure out the sorted ones. Organize hidden mentoscopic observation and, if necessary, do enforced extra-deep mentoscopy on everyone there… I assume they’re prepared for that and will block out memory… That’s not so bad, that would be evidence… It would be worse if they know how to paint false memory…
KAMMERER: All right. Enough. You’re a fine boy. Congratulations, you did good work. And now, listen to my orders. Prepare for me lists on the following people. First: people with the inversion of the Penguin Syndrome, everyone registered with doctors to this day. Second: people who did not undergo fukamization —
GLUMOV: (interrupting) That’s more than a million people!
KAMMERER: No, I mean the people who refused the “maturity injection.” That’s twenty thousand people. You’ll have to work, but we must be fully armed. Third: Collect all our data on people who vanished without a trace and put it all into one list.