Sensitive Man - Poul William Anderson

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Part one of The Sensitive Man. This is a LibriVox recording.
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All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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information nor a volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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by Phil Schinever. The Sensitive Man by Pool William Anderson,
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Part one. The Mermaid Tavern had been elaborately decorated, great
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blocks of hewn coral for pillars and booths, tarpaen and
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barracouda on the walls murals of Neptune and his court,
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including an outsize animated picture of a mermaid ballet. Quite
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an eye catcher, but the broad quartz windows showed merely
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a shifting greenish blue of sea water, and the only
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live fish visible were in an aquarium across from the bar.
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Pacific Colony lacked the grotesque loveliness of the Florida and
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Cuba settlements. Here they were, somehow a working city, even
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in their recreations. The Sensitive Man paused for a moment
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in the foire, sweeping the big circular room with a
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hurried glance. Less than half the tables were filled. This
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was an hour of interretnum, while the twelve to eighteen
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hundred shift was still at work and the others had
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long finished their more expensive amusements. There would always be
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a few around, of course. Dalgetty typed them as he
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watched a party of engineers, probably arguing about the compression
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strength of the latest submarine tank, to judge from the
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board expressions of the three or four wreck girls who
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had joined them. A biochemist who seemed to have forgotten
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his plankton and seaweed for the time being, and to
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have focused his mind on the pretty young CLOrk with him.
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A couple of hard handed caseonnaires settling down to some
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serious drinking. A maintenance man, a computer man, a tank pilot,
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a diver, a sea rancher, a bevious stenographers, a bunch
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of very obvious tourists, more chemists and metallurgists. The sensitive
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man dismissed them all. There were others he couldn't classify
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with any decent probability, but after a second's hesitation, he
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decided to ignore them too. That left only the group
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with Thomas Bancroft. They were sitting in one of the
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coral grottos, a cave of darkness to ordinary vision. Dolgeddy
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had to squint to see in, and the muted light
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of the tavern was a harsh glare when his pupils
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were so distended. But yes, it was Bangcroft, all right,
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and there was an empty booth adjoining his Dolgetty relaxed
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his eyes to normal perception. Even in the sharp moment
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of dilation. The floros had given him a headache. He
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blocked it off from consciousness and started across the floor.
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A hostess stopped him with a touch on the arm
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as he was about to enter the vacant cavern. She
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was young, an iridescent man trap in her brief uniform.
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With all the money flowing into Pacific Colony, they could
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afford decorative help here. I'm sorry, sir, she said, those
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are kept for parties. Would you like a table? I'm
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a party, he answered, or can soon become one. He
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moved aside a trifle so that none of the Bancroft
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group should happen to look out and see him. If
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you could arrange some company for me, he fumbled out
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a ce note, wondering how such things could be done gracefully? Why,
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of course, sir. She took it with a smooth as
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he envied, and handed him a stunning smile in return.
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Just make yourself comfortable. Dalgetty stepped into the grotto with
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a fast movement. This wasn't going to be simple. The
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rough red walls closed in on top of him, forming
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a space big enough for twenty people or so. A
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few strategically placed floros gave an eerie undersea light, just
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enough to see by, but no one could look in.
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A heavy curtain could be drawn if one wanted to
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be absolutely secluded privacy. Uh huh. He sat down at
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the driftwood table and leaned back against the coral. Closing
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his eyes. He made an effort of will. His nerves
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were already keyed up to such a tautness that it
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would seem they must break, and it took only seconds
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to twist his mind along the paths required. The noise
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of the tavern ro rose from a tiny mumble to
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a clattering surf, to a huge and saw edged wave.
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Voices dinned in his head, shrill and deep, hard and soft.
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A senseless stream of talking jumbled together into words, words, words.
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Somebody dropped the glass and it was like a bomb
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going off. Doll Getty winced, straining his ear against the
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grotto side. Surely enough of their speech would come to him.
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Even through all that rock. The noise level was high,
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but the human mind, if trained in concentration, is an
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effective filter. The outside racket receded from doll Getty's awareness,
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and slowly he gathered in the trickle of sound. First man,
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no matter, what can they do? Second man, complain to
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the government. Do you want the FBI on our trail?
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I don't. First man, take it easy. They haven't yet
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done so, and it's been a good week now since
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Second man, how do you know they haven't. Third man,
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heavy authoritative voice. Yes, doll Gedty remembered it now from
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TV speeches. It was Bangcroft himself. I know I've got
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enough connections to be sure of that. Second man, Okay,
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so they haven't reported it, but why not Bancroft? You
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know why? They don't want the government mixing into this
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any more than we do. Woman, Well, then are they
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just going to sit and take it? No, they'll find
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some way to Hello there, mister doll Geddy jumped and
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whirled around. His heart began to race until he felt
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his ribs tremble, and he cursed his own tension. Why
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what's it's the matter, mister? You look effort again, forcing
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the volume down, grasping the thunderous heart and fingers of command,
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and dragging it toward rest. He focused his eyes on
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the girl who had entered. It was the wrecked girl,
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the one he asked for because he had to sit
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in this booth. Her voice was speaking on an endurable level.
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Now another pretty little bit of fluff, he smiled shakily.
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Sit down, sweet, I'm sorry, my nerves are shot. Will
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you have a dackery please? She smiled and placed herself
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beside him. He dialed on the dispenser, the cocktail for her,
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a scotch and soda for himself. You're new here, she said,
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Have you just been hired? Or are you a visitor?
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Again the smile. My name's Glenna, call me Joe, said doggetty.
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His first name was actually Simon. No, I'll only be
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here a short while. Where are you from, she asked,
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I'm clear from New Jersey myself, proving that nobody has
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ever born in California. He grinned. The control was asserting itself.
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His racing emotions were checked and he could think clearly again,
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I'm just a floater. Don't have any real address right now.
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The dispenser ejected the drinks on a tray and flashed
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a charge twenty dollars, not bad considering everything. He gave
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the machine of fifty and it may change a five
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buck coin and a bill, well said, Glenna, here's to
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you and you. He touched glasses, wondering how to say
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what he had to say. Damn it, he couldn't sit
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here just talking or necking. He'd come to listen. But
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a sardonic montage of all the detective shows he had
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ever seen winked through his mud. The amateur who rushes
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in and solves the case high ho. He had never
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appreciated all the detail involved till now there was hesitation
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in him. He decided that a straightforward approach was his
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best bet. Deliberately then he created a cool confidence. Subconsciously,
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he feared this girl, alien as she was to his class.
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All right, force the reaction to the surface, recognize it,
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suppress it. Under the table, his hands moved in the
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intricate symbolic pattern which aided such emotion. Harnessing Glinna, he said,
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I'm afraid I'll be rather dull company. The fact is
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I am doing some research in psychology, learning how to
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concentrate under different conditions. I wanted to try it in
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a place like this, you understand, He slipped out a
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two sea bill and laid it before her. If you'd
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just sit here quietly, it won't be for more than
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an hour, I guess. Huh. Her brows lifted. Then, with
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a shrug and a wry smile, Okay, you're paid for it,
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she took a cigarette from the flat case at her sash,
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lit it and relaxed. Doalgedty leaned against the wall and
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closed his eyes again. The girl watched him curiously. He
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was of medium height, stockily built, inconspicuously dressed in a
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blue short sleeved tunic, gray slax and sandals. His square,
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snub nosed face was lightly freckled, with hazel eyes and
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a rather pleasant, shy smile. The rusty hair was close cropped.
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A young man, she guessed about twenty five, quite ordinary
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and uninteresting, except for the wrestler's muscles and of course
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his behavior. Oh well, it took all kinds. Dollgetty had
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a moment of worry, not because the arn he had
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handed her was thin, but because it brushed too close
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to the truth. He thrust the unsureness out of him.
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Chances were she hadn't understood any of it, wouldn't even
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mention it, at least not to the people he was hunting.
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Are who were hunting him? Concentration and the voices slowly
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came again. Maybe, but I think they'll be more stubborn
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than that. Bancroft. Yes, the issues are too large for
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a few lives to matter. Still, Michael Tigue is only human.
