when I got through to Fowler Schocken and cleared up my status-I might be in a position to break up this whole filthy conspiracy, if I played my cards right. I looked over the persons in the room a little more attentively, memorizing their features. I didn’t want to fail to recognize them, next time we came in contact. There must have been some sort of signal, but I missed it. The lecturer stopped almost in midsentence, and a plump little man with a goatee stood up from the first row. “All right,” he said in an ordinary tone, “we’re all here and there’s no sense wasting any more time. We’re against waste; that’s why we’re here.” He stepped on the little titter. “No noise,” he warned, “and no names. For the purpose of this meeting we’ll use numbers; you can call me ‘One,’ you ‘Two*-” he pointed to the man in the next seat, “and so on by rows to the back of the room. All clear? Okay, now listen closely. We’ve got you together because you’re all new here. You’re in the big leagues now. This is world operational headquarters, right here in New York; you can’t go any higher. Each of you was picked for some special quality-you know what they are. You’ll all get assignments right here, tonight. But before you do, I want to point out one thing. You don’t know me and I don’t know you; every one of you got a big buildup from your last cells, but sometimes the men in the field get a little too enthusiastic. If they were wrong about you . . . Well, you understand these things, eh?” There was a general nod. I nodded too, but I paid particular attention to memorizing that plump little goatee. One by one numbers were called, and one by one the new-Johns got up, conferred briefly with the goatee, and left, in couples and threes, for unannounced destinations. I was almost the last to be called; besides me, only a very young girl with orange hair and a cast in her eye was still in the room. “Okay, you two,” said the man with the goatee. “You two are going to be a team, so you might as well know names. Groby, meet Corwin. Groby’s a kind of copysmith. Celia’s an artist.” “Okay,” she said, lighting a Starr from the butt of another in a flare of phosphorus. A perfect consumer type if only she hadn’t been corrupted by these zealots; I noticed her jaws working on gum even while she chain-smoked. “We’ll get along fine,” I said approvingly. “You sure will,” said the man in the goatee. “You have to. You understand these things, Groby. In order to give you a chance to
show your stuff, we’ll have to let you know a lot of stuff dial we don’t want to read in die morning paper. If you don’t work out for us, Groby,” he said pleasantly, “you see the fix we’re in; we’ll have to make some other arrangements for you.” He tapped a little bottle of colorless fluid on the desk top. The tinny rattle of die aluminum top was no tinnier than my voice as I said, “Yes, sir,” because I knew what little bottles of colorless fluid could reasonably be assumed to contain. It turned out, though, that it wasn’t much of a problem. I spent three difficult hours in that little room, then I pointed out dial if I didn’t get back to barracks I would miss the morning work call and there would be hell to pay. So they excused me. But I missed work call anyhow. I came out of the Museum into a perfect spring dawn, feeling, all in all, pretty content with life. A figure loomed out of the smog and peered into my face. I recognized the sneering face of die taxi-runner who had brought me to die Museum. He said briskly, “Hel-lo, Mr. Courtenay,” and then the obelisk from behind die Museum, or somediing very much like it, smacked me across the back of the neck.
eleven “-Awake in a few minutes,” I heard somebody say. “Is he ready for Hedy?” “Good God, no!” “I was only asking.” “You ought to know better. First you give them amphetamine, plasma, maybe a niacin megaunit. Then they’re ready for Hedy. She doesn’t like it if they keep blacking out. She sulks.” Nervous laugh with a chill in it. I opened my eyes and said: “Thank God!” For what I could see was a cerebral-gray ceiling, the shade you find only in the brain room of an advertising agency. I was safe in the arms of Fowler Schocken Associates-or was I? I didn’t recognize the face that leaned over me. “Why so pleased, Courtenay?” the face inquired. “Don’t you know where you are?” After that it was easy to guess. “Taunton’s,” I croaked. “That is correct.” I tried my arms and legs and found they didn’t respond. I couldn’t tell whether it was drugs or a plasticocoon. “Look,” I said steadily. “I don’t know what you people think you’re doing, but I advise you to stop it. Apparently this is a kidnaping for business purposes. You people are either going to let me go or kill me. If you kill me without a Notification you’ll get the cerebrin, so of course you won’t kill me. You’re going to let me go eventually, so I suggest that you do it now.” “Kill you, Courtenay?” asked the face with mocking wonder.