She said, “Even if we could bring ourselves to kill in order to stop this thing. . . Well, it’s still too much. To stop Salsbury, we need to know more about him. And how do we learn anything? He’s got hundreds of bodyguards. Or if he wants, he can turn everyone in town into killers and send them after us. Do we just sit here, pass the time, wait for him to stop around for a chat?”
Returning the hardbound volume of essays to the shelf from which he’d taken it, Sam said, “Wait a minute.. . Suppose. . .” He faced them. He was excited. All three of them were tense, twisted as tight as watch springs. But now a glimmer of pleasurable excitement was in his Santa Claus-like features. “When Salsbury saw Rya standing in the kitchen doorway at the Thorp house, what do you imagine he did, very first thing?”
“Grabbed for her,” Jenny said.
“Wrong.”
Bitterly, Paul said, “Ordered Bob to kill her.”
“Not that either. Remember, he would expect her to be another one of his-zombies.”
Sucking in her breath, Jenny said, “He would use the code phrase on her, the system he talks about in the article. He’d try to open her up and take control of her before she ran away. So . . . Rya must have heard the code phrase!”
“And if she can recall it,” Sam said, “we’ll have control of everyone in Black River, the same as Salsbury. He won’t be able to send them after us. He won’t have hundreds of bodyguards to hide behind. It won’t be us against them. It’ll be us against him.”
6
3:15 P.M.
DR. WALTER TROUTMAN entered the police chief’s office. He was carrying his black leather satchel in his right hand and a chocolate candy bar with almonds in his left. He appeared to be delighted with the world and with himself. “You wanted to see me, Bob?”
Before Thorp could answer, Salsbury stepped away from the windows and said, “I am the key.”
“I am the lock.”
“Buddy Pellineri is waiting in the room across the hail,” Salsbury said. “You know him, don’t you?”
“Buddy?” Troutman asked, wrinkling his fleshy face. “Well, of course I know him.”
“I’ve told him that we’re afraid he’s picked up a very bad germ and that you’re going to give him a vaccination so he won’t get sick. As you know, he’s not especially bright. He believed me. He’s waiting for you.”
“Vaccination?” Troutman said, perplexed.
“That’s what I told him to keep him here. Instead, you’ll inject an air bubble into his bloodstream.”
Troutman was shocked. “That would cause an embolism.”
“I know.”
“It would kill him!”
Salsbury smiled and nodded. “It had better. That’s the whole idea, doctor.”
Looking at Bob Thorp, who was seated behind the desk, then back at Salsbury, Troutman said miserably, “But I can’t do a thing like that. I can’t possibly.”
am I, doctor?” “You’re-the key.”
“Very good. And who are your’
“I’m the lock.”
“All right. You will go across the hail to the room where Buddy is waiting. You’ll chat with him, be very pleasant, give him no cause to be suspicious. You’ll tell him that you’re going to give him a vaccination, and you’ll inject an air bubble into his bloodstream. You won’t mind killing him. You won’t hesitate. As soon as he is dead, you’ll leave the room-and you will remember only that you gave him a shot of penicillin. You won’t remember killing him when you leave that room. You will come back here, look in the door, and say to Bob, ‘He’ll be better in the morning.’ Then you’ll go back to your house, having forgotten entirely about these instructions. Is that clear?”
“Yes.”
“Go do it.”
Troutman left the room.
Ten minutes ago Salsbury had decided to eliminate Buddy Pellineri. Although the man had experienced the night chills and nausea, and although he had been partially brainwashed by by the subceptive program, he was not a good subject. He could not be fully and easily controlled. When told to erase from his memory the men he had seen coming down from the reservoir on the morning of August sixth, he might forget them forever- or only for a few hours. Or not at all. Had he been been a genius, the drug and the subliminals would have transformed him into the ideal slave. Ironically, however, his ignorance condemned him.