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He'll talk the woman he can be made to talk.
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You mean she had one of the coldest voices dog
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Getty had ever heard. Bancroft. Yes, though I hate to
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use extreme measures. Man, what are the possibilities have we got?
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He won't say anything unless he's forced to, And meanwhile
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his people will be scouring the planet to find him.
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They're a shrewd bunch. Bancroft sardonically. What can they do? Please?
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It takes more than an amateur to locate a missing man.
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It calls for all the resources of a large police organization.
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And the last thing they want, as I've said before,
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is to bring the government in on this. The woman.
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I'm not so sure of that, Tom. After all, the
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Institute is a legal group, it's government sponsored, and its
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influence is something tremendous. It's graduates, Bancroft, It educates a
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dozen different kinds of psychotechnicians. Yes, it does research, it
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gives advice, it publishes findings and theories. But believe me,
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the Psychotechnic Institute is like an iceberg. Its real nature
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and purpose are hidden way under water. No, it isn't
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doing anything illegal that I know of. Its aims are
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so large that they transcend law altogether. Man, what aims, Bancroft,
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I wish I knew. We've only got hints and guesses.
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You know. One of the reasons we've snatched Tige is
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to find out more. I suspect that their real work
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requires secrecy. The woman thoughtfully. Yes, I can see how
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that might be. If the world at large were aware
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of being manipulated, then manipulation might become impossible. But just
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where does Tig's group want to lead us, Bancroft, I
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don't know. I tell you, I'm not even sure that
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they do want to take over something even bigger than
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that Asi. Let's face it, Tig is a crusader two
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in his own way. He's a very sincere idealist. He
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just happens to have the wrong ideals. That's one reason
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why i'd hate to see him harmed. Man. But if
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it turns out that we've got to Bancroft, why then
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we've got to That's all. But I won't enjoy it. Man. Okay,
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you're the leader, you say when, But I warn you
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not to wait too long. I tell you the Institute
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is more than a collection of unworldly scientists. They've got
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someone out searching for tigue, and if they should locate him,
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there could be real trouble. Bancroft mildly, Well, these are
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trouble times, or we'll be shortly. We might as well
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get used to that. Conversation drifted away into idle chatter.
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Dalgetty groaned to himself. Not once had they spoken of
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the place where their prisoner was kept. All right, little man,
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what next? Thomas Bancroft was big game. His law firm
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was famous. He had been in Congress and the cabinet,
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even with the Labor Party in power. He was a
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respected elder statesman. He had friends in government, business, unions, gills,
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and clubs, and leagues from Maine to Hawaii. He had
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only to say the word and Dalgetty's teeth would be
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kicked in some dark night, or if he proved squeamish,
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Dalgetty might find himself arrested on a charge like conspiracy
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and tied up in court for the next six months.
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By listening in, he had confirmed the suspicion of Ulrich
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at the Institute that Thomas Bancroft was Tige's kidnapper, but
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that was no help. If he went to the police
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with that story, they would a laugh loud and long
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b lock him up for psychiatric investigation, ce worst of all,
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pass the story on to Bancroft, who would thereby know
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what the institute's children could do and would take appropriate countermeasures.
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End of Part one, Part two of The Sensitive Man
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by Pool Anderson. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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Part two. Of course, this was just the beginning. The
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trail was long, but time was hideously short before they
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began turning Tegue's brain inside out, and there were wolves
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along the trail. For a shivering instant, Simon Dalgetty realized
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what he had let himself in for. It seemed like
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forever before the Bancroft crowd left. Dollgetty's eyes followed them
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out of the bar. For men and the woman, they
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were all quiet, mannerly distinguished looking in rich, dark slack suits.
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Even the hulking bodyguard was probably a college graduate third class.
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You wouldn't take them for murderers and kidnappers and the
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servants of those who would bring back political gangsterism. But
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then reflected doll Gedty, they probably didn't think of themselves
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in that light either. The enemy, the old and protean
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enemy who had been fought down as fascist, Nazi, Shintoist, Communist, Adomist, Americanist,
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and god knew what else. For a bloody sentry had
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grown craftier with time. Now he could fool even himself.
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Dalgetty's senses went back to normal. It was a sudden,
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immense relief to be merely sitting in a dimly lit
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booth with a pretty girl, to be no more than
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human for a while, But his sense of mission was
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still dark within him. Sorry, I was so long, he said,
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have another drink, I just had one, she smiled. He
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noticed the ten dollar figure glowing on the dispenser and
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fed it two coins. Then, his nerves still vibrating, he
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dialed another whiskey for himself. You know those people in
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the next grotto, asked Glenna. I saw you watching them leave. Well,
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I know mister Bancroft by reputation. He said, he lives here,
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doesn't he. He's got a place over on Gull Station,
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she said, But he's not here very much, mostly on
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the mainland. I guess Dalgetty. He had come to Pacific
250
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Colony two days before, had been hanging around in the
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hope of getting close enough to Bancroft to pick up
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a clue. Now he had done so, and his findings
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were worth little. He had merely confirmed what the Institute
254
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already considered highly probable without getting any new information. He
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needed to think over his next move. He drained his drink.
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I'd better jet off, he said. We can have dinner
257
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in here if you want, said Glenna. Thanks, I'm not hungry.
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That was true enough. The nervous tension, incidental to the
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use of his powers raised the devil with appetite. Nor
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could he be too lavish with his funds. Maybe later, Okay, Joe,
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I might be seeing you, She smiled. You're a funny one,
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but kind of nice. Pur lips brushed his, and then
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she got up and left, Dalgetty went out the door
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and punched for the top side elevator. It took him
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past many levels. The tavern was under the station's caissons,
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near the main anchor cable, looking out into deep water.
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Above it were storehouses, machine rooms, kitchens, all the paraphernalia
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of modern existence. He stepped out of a kiosk on
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to the upper deck, thirty feet above the surface. Nobody
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else was there, and he walked over to the railing
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and leaned on it, looking across the water and savoring
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loneliness below him. The tears dropped away to the main deck,
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flowing lines and curves, broad sheets of clear plastic, animated signs,
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the grass and flower beds of a small park, People
275
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walking swiftly or idly. The huge gybro stabilized bulk did
276
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not move noticeably to the long Pacific swell. Pelican Station
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was the colony downtown, its shops and theaters and restaurants,
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service and entertainment around it. The water was indigo blue
279
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:12.880
in the evening light, streaked with arabesques of foam, and
280
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he could hear waves rumbling against the sheer walls. Overhead.
281
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The sky was tall, with a few clouds in the west,
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turning oureate. The hovering gulls seemed cast in gold. A
283
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haziness in the darkened east betokened the southern California coast line.
284
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He breathed deeply, letting nerves and muscles and visuir relax,
285
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shutting off his mind and turning for a while into
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an organism that merely lived and was glad to live.
287
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Dolgetty's view in all directions was cut off by the
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other stations, the rising streamlined hulks, which were Pacific Colony.
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A few are reflex strung bridges had been completed to
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00:22:03.160 --> 00:22:06.720
link them, but there was still an extensive boat traffic.
291
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To the south. He could see a blackness on the
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00:22:10.880 --> 00:22:15.200
water that was a sea ranch. His trained memory told him,
293
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in answer to a fleeting question that, according to the
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latest figures, eighteen point three percent of the world's food
295
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supply was now being derived from modified strains of seaweed.
296
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The percentage would increase rapidly. He knew elsewhere were mineral
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extracting plants, fishery bases, experimental and pure research stations. Below
298
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the floating city, digging into the continental shelf, was the
299
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underwater settlement, oil wells to supplement the industrial synthesizing process,
300
00:22:51.319 --> 00:22:55.720
mining exploration in tanks to find new resources. A slow
301
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growth outward as men learned how to go deeper into cold,
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darkness and pressure. It was expensive, but an overcrowded world
303
00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:10.960
had little choice. Venus was already visible, low and pure
304
00:23:11.079 --> 00:23:16.759
on the dusky horizon. Dalgetty breathed the wet, pungent sea
305
00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:20.200
air into his lungs and thought with some pity of
306
00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:23.000
the men out there and on the moon, on Mars,
307
00:23:23.079 --> 00:23:28.359
between worlds. They were doing a huge and heartbreaking job.
