Reedeth, very white, was getting to his feet. “Ah-Mr. Flamen!” he whispered. “Do you happen to keep a stock of tranks in this office? We ought to try and get some down him quickly-he’s very strong, and if it comes to a struggle.”
“The administration of conventional tranquilizers will be ineffectual,” Madison/Gottschalk said. “Their impact on human mentation is well documented and I am able to circumvent their influence.”
There was an uneasy pause. Lyla broke it by saving in an obstinate tone, “I want to hear what Harry’s got to say. I don’t know what’s going on either, but I’m used to that. I never know what’s going on when I take a sibyl-pill.”
“Good point,” Conroy said softly. “Flamen, weren’t you saying yourself a moment ago that the Gottschalks were opting out of Iron Mountain in favor of an installaof their own? Why shouldn’t that installation be nick’Robert’ to mislead prying people like yourself? Wouldn’t it be on a par with what the Gottschalks have done in the past?”
“The analysis is accurate,” Madison/Gottschalk said.
Flamen put his hands giddily to his temples. He said, “All right, I’ll string along, though I think I’m being a fool to listen to this nonsense.” He swallowed hard, lowered his hands and set his shoulders back like a man preparing to face a firing squad of his neighbors’ ridicule. “Yes, it would explain why news of the new recruit called Robert has been on the grapevine for months without anyone managing to identify him.”
Conroy glanced at Diablo. The knee had skinned back the sleeve of his oversuit again and was fingering the Conjuh Man bracelet he wore, his lips moving si-presumably reciting a charm.
“Very well, then! First question: you say we’re talkto a machine. What machine, where, and how can we be talking to it?”
“The machine known as Robert Gottschalk,” was the patient answer. “Further designation would have to be exhaustively technical in that the design is unprececomplex and no other known cybernetic depossesses a comparable degree of awareness. The precise location is not available but Mr. Flamen has already stated that the site is probably in Nevada, which I concede is accurate, and the method of our mutual communication is comped to be inexplicable in terms comprehensible to you.”
“It’s the result of having to use machines as confidants for so long,” Reedeth muttered. “I knew it was dangerto go on keeping him in the Ginsberg-what else could the poor bastard do but talk to the machines when no one else was allowed to befriend him?”
“Shut up,” Conroy said. “I want to follow this until it stops making sense. It’s a weird land of sense, but it seems to me only too damned likely that sooner or later the human race will torpedo itself by going on the way it’s going right now. Madison-Robert-Robot-whatever the hell: either we’re crazy or you’re crazy or both, or else we really are talking to a machine out in Nevada some-can’t you give us some evidence to help us dewhich?”
There was a pause. At length Madison/Gottschalk said, “It would be difficult Such obvious tests as reme to perform a mathematical computation bethe average abilities of a human brain might be countered with the argument that lightning calculators who were mentally deficient or even deranged have been known for centuries, and I am specifically forbidto supply you with information which would enable you to undertake direct physical verification of stateabout myself. The most satisfactory solution would appear to be for me to make what you would regard as prophecies because at this locus on the temporal scale they are concerned with events not available to your senses.”
“But that means waiting until the time you set for them to happen,” Conroy said slowly. “Like this bit about the Gottschalk coup of 2015. Hmm!” He tugged at his beard. “Well, start there, then-tell us more about the Gottschalk coup.”
“The current disagreement over methods and marketing among the Gottschalk cartel climaxed in the early spring of the year 2015 with forcible deposition of MarGottschalk by a team of monosyllables and junior polysyllables equipped with the prototype System C weaponry which Anthony, later Antonioni, Gottschalk had had developed and which Marcantonio had forbidhim to introduce to the kneeblank market.”