The Only way he could deal with his own uneasiness was to put the general off his stride as quickly as possible. “You can’t smoke in here. Put that out at once.”
Rolling the cheroot from the center of his thick lips to one side, Klinger said, “Oh, surely-”
“The delicate machinery,” Salsbury said sharply, gesturing at the Christmasy lights.
Klinger took the slender cigar from his mouth and appeared to be about to drop it on the floor.
“The waste can.”
When he had disposed of the cheroot, the general said, “Sorry.”
Salsbury said, “That’s all right. You’re not familiar with a place like this, with computers and all of that. You couldn’t be expected to know.”
And he thought: Score one for me.
“Where’s Leonard?” Klinger asked.
“He won’t be here.”
“For such an important test?”
“He wishes it weren’t necessary.”
“Pontius Pilate.”
“What?”
Looking at the ceiling as if he could see through it, Klinger said, “Up there washing his hands.”
Salsbury wasn’t about to take part in any conversation meant to dissect or analyze Dawson. He had taken every measure to protect himself from any attempt on Dawson’s part to plant bugs in his work area. He didn’t believe it was possible for anyone to spy on him while he was in here. But he couldn’t be positively, absolutely certain of that. Under the circumstances, he felt that paranoia was a rational vantage point from which to view the world.
“What all have you got to show me?” Klinger asked. “For a start, I thought you’d want to see a few print-outs from the key-lock program.”
“I’m curious,” the general admitted.
Picking up a sheet of computer paper that was folded like an accordion into dozens of eighteen-inch-long sections, Salsbury said, “All three of our new employees-”
“The mercenaries?”
“Yes. All three of them were given the drug and then shown a series of films, ostensibly as evening entertainment: The Exorcist, Jaws, and Black Sunday, on successive nights. These were, of course, very special copies of the films. Processed right here on the estate. I did the work personally. Printed each of them over a different stage of the subliminal program.”
“Why those three movies in particular?”
“I could have used any I wanted,” Salsbury said. “I just chose them at random from Leonard’s film library. The movie is simply the package, not the content. It merely establishes a reason for the subjects to stare at the screen for a couple of hours while the subliminal program is running below their recognition threshold.” He handed the print-out to Klinger. “This is a second-by-second verbal translation of the images appearing on the screen in the rheostatic film, which begins simultaneously with the movie. Wherever the computer prints ‘This Legend’ it means that the visual subliminals have been interrupted by a block-letter message on the rheostatic film, a direct command to the viewer.”
SUBJECT CODED–KEY LOCK
REVISED PROGRAM/STAGE ONE
STORAGE MATERIAL
PROGRAM STORED: 8/6/76
THIS PRINT: 12/18/76
SECONDS SUBLIMINAL CONTENT
0001 NO CONTENT
0002 NO CONTENT
0003 VISUAL–WOMAN’S BREASTS
0004 VISUAL–WOMAN’S BREASTS
0005 VISUAL–WOMAN’S BREASTS
0006 VISUAL–WOMAN’S BREASTS
0007 VISUAL–WOMAN’S BREASTS
0008 THIS LEGEND–YOU WATCH
0009 THIS LEGEND–YOU WATCH
0010 THIS LEGEND–YOU WATCH
0011 THIS LEGEND–YOU WATCH
0012 THIS LEGEND–YOU WATCH THIS FILM
0013 THIS LEGEND–YOU WATCH THIS FILM
0014 THIS LEGEND–YOU WATCH THIS FILM
0015 VISUAL–DETUMESCENT PENIS
0016 VISUAL–DETUMESCENT PENIS
0017 VISUAL–DETUMESCENT PENIS
0015 VISUAL–PENIS IN WOMAN’S HAND
0019 VISUAL–WOMAN STROKING PENIS
0020 VISUAL–WOMAN STROKING PENIS
0021 VISUAL–WOMAN STROKING PENIS
0022 VISUAL–WOMAN STROKING PENIS
0023 THIS LEGEND–YOU WATCH THIS FILM
“The first sixty seconds do nothing but insure that the subject will pay close attention to the rest of the movie,” Salsbury said. “Beginning with the second minute and continuing throughout the movie, he is very carefully, very gradually primed for stage two of the program and for eventual, total submission to the key-lock behavior mode.”
“Carefully and slowly-because of what happened to Brian Kingman?” the general asked.
“Because of what happened to Brian Kingman.”
0061 VISUAL–WOMAN FONDLING TESTICLES
0062 VISUAL–WOMAN FONDLING TESTICLES
0063 VISUAL–WOMAN STROKING PENIS
0064 VISUAL–WOMAN STROKING PENIS
0065 VISUAL–WOMAN STROKING PENIS
0066 THIS LEGEND–OBEDIENCE TO THE KEY-SATISFACTION
0067 THIS LEGEND–OBEDIENCE TO THE KEY-SATISFACTION