308
00:23:29.400 --> 00:23:31.880
But he wondered if it were bigger and more meaningful
309
00:23:31.960 --> 00:23:35.920
than this work. Here in Earth's oceans are a few
310
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pages of scribbled equations tossed into a desk drawer at
311
00:23:40.519 --> 00:23:45.920
the institute. Enough, Dalgetty brought his mind to heal like
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a harshly trained dog. He was also here to work.
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The forces he must encounter seemed monstrous. He was one
314
00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:00.599
man alone against He knew not what kind of organization
315
00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:07.039
he had to rescue one other man before, well before
316
00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:10.640
history was changed and spun off on the wrong course,
317
00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:17.119
the long downward path. He had his knowledge and abilities,
318
00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:20.680
but they wouldn't stop a bullet. Nor did they include
319
00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:25.440
education for this kind of warfare. War that was not war,
320
00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:30.839
politics that were not politics, but a handful of scrawled equations,
321
00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:34.160
and a book full of slowly gathered data, and a
322
00:24:34.200 --> 00:24:42.960
brain full of dreams. Bancroft had tigue somewhere. The Institute
323
00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:46.480
could not ask the government for help, even if to
324
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a large degree the Institute was the government. It could
325
00:24:51.400 --> 00:24:55.519
perhaps send Dalgetty a few men, but it had no
326
00:24:55.720 --> 00:25:00.160
goon squads, and time was like a hound on his
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00:25:00.039 --> 00:25:04.440
his heels. The sensitive man turned suddenly aware of some
328
00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:09.359
one else. This was a middle aged fellow, gaunt and
329
00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:14.599
gray haired, with an intellectual cast of feature. He leaned
330
00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:19.480
on the rail and said quietly, nice evening, isn't it, Yes,
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00:25:19.720 --> 00:25:24.720
said Dalgetty. Very nice, very nice. It gives me a
332
00:25:24.759 --> 00:25:29.519
feeling of real accomplishment this place, said the stranger. How so,
333
00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:35.079
asked Doggetty. Not unwilling to make conversation, the man looked
334
00:25:35.079 --> 00:25:38.200
out over the sea and spoke softly, as if to himself.
335
00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:43.200
I'm fifty years old. I was born during World War
336
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III and grew up with the famines and the mass
337
00:25:46.599 --> 00:25:51.960
insanities that followed. I saw fighting myself in Asia, I
338
00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:58.839
wondered about a senselessly expanding population pressing on senselessly diminished resources.
339
00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:03.559
I saw in America that seemed equally divided between decadence
340
00:26:03.880 --> 00:26:08.119
and madness. And yet I can stand now and watch
341
00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:11.880
a world where we've got a function in United Nations,
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where population increases, leveling off, and democratic governments spreading to
343
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country after country, where we're conquering the seas and even
344
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going out to other planets. Things have changed since I
345
00:26:26.839 --> 00:26:29.440
was a boy, but on the whole it's been for
346
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the better, Ah, said Dalgetty, a kindred spirit. Though I'm
347
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afraid it's not quite that simple. The man arched his brows.
348
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So you vote conservative. The Labor Party is conservative, said Dalgetty,
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As proof of which it's in coalition with the Republicans
350
00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:56.160
and the Neo Federalists, as well as some splinter groups. No,
351
00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:58.680
I don't care if it stays in or if the
352
00:26:58.759 --> 00:27:03.519
Conservatives prosper are the Liberals take over. The question is
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00:27:04.039 --> 00:27:09.119
who shall control the group in power? Its membership, I suppose,
354
00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:14.119
said the man, But just who is its membership? You
355
00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:16.680
know as well as I do that the great feeling
356
00:27:16.759 --> 00:27:20.000
of the American people has always been their lack of
357
00:27:20.039 --> 00:27:24.960
interest in politics? What why they vote? Don't they? What
358
00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:29.359
was the last percentage? Eight eight point thirty seven? Sure
359
00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:33.000
they vote once the ticket has been presented to them,
360
00:27:33.720 --> 00:27:36.480
but how many of them have anything to do with
361
00:27:36.680 --> 00:27:41.759
nominating the candidates or writing the platforms? How many will
362
00:27:41.799 --> 00:27:45.440
actually take time out to work at it, or even
363
00:27:45.519 --> 00:27:50.200
to write their congressmen? Ward heeler is still a term
364
00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:54.359
of contempt. All too often in our history the vote
365
00:27:54.359 --> 00:27:58.119
has been simply a matter of choosing between two well
366
00:27:58.160 --> 00:28:03.519
oiled machines. A sufficiently clever and determined group can take
367
00:28:03.559 --> 00:28:06.720
over a party, keep the name and the slogans, and
368
00:28:06.799 --> 00:28:10.640
in a few years do a complete behind the scenes
369
00:28:10.759 --> 00:28:17.000
volte dey Fia. Dalgetty's words came fast. This was one
370
00:28:17.039 --> 00:28:21.160
facet of a task to which he had given his life.
371
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Two machines, said the stranger, are four or five as
372
00:28:25.279 --> 00:28:29.160
we've got now, or at least better than one. Not
373
00:28:29.359 --> 00:28:33.720
if the same crowd controls all of them, Dalgetty said grimly.
374
00:28:34.839 --> 00:28:38.200
But if you can't lick em join em bury yet,
375
00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:43.559
join all sides, then you can't lose. I don't think
376
00:28:43.599 --> 00:28:48.759
that's happened yet, said the man. No it hasn't, said Dalgetty,
377
00:28:49.480 --> 00:28:52.839
not in the United States, though in some other countries.
378
00:28:53.240 --> 00:28:56.799
Never Mind, it's still in process of happening. That's all.
379
00:28:57.880 --> 00:29:01.599
The lines to day are drawn not by nations or parties,
380
00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:06.960
but by philosophies. If you wish two views of man's
381
00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:12.680
destiny cutting across all national, political, racial, and religious lines,
382
00:29:13.960 --> 00:29:17.160
and what are those two views, asked the stranger quietly.
383
00:29:19.079 --> 00:29:24.079
You might call them libertarian and totalitarian, though the latter
384
00:29:24.160 --> 00:29:28.599
don't necessarily think of themselves as such. The peak of
385
00:29:28.720 --> 00:29:32.799
rampant individualism was reached in the nineteenth century legally speaking,
386
00:29:33.640 --> 00:29:36.839
though in point of fact, social pressure and custom were
387
00:29:36.920 --> 00:29:41.359
more straight jacketing than most people today realize. In the
388
00:29:41.480 --> 00:29:46.240
twentieth century that social rigidity, its manners, morals, habits of
389
00:29:46.279 --> 00:29:51.440
thought broke down the emancipation of women, for instance, are
390
00:29:51.480 --> 00:29:55.319
the easy divorce or the laws about privacy. But at
391
00:29:55.359 --> 00:30:00.480
the same time legal control began tightening up again. Government
392
00:30:00.519 --> 00:30:04.640
took over more and more functions, taxes got steeper, the
393
00:30:04.759 --> 00:30:09.279
individual's life got more and more bound by regulations saying
394
00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:14.880
thou shalt and thou shalt not. Well, it looks as
395
00:30:14.960 --> 00:30:19.160
if war is going out as an institution that takes
396
00:30:19.200 --> 00:30:23.920
off a lot of pressure. Such hampering restrictions as conscription
397
00:30:24.079 --> 00:30:28.559
to fight or work, or rationing have been removed. What
398
00:30:28.640 --> 00:30:33.200
we're slowly attaining is a society where the individual has
399
00:30:33.240 --> 00:30:39.200
maximum freedom, both from law and custom. It's perhaps farthest
400
00:30:39.240 --> 00:30:43.720
advanced in America, Canada and Brazil, but it's growing the
401
00:30:43.839 --> 00:30:48.200
world over. But there are elements which don't like the
402
00:30:48.279 --> 00:30:53.079
consequences of genuine libertarianism. And the new science of human
403
00:30:53.119 --> 00:30:59.079
behavior mass and individual is achieving rigorous formulation. It's becoming
404
00:30:59.160 --> 00:31:03.359
the most powerful too man has ever had, For whoever
405
00:31:03.440 --> 00:31:07.559
controls the human mind will also control all that man
406
00:31:07.680 --> 00:31:12.119
can do. That science can be used by anyone. Mind you,
407
00:31:12.960 --> 00:31:16.000
if you read between the lines, you'll see what a
408
00:31:16.079 --> 00:31:19.480
hidden struggle is shaping up for control of it as
409
00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:24.599
soon as it reaches maturity and empirical usability. Ah yes,
410
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:31.599
said the man the Psychotechnic Institute. Dalgetty nodded, wondering why
411
00:31:31.640 --> 00:31:35.279
he had jumped into such a lecture. Well, the more
412
00:31:35.319 --> 00:31:37.799
people who had some idea of the truth, the better,
413
00:31:38.400 --> 00:31:40.480
though it wouldn't do for them to know the whole
414
00:31:40.559 --> 00:31:45.799
truth either. Not yet. The institute trains so many for
415
00:31:45.960 --> 00:31:49.720
government posts, and does so much advisory work, said the man,
416
00:31:50.680 --> 00:31:53.839
Sometimes it looks almost as if it were quietly taking
417
00:31:53.880 --> 00:31:57.920
over the whole show. Dalgetty shivered a little in the
418
00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:03.200
sunset breeze and wished he brought his cloak. He thought, wearily,
419
00:32:04.119 --> 00:32:07.680
Here it is again. Here is the story they are spreading,
420
00:32:08.200 --> 00:32:12.480
not in blatant accusations, not all at once, but slowly
421
00:32:12.680 --> 00:32:17.200
and subtly. A whisper here, a hint there, A slanted
422
00:32:17.279 --> 00:32:23.000
news story, a supposedly dispassionate article. Oh yes, they knew
423
00:32:23.079 --> 00:32:27.559
their applied semantics. Too many people fear such an outcome,
424
00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:32.000
he declared. Too many people fear such an outcome, he declared.
425
00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:36.640
It just isn't true. The Institute is a private research
426
00:32:36.799 --> 00:32:42.559
organization with a federal grant. Its records are open to anyone,
427
00:32:42.599 --> 00:32:45.640
all the records. The man's face was vague in the
428
00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:49.759
gathering twilight, Dalgetty thought he could make out a skeptically
429
00:32:49.799 --> 00:32:55.000
lifted brow. He didn't reply directly, but said, there's a
430
00:32:55.079 --> 00:32:58.599
foggy notion in the public mind that a group equipped
431
00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:02.240
with a complete science of man, which the Institute hasn't
432
00:33:02.279 --> 00:33:05.799
got by a long shot, could take over at once
433
00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:11.000
and by manipulations of some unspecified but frightfully subtle start
434
00:33:11.559 --> 00:33:15.240
rule the world. The theory is that if you know
435
00:33:15.559 --> 00:33:18.559
just what buttons to push and so on, men will
436
00:33:18.599 --> 00:33:22.480
do precisely as you wish, without knowing that they're being guided.
437
00:33:23.079 --> 00:33:28.359
The theory happens to be pure jetwash. Oh, I don't know,
438
00:33:28.759 --> 00:33:32.599
said the man. In general terms, it sounds pretty plausible.
439
00:33:33.599 --> 00:33:38.279
Doggeddy shook his head. Suppose I were an engineer, he said,
440
00:33:39.160 --> 00:33:41.920
and suppose I saw an avalanche coming down on me,
441
00:33:42.920 --> 00:33:45.920
I might know exactly what to do to stop it,
442
00:33:46.400 --> 00:33:49.599
where to plant my dynamite, where to build my concrete wall,
443
00:33:49.680 --> 00:33:54.559
and so on. Only the knowledge wouldn't help me. I'd have
444
00:33:54.680 --> 00:33:58.160
neither the time nor the strength to use it. The
445
00:33:58.200 --> 00:34:01.839
situation is similar with regard to human dynamics, both mass
446
00:34:01.880 --> 00:34:06.000
and individual. It takes months or years to change a
447
00:34:06.039 --> 00:34:10.119
man's convictions, and when you have hundreds of millions of men,
448
00:34:10.880 --> 00:34:14.920
he shrugged. Social currents are too large for all but
449
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:20.679
the slightest, most gradual control. In fact, perhaps the most
450
00:34:20.840 --> 00:34:24.440
valuable results obtained to date are not those which show
451
00:34:24.480 --> 00:34:29.320
what can be done, but what cannot. You speak with
452
00:34:29.360 --> 00:34:33.360
the voice of authority, said the man. I'm a psychologist,
453
00:34:33.559 --> 00:34:37.159
said dog Getty, truthfully enough. He didn't add that he
454
00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:41.960
was also a subject, observer and a guinea pig in one.
455
00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:48.000
And I'm afraid I talk too much. Go from bad device, ouch,
456
00:34:48.119 --> 00:34:51.280
said the man. He leaned his back against the rail
457
00:34:51.480 --> 00:34:55.880
and his shadowy hand extended a pack smoke. No thanks,
458
00:34:55.920 --> 00:35:01.280
I don't you're a rarity. The brief lighter flare etched
459
00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:05.519
the stranger's face against the dusk. I've found other ways
460
00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:09.000
of relaxing. Good for you, By the way, I'm a
461
00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:14.440
professor myself. Ain'tless lit at Colorado. Afraid I'm rather a
462
00:35:14.519 --> 00:35:18.480
rough neck in that respect, said Dalgetty. For a moment,
463
00:35:18.880 --> 00:35:23.000
he had a sense of loss. His thought processes had
464
00:35:23.039 --> 00:35:26.840
become too far removed from the ordinary human for him
465
00:35:26.840 --> 00:35:31.800
to find much in fiction or poetry. But music, sculpture, painting,
466
00:35:32.199 --> 00:35:36.400
there was something else. He looked over the broad, glimmering
467
00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:40.559
water at the station's dark against the first stars, and
468
00:35:40.719 --> 00:35:44.079
savored the many symmetries and harmonies with a real pleasure.
469
00:35:45.320 --> 00:35:48.400
You needed senses like his before you could know what
470
00:35:48.480 --> 00:35:53.639
a lovely world this was. I'm on vacation now, said
471
00:35:53.679 --> 00:35:58.119
the man. Dalgetty did not reply in kind. After a moment,
472
00:35:58.639 --> 00:36:02.719
you are too, I suppose, doll Getty felt a slight
473
00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:08.119
shock a personal question from a stranger. Well, you didn't
474
00:36:08.159 --> 00:36:11.599
expect otherwise from someone like the girl Glenna. But a
475
00:36:11.639 --> 00:36:16.400
professor should be better conditioned to privacy customs. Yes, he
476
00:36:16.480 --> 00:36:20.320
said shortly, just visiting, by the way. My name is
477
00:36:20.360 --> 00:36:25.800
Tyler Harmon Tyler Joe Thompson. Dalgetty shook hands with him.
478
00:36:26.239 --> 00:36:29.159
We might continue our conversation if you're going to be
479
00:36:29.199 --> 00:36:34.000
around for a while, said Tyler, you raised some interesting points,
480
00:36:34.440 --> 00:36:38.880
Dalgetty considered it would be worth while staying as long
481
00:36:38.920 --> 00:36:42.039
as Bancroft did in the hope of learning some more.
482
00:36:43.519 --> 00:36:47.280
I may be here a couple of days yet, he said, Good,
483
00:36:47.639 --> 00:36:51.480
said Tyler. He looked up at the sky. It was
484
00:36:51.559 --> 00:36:55.440
beginning to fill with stars. The deck was still empty.
485
00:36:55.960 --> 00:36:58.719
It ran around the dim up thrusting bulk of a
486
00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:02.800
weather observation top, which was turned over to its automatics
487
00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:05.400
for the night, and there was no one else to
488
00:37:05.440 --> 00:37:10.599
be seen. A few floros cast one puddles of luminance
489
00:37:10.639 --> 00:37:15.719
on the plastic flooring. Glancing at his watch, Tyler said casually,
490
00:37:16.360 --> 00:37:19.800
it's about nineteen thirty hours. Now, if you don't mind
491
00:37:19.800 --> 00:37:22.480
waiting until twenty hundred, I can show you something interesting.
492
00:37:23.320 --> 00:37:28.039
What's that? Ah, you'll be surprised, Tyler chuckled. Not many
493
00:37:28.039 --> 00:37:31.679
people know about it. Now, getting back to that point
494
00:37:31.719 --> 00:37:36.920
you raised earlier. The half hour passed swiftly. Dalgetty did
495
00:37:36.960 --> 00:37:41.239
most of the talking and mass action look to a
496
00:37:41.559 --> 00:37:45.920
rather crude first approximation of a state of semantic equilibrium
497
00:37:45.920 --> 00:37:49.159
on a worldwide scale, which of course has never existed,
498
00:37:49.639 --> 00:37:53.559
would be represented by an equation of the form. Excuse me,
499
00:37:54.079 --> 00:37:57.599
Tyler consulted the shining dial again. If you don't mind
500
00:37:57.599 --> 00:37:59.960
stopping for a few minutes, I'll show you that odds
501
00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:04.920
I was talking about. Eh oh oh sure? Tyler threw
502
00:38:04.960 --> 00:38:09.159
away his cigarette. It was a tiny meteor in the gloom.
503
00:38:09.880 --> 00:38:13.920
He took Dalgetty's arm. They walked slowly around the weather tower.
504
00:38:14.519 --> 00:38:17.760
The men came from the opposite side and met them halfway.
505
00:38:18.960 --> 00:38:22.159
Dalgetty had hardly seen them before he felt the sting
506
00:38:22.320 --> 00:38:27.840
in his chest a needle gun. The world roared about him.
507
00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:31.320
He took a step forward, trying to scream, but his
508
00:38:31.440 --> 00:38:35.440
throat locked. The deck lifted up and hit him and
509
00:38:35.519 --> 00:38:41.360
his mind whirled toward darkness. From somewhere, will rose within him.
510
00:38:41.639 --> 00:38:45.400
Trained reflexes worked. He summoned all that was left of
511
00:38:45.440 --> 00:38:49.760
his draining streth and fought the anesthetic. His wrestling with
512
00:38:49.840 --> 00:38:54.360
it was a groping fog. Again and again he spiraled
513
00:38:54.400 --> 00:39:01.320
into unconsciousness and rose strangling dimly through nightmare. He was
514
00:39:01.400 --> 00:39:05.559
aware of being carried. Once. Someone stopped the group in
515
00:39:05.599 --> 00:39:08.559
a corridor and asked what was wrong. The answer seemed
516
00:39:08.599 --> 00:39:11.800
to come from immensely far away. I don't know. He
517
00:39:11.880 --> 00:39:14.199
passed out just like that. We were taking him to
518
00:39:14.199 --> 00:39:19.960
a doctor. There was a sentry spent going down some elevator.
519
00:39:21.079 --> 00:39:25.679
The boathouse walls trembled liquidly around him. He was carried
520
00:39:25.719 --> 00:39:28.760
aboard a large vessel. It was not visible through the
521
00:39:28.760 --> 00:39:34.039
gray mist. Some dulled portion of himself thought that this
522
00:39:34.239 --> 00:39:37.920
was obviously a private boat house, since no one was
523
00:39:37.960 --> 00:39:44.719
trying to stop, trying to stop, trying to stop. Then
524
00:39:44.880 --> 00:39:55.800
the night came. End of part two, Part three of
525
00:39:55.880 --> 00:40:01.360
The Sensitive Man by Pool Anderson Revox recording is in
526
00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:09.800
the public domain. Part three. He woke slowly with a
527
00:40:09.880 --> 00:40:14.400
dry wretch, and blinked his eyes open. Noise of air
528
00:40:14.920 --> 00:40:18.480
he was flying. It must have been a triphibian. They
529
00:40:18.519 --> 00:40:22.039
took him on too. He tried to force recovery, but
530
00:40:22.159 --> 00:40:28.360
his mind was still too paralyzed. Here drink this, Dalgetty
531
00:40:28.599 --> 00:40:33.199
took the glass and gulped thirstily. It was coolness and
532
00:40:33.280 --> 00:40:38.599
steadiness spreading through him. The vibrato within him faded, and
533
00:40:38.679 --> 00:40:43.000
the headache dulled enough to be endurable. Slowly, he looked
534
00:40:43.039 --> 00:40:48.800
around and felt the first crawl of panic. No, he
535
00:40:48.880 --> 00:40:53.159
suppressed the emotion with an almost physical thrust. Now was
536
00:40:53.199 --> 00:40:57.280
the time for calm and quick wit. And a big
537
00:40:57.320 --> 00:41:00.480
man near him nodded and stuck his head off the door.
538
00:41:01.440 --> 00:41:04.400
He's okay now, I guess, he called, want to talk
539
00:41:04.440 --> 00:41:09.920
to him? Doll Getty's eyes rode the compartment. It was
540
00:41:09.960 --> 00:41:14.280
a rear cabin in a large air boat, luxuriously furnished
541
00:41:14.280 --> 00:41:18.960
with reclining seats and an inlaid table. A broad window
542
00:41:19.079 --> 00:41:25.280
looked out on the stairs. Caught it was pure bitterness,
543
00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:33.280
an impotent rage at himself walked right into their arms.
544
00:41:34.440 --> 00:41:37.639
Tyler came into the room, followed by a pair of burly,
545
00:41:37.760 --> 00:41:43.440
stone faced men. He smiled, Sorry, he murmured, but you're
546
00:41:43.480 --> 00:41:48.000
playing out of your lee you know, yeah, doll Getty
547
00:41:48.039 --> 00:41:52.599
shook his head. Rhinus twisted his mouth. I don't league
548
00:41:52.599 --> 00:41:57.960
it much either, Tyler grinned. It was a sympathetic expression.
549
00:41:58.440 --> 00:42:02.880
You punsters are in curable, he said, I'm glad you're
550
00:42:02.920 --> 00:42:05.639
taking it so well. We don't intend any harm to you.
551
00:42:06.840 --> 00:42:11.159
Skepticism was dark in Dalgetty, but he managed to relax.
552
00:42:12.519 --> 00:42:16.679
How'd you get on to me, he asked, Oh, various ways.
553
00:42:17.599 --> 00:42:22.280
You were pretty clumsy. I'm afraid. Tyler sat down across
554
00:42:22.280 --> 00:42:26.679
the table. The guards remained standing. We were sure the
555
00:42:26.760 --> 00:42:30.199
Institute would attempt a counter blow, and we've studied it
556
00:42:30.280 --> 00:42:35.480
and it's personnel thoroughly. You were recognized, Dalgetty, and you're
557
00:42:35.519 --> 00:42:38.719
known to be very close to Tigue. So you walked
558
00:42:38.760 --> 00:42:42.199
after us without even a face mask. At any rate,
559
00:42:42.360 --> 00:42:45.880
you were noticed hanging around the colony. We checked back
560
00:42:45.920 --> 00:42:48.760
on your movements. One of the wrecked girls had some
561
00:42:48.880 --> 00:42:52.679
interesting things to tell of you. We decided you'd better
562
00:42:52.719 --> 00:42:55.880
be questioned. I sounded you out as much as a
563
00:42:56.079 --> 00:42:59.719
casual acquaintance could, and then took you to the rendezvous.
564
00:43:00.360 --> 00:43:05.920
Tyler spread his hands, that's all, Dalgetty sighed, and his
565
00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:11.840
shoulders slumped under a sudden, enormous burden of discouragement. Yes,
566
00:43:12.400 --> 00:43:17.639
they were right, he was out of his orbit. Well,
567
00:43:18.119 --> 00:43:22.880
he said, what now? Now we have you and Tigue
568
00:43:22.960 --> 00:43:26.840
said the other. He took out a cigarette. I hope
569
00:43:26.880 --> 00:43:30.480
you're somewhat more willing to talk than he is. Suppose
570
00:43:30.519 --> 00:43:36.400
I'm not understand this, Tyler frowned. There are reasons for
571
00:43:36.519 --> 00:43:40.079
going slow with Tigue. He has hostage value, for one thing.
572
00:43:40.960 --> 00:43:45.719
But you're nobody. And while we aren't monsters, I for one,
573
00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:49.079
have little sympathy to spare for your kind of fanatic.
574
00:43:50.480 --> 00:43:54.760
Now there, said Dalgetty, with a lift of sardonicism. Is
575
00:43:54.800 --> 00:43:59.400
an interesting example of semantic evolution. This being on the
576
00:43:59.480 --> 00:44:03.559
whole and easy going, tolerant period, the word fanatic has
577
00:44:03.599 --> 00:44:06.119
come to be simply an epetit a fellow on the
578
00:44:06.159 --> 00:44:10.400
other side that will do snapped Tyler, you won't be
579
00:44:10.440 --> 00:44:16.039
allowed to stall. There are questions we want answered. He
580
00:44:16.119 --> 00:44:19.360
ticked the points off on his fingers. What are the
581
00:44:19.440 --> 00:44:23.280
institute's ultimate aims? How is it going about attaining them?
582
00:44:23.840 --> 00:44:28.079
How far has it gotten precisely? What has it learned
583
00:44:28.199 --> 00:44:32.519
in a scientific way that it hasn't published? How much
584
00:44:32.599 --> 00:44:37.559
does it know about us, he smiled thinly. You've always
585
00:44:37.639 --> 00:44:41.039
been close to Tigue. He raised you, didn't he You
586
00:44:41.119 --> 00:44:46.280
should know just as much as he, yes, thought Dalgetty.
587
00:44:46.800 --> 00:44:50.599
Tige raised me. He was all the father I ever had. Really,
588
00:44:51.519 --> 00:44:54.440
I was an orphan, and he took me in, and
589
00:44:54.639 --> 00:44:59.320
he was good. Sharp in his mind rose the image
590
00:44:59.360 --> 00:45:03.239
of the old House. It had lain on broad wooded
591
00:45:03.280 --> 00:45:06.639
grounds in the fair hills of Maine, with a little
592
00:45:06.760 --> 00:45:10.559
river running down to a bay winged with sailboats. There
593
00:45:10.599 --> 00:45:14.679
had been neighbours, quiet spoken folks with something more real
594
00:45:14.679 --> 00:45:17.400
about them than most of the day's rootless world new
595
00:45:18.599 --> 00:45:22.280
and there had been many visitors, men and women with
596
00:45:22.440 --> 00:45:27.360
mines like flickering sword blades. He had grown up among
597
00:45:27.519 --> 00:45:32.000
intellects aimed at the future. He and Tig had traveled
598
00:45:32.039 --> 00:45:35.960
a lot. They had often been in the huge pylon
599
00:45:36.039 --> 00:45:39.440
of the main institute building. They had gone over to
600
00:45:39.519 --> 00:45:43.400
Tige's native England once a year at least, but always
601
00:45:43.480 --> 00:45:47.760
the old House had been dear to them. It stood
602
00:45:47.880 --> 00:45:51.280
on a ridge long and low and weathered gray like
603
00:45:51.360 --> 00:45:54.760
a part of the earth. By day it had rested
604
00:45:54.840 --> 00:45:58.840
in a green sun, dazzle of trees, or a glistening
605
00:45:58.920 --> 00:46:03.400
purity of snow. By night, you heard the boards creaking
606
00:46:03.559 --> 00:46:08.239
and the lonesome sound of wind talking down the chimney. Yes,
607
00:46:08.519 --> 00:46:12.719
it had been good, and there had been the wonder
608
00:46:12.760 --> 00:46:17.960
of it. He loved his training. The horizonless world within
609
00:46:18.079 --> 00:46:21.960
him was a glorious thing to explore, and that had
610
00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:26.400
oriented him outward to the real world. He had felt
611
00:46:26.400 --> 00:46:30.880
wind and rain and sunlight, the pride of high buildings
612
00:46:30.960 --> 00:46:34.519
and the surge of a galloping horse, thresh of waves,
613
00:46:34.519 --> 00:46:39.199
and laughter of women, and smooth, mysterious purr of great machines,
614
00:46:39.599 --> 00:46:43.159
with a fulness that made him pity those deaf and
615
00:46:43.480 --> 00:46:49.159
dumb and blind around him. Oh, yes, he loved those things.
616
00:46:50.199 --> 00:46:53.239
He was in love with the whole turning planet and
617
00:46:53.320 --> 00:46:57.599
the big skies overhead. It was a world of light
618
00:46:57.800 --> 00:47:01.599
and strength and swift winds, and it would be bitter
619
00:47:01.639 --> 00:47:07.159
to leave it. But Tigue was locked in darkness, he
620
00:47:07.280 --> 00:47:12.079
said slowly. All we ever were was a research and
621
00:47:12.360 --> 00:47:17.440
educational center, a sort of informal university specializing in the
622
00:47:17.480 --> 00:47:22.079
scientific study of man. We're not any kind of political organization.
623
00:47:23.199 --> 00:47:28.719
You'd be surprised how much we differ in our individual opinions.
624
00:47:29.119 --> 00:47:34.880
What of it? Shrugged Tyler, there is something larger than politics.
625
00:47:35.480 --> 00:47:40.000
Your work, if fully developed, would change our whole society,
626
00:47:40.679 --> 00:47:45.519
perhaps the whole nature of man. We know you've learned
627
00:47:45.599 --> 00:47:49.840
more things than you've made public. Therefore you're reserving that
628
00:47:49.920 --> 00:47:54.760
information for uses of your own, and you want it
629
00:47:54.800 --> 00:48:01.039
for your purposes. Yes, said Tyler after a moment. I
630
00:48:01.159 --> 00:48:04.840
despise melodrama, but if you don't cooperate, you're going to
631
00:48:04.920 --> 00:48:09.719
get the works. And we've got tigue too. Never forget
632
00:48:09.800 --> 00:48:12.719
that one of you ought to break down if he
633
00:48:12.840 --> 00:48:17.519
watches the other being questioned. We're going to the same place.
634
00:48:18.159 --> 00:48:22.199
We're going to tigue. The effort to hold face and
635
00:48:22.320 --> 00:48:28.440
voice steady was monstrous. Just where are we bound? An island?
636
00:48:29.239 --> 00:48:33.000
We should be there soon. I'll be going back again myself.
637
00:48:33.039 --> 00:48:37.440
But mister Bancroft is coming shortly. That should convince you
638
00:48:37.639 --> 00:48:43.440
just how important this is to us. Dalgetty nodded. Can
639
00:48:43.480 --> 00:48:45.559
I think it over for a while. It isn't an
640
00:48:45.559 --> 00:48:49.800
easy decision for me. Sure, I hope you decide right.
641
00:48:51.239 --> 00:48:54.519
Tyler got up and left with his guards. The big
642
00:48:54.559 --> 00:48:57.760
man who had handed him the drink earlier sat where
643
00:48:57.760 --> 00:49:01.920
he had been all the time. Slowly the psychologist began
644
00:49:02.079 --> 00:49:07.159
to tighten himself. The faint drone of turbines and whistle
645
00:49:07.199 --> 00:49:11.079
of jets and sundered air began to enlarge. Where are
646
00:49:11.079 --> 00:49:14.920
we going? He asked, can't tell you that? Shut up?
647
00:49:14.960 --> 00:49:19.920
Will you? But surely the guard didn't answer, but he
648
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:26.960
was thinking revela gigay do and never would pronounce that
649
00:49:27.119 --> 00:49:32.599
damn spig name chripes. What a god forsaken whole. Maybe
650
00:49:32.639 --> 00:49:35.599
I can work a trip over to Mexico. At Little
651
00:49:35.639 --> 00:49:42.440
gal and Guada, Dalghetti concentrated Revella. He had it now
652
00:49:43.280 --> 00:49:48.360
Eslas de Revilla Gaghetto, a small group some three hundred
653
00:49:48.400 --> 00:49:51.719
and fifty or four hundred miles off the Mexican coast,
654
00:49:52.440 --> 00:49:57.400
Little visited with very few inhabitants. His idetic memory went
655
00:49:57.440 --> 00:50:00.599
to work conjuring an image of a law large scale
656
00:50:00.639 --> 00:50:04.159
map he had once studied. Closing his eyes, he laid
657
00:50:04.159 --> 00:50:10.559
off the exact distance, latitude and longitude individual islands. Wait,
658
00:50:11.599 --> 00:50:15.079
there was one a little further west, a speck on
659
00:50:15.119 --> 00:50:19.840
the map not properly belonging to the group, And he
660
00:50:19.960 --> 00:50:22.760
rifled through all the facts he had ever learned pertaining
661
00:50:22.800 --> 00:50:27.920
to Bancroft. Wait, now bertrand Meade, who seemed to be
662
00:50:28.039 --> 00:50:32.800
the kingpin of the whole movement. Yes, Meade owned that
663
00:50:33.119 --> 00:50:38.440
tiny island, so that's where we're going. He sank back,
664
00:50:39.000 --> 00:50:42.679
letting weariness overrun him. It would be a while yet
665
00:50:42.719 --> 00:50:47.159
before they arrived. Dalgetty sighed and looked out at the stars.
666
00:50:48.679 --> 00:50:53.679
Why had men arranged such clumsy constellations when the total
667
00:50:53.760 --> 00:50:57.000
pattern of the sky was a big and lovely harmony.
668
00:50:58.159 --> 00:51:01.719
He knew his personal danger would be enormous once he
669
00:51:01.840 --> 00:51:09.800
was on the ground, torture, mutilation, even death. Dalgetty closed
670
00:51:09.840 --> 00:51:17.400
his eyes again, almost at once. He was asleep. End
671
00:51:17.440 --> 00:51:26.559
of Part three, Part four of The Sensitive Man by
672
00:51:26.639 --> 00:51:31.440
Pool Anderson. This Leeery vox recording is in the public domain.
673
00:51:32.679 --> 00:51:38.880
Part four. They landed on a small field while it
674
00:51:38.960 --> 00:51:42.800
was still dark. Hustled out into a glare of lights,
675
00:51:43.280 --> 00:51:47.239
Dalgetty did not have much chance to study his surroundings.
676
00:51:47.960 --> 00:51:51.960
There were men standing on guard with magnum rifles, tough
677
00:51:52.079 --> 00:51:56.960
looking professional goons in loose gray uniforms. Doll Getty followed
678
00:51:56.960 --> 00:52:00.320
obediently across the concrete, along a walk in and through
679
00:52:00.360 --> 00:52:02.960
a garden to the looming curved bulk of a house.
680
00:52:03.960 --> 00:52:07.320
He paused just a second as the door opened for them,
681
00:52:07.639 --> 00:52:12.280
and stood looking out into the darkness. The sea rolled
682
00:52:12.320 --> 00:52:15.960
and hissed. There on a wide beach. He caught the
683
00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:20.159
clean salt smell of it and filled his lungs. It
684
00:52:20.400 --> 00:52:23.360
might be the last time he ever breathed such air.
685
00:52:24.840 --> 00:52:28.320
Get along with you. An arm jerked him into motion again,
686
00:52:29.639 --> 00:52:33.960
down a bare, coldly lit hallway, down an escalator, into
687
00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:38.760
the guts of the island, another door, a room beyond it.
688
00:52:39.239 --> 00:52:44.679
An ungentle shove. The door clashed to behind him. Dalgetty
689
00:52:44.760 --> 00:52:49.280
looked around. The cell was small, bleakly furnished with bunk,
690
00:52:49.519 --> 00:52:53.599
toilet and washstand, had a ventilator grill in one wall,
691
00:52:54.199 --> 00:52:58.880
nothing else. He tried listening with maximum sensitivity, but there
692
00:52:58.920 --> 00:53:04.639
were only remote fused murmurs. Dad, He thought, you're here
693
00:53:04.719 --> 00:53:09.079
somewhere too. He flopped on the bunk and spent a
694
00:53:09.079 --> 00:53:13.159
moment analyzing the esthetics of the layout. It had a
695
00:53:13.199 --> 00:53:20.239
certain pleasing severity, the unconscious balance of complete functionalism. Soon
696
00:53:20.599 --> 00:53:24.400
Dalgetty went back to sleep. A guard with a breakfast
697
00:53:24.519 --> 00:53:28.079
tray woke him. Dalgetty tried to read the man's thoughts,
698
00:53:28.159 --> 00:53:32.119
but there weren't any to speak of. He ate ravenously
699
00:53:32.360 --> 00:53:35.599
under a gun muzzle, gave the tray back and returned
700
00:53:35.639 --> 00:53:40.159
to sleep. It was the same at lunch time. His
701
00:53:40.400 --> 00:53:43.679
time since told him that it was fourteen thirty five
702
00:53:43.719 --> 00:53:47.079
hours when he was roused again. There were three men
703
00:53:47.159 --> 00:53:51.920
this time, husky specimens, come on, said one of them.
704
00:53:52.480 --> 00:53:56.599
Never saw such a guy for pounding his ear. Dalgetty
705
00:53:56.639 --> 00:54:00.280
stood up, running a hand through his hair. The red
706
00:54:00.280 --> 00:54:04.719
bristles were scratchy on his palm. It was a cover up,
707
00:54:05.119 --> 00:54:08.559
a substitute symbol to bring his nervous system back under
708
00:54:08.559 --> 00:54:12.440
full control. The process felt as if he were being
709
00:54:12.599 --> 00:54:16.719
tumbled through a huge gulf. Just how many of your
710
00:54:16.719 --> 00:54:20.800
fellows are there here? He asked? Enough, now get going.
711
00:54:21.719 --> 00:54:25.760
He caught the whisper of thought, fifty of us guards?
712
00:54:25.840 --> 00:54:31.360
Is it? Yeah? Fifty? I guess fifty. Dalgetty felt taut
713
00:54:31.679 --> 00:54:36.079
as he walked out between two of them, fifty goons,
714
00:54:36.199 --> 00:54:40.000
and they were trained. He knew that the Institute had
715
00:54:40.079 --> 00:54:44.559
learned that bertrand Meade's private army was well drilled, nothing
716
00:54:44.599 --> 00:54:48.880
obstrusive about it. Officially there were only servants and bodyguards,
717
00:54:49.599 --> 00:54:53.559
but they knew how to shoot. And he was alone
718
00:54:53.719 --> 00:54:58.079
in mid ocean with them. He was alone and no
719
00:54:58.119 --> 00:55:00.880
one knew where he was, and thing could be done
720
00:55:00.960 --> 00:55:05.719
to him. He felt cold walking down the corridor. There
721
00:55:05.760 --> 00:55:09.079
was a room beyond with benches and a desk. One
722
00:55:09.119 --> 00:55:11.519
of the guards gestured to a chair at one end.
723
00:55:12.400 --> 00:55:18.800
Sit He grunted, doll Getty submitted. These straps went around
724
00:55:18.840 --> 00:55:21.920
his wrists and ankles, holding him to the arms and
725
00:55:22.000 --> 00:55:25.880
legs of the heavy chair. Another buckled about his waist.
726
00:55:26.960 --> 00:55:29.760
He looked down and saw that the chair was bolted
727
00:55:29.840 --> 00:55:33.079
to the floor. One of the guards crossed to the
728
00:55:33.119 --> 00:55:37.039
desk and started up a tape recorder. A door opened
729
00:55:37.039 --> 00:55:40.760
in the far end of the room. Thomas Spencroft came in.
730
00:55:42.280 --> 00:55:45.960
He was a big man, fleshy but in well scrubbed health,
731
00:55:46.519 --> 00:55:51.440
his clothes designed with quiet, good taste. The head was
732
00:55:51.519 --> 00:55:56.400
white maned leonine, with handsome, floorid features and sharp blue eyes.
733
00:55:57.599 --> 00:56:01.360
He smiled, ever so faintly, and sat down behind the desk.
734
00:56:03.000 --> 00:56:06.679
The woman was with him. Dalgetty looked harder at her.
735
00:56:07.559 --> 00:56:12.039
She was new to him. She was medium, tall, a
736
00:56:12.079 --> 00:56:16.039
little on the compact side, her blonde hair cut too short,
737
00:56:16.440 --> 00:56:20.239
no make up on her, broad slavic features, young, in
738
00:56:20.320 --> 00:56:25.719
hard condition, moving with a firm, masculine stride, with those
739
00:56:25.840 --> 00:56:30.480
tilted gray eyes, that delicate, curved nose and wide sullen mouth.
740
00:56:31.360 --> 00:56:33.880
She could have been a beauty had she wanted to
741
00:56:33.880 --> 00:56:39.199
be one of the modern type, thought dalgetting a flesh
742
00:56:39.239 --> 00:56:43.760
and blood machine trying to out male men, frustrated and
743
00:56:43.880 --> 00:56:48.679
unhappy without knowing it, and all the more bitter for that. Briefly,
744
00:56:48.760 --> 00:56:52.440
there was sorrow in him, an enormous pity for the
745
00:56:52.519 --> 00:56:57.599
millions of mankind. They did not know themselves. They fought
746
00:56:57.639 --> 00:57:02.159
themselves like wild beasts, tied up in not slocked in nightmare.
747
00:57:03.320 --> 00:57:07.079
Man could be so much if he had the chance.
748
00:57:08.760 --> 00:57:13.239
He glanced at Bancroft. I know you, he said, but
749
00:57:13.320 --> 00:57:16.760
I'm afraid the lady has the advantage of me, my
750
00:57:17.000 --> 00:57:23.400
secretary and general assistant, Miss Casimir. The politician's voice was sonorous,
751
00:57:23.880 --> 00:57:28.800
a beautifully controlled instrument. He leaned across the desk, the
752
00:57:28.960 --> 00:57:33.800
recorder by his elbow, word in the flat sound proofed stillness,
753
00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.519
mister doll, guilty, he said, I want you to understand
754
00:57:39.639 --> 00:57:44.199
that we aren't fiends. There are things too important for
755
00:57:44.360 --> 00:57:48.360
ordinary rules, though wars have been fought over them in
756
00:57:48.400 --> 00:57:51.480
the past, and may well be fought again. It will
757
00:57:51.519 --> 00:57:54.960
be easier for all concerned if you cooperate with us now,
758
00:57:55.840 --> 00:57:57.800
no one need ever know that you have done so.
759
00:57:59.559 --> 00:58:03.599
Suppose I answer your questions, said Doggetty, How do you
760
00:58:03.679 --> 00:58:07.800
know I'll be telling the truth neoscopolamine? Of course, I
761
00:58:07.840 --> 00:58:12.000
don't think you've been immunized. It confuses the mind too
762
00:58:12.079 --> 00:58:15.360
much for us to interrogate you about these complex matters
763
00:58:15.440 --> 00:58:18.760
under its influence, and we will surely find out if
764
00:58:18.800 --> 00:58:23.440
you have been answering our present questions correctly. And what then?
765
00:58:23.880 --> 00:58:29.239
Do you just let me go? Bancroft shrugged. Why shouldn't we?
766
00:58:29.239 --> 00:58:31.119
We may have to keep you here for a while,
767
00:58:31.199 --> 00:58:33.599
but soon you will have ceased to matter and can
768
00:58:33.719 --> 00:58:39.000
safely be released. Dalgetty considered not even he could do
769
00:58:39.119 --> 00:58:42.920
much against the truth drugs, and there were still more
770
00:58:43.039 --> 00:58:49.199
radical procedures pre frontal lobotomy, for instance. He shivered. The
771
00:58:49.320 --> 00:58:54.239
leatherright straps felt damp against his thin clothing. He looked
772
00:58:54.239 --> 00:58:59.239
at Bancroft, What do you really want? He asked? Why
773
00:58:59.280 --> 00:59:03.840
are you working for bertrand mead. Bancroft's heavy mouth lifted
774
00:59:03.840 --> 00:59:07.079
in a smile. I thought you were supposed to answer
775
00:59:07.079 --> 00:59:10.599
the questions, he said, Whether I do or not depends
776
00:59:10.639 --> 00:59:14.920
on whose questions they are, said Dalgetty. Stall for time,
777
00:59:15.280 --> 00:59:19.920
put it off, the moment of terror put it off. Frankly,
778
00:59:19.960 --> 00:59:22.719
what I know of Mead doesn't make me friendly, but
779
00:59:22.840 --> 00:59:28.079
I could be wrong. Mister Mead is a distinguished executive.
780
00:59:29.280 --> 00:59:33.039
Uh huh. He's also the power behind a hell of
781
00:59:33.079 --> 00:59:37.239
a lot of political figures, including you. He's the real
782
00:59:37.320 --> 00:59:40.880
boss of the actionist movement. What do you know of that,
783
00:59:41.519 --> 00:59:46.639
asked the woman. Sharply. It's a complicated story, said Dalgetty,
784
00:59:47.559 --> 00:59:54.400
but essentially actionism is a veltenshung We're still recovering from
785
00:59:54.440 --> 00:59:59.039
the world wars and their aftermath. People everywhere are swinging
786
00:59:59.159 --> 01:00:03.800
away from the great vague, capitalized causes toward a cooler
787
01:00:03.840 --> 01:00:07.840
and clearer view of life. It's analogous to the eighteenth
788
01:00:07.840 --> 01:00:12.039
century Enlightenment, which also followed a period of turmoil between
789
01:00:12.159 --> 01:00:17.119
conflicting fanaticisms. A belief in reason is growing up even
790
01:00:17.320 --> 01:00:22.280
in the popular mind, a spirit of moderation and tolerance.
791
01:00:22.960 --> 01:00:26.599
There's a wait and see attitude toward everything, including the
792
01:00:26.679 --> 01:00:31.599
sciences and particularly the new half finished science of psychodynamics.
793
01:00:32.599 --> 01:00:37.719
The world wants to rest for a while. Well. Such
794
01:00:37.760 --> 01:00:42.559
a state of mind has its own drawbacks. It produces
795
01:00:42.599 --> 01:00:47.559
wonderful structures of thought, but there's something cold about them.
796
01:00:47.960 --> 01:00:53.000
There is so little real passion, so much caution. The arts,
797
01:00:53.039 --> 01:00:57.960
for instance, are becoming ever more stylized old symbols like
798
01:00:58.079 --> 01:01:01.920
religion and the sovereign state, and a particular form of
799
01:01:01.960 --> 01:01:06.039
government for which men once died are openly jeered at.
800
01:01:07.199 --> 01:01:10.840
We can formulate the semantic condition at the Institute in
801
01:01:10.960 --> 01:01:16.000
a very neat equation, and you don't like it. Your
802
01:01:16.159 --> 01:01:21.519
kind of man needs something big and mere. Concrete bigness
803
01:01:21.559 --> 01:01:25.400
isn't enough. You could give your lives to the sciences,
804
01:01:25.719 --> 01:01:30.840
or to interplanetary colonization, or to social correction, as many
805
01:01:30.840 --> 01:01:36.480
people are cheerfully doing, but those aren't for you. Down underneath,
806
01:01:36.920 --> 01:01:43.159
you miss the universal father image. You want an almighty church,
807
01:01:43.480 --> 01:01:48.039
or an almighty state, or in almighty anything, a huge,
808
01:01:48.280 --> 01:01:52.800
misty symbol which demands everything you've got and gives in
809
01:01:52.840 --> 01:01:57.920
return only a feeling of belonging. Dalgetty's voice was harsh.
810
01:01:58.960 --> 01:02:03.559
In short, you can't stand on your own psychic feet.
811
01:02:04.599 --> 01:02:08.800
You can't face the truth that man is a lonely creature,
812
01:02:09.599 --> 01:02:16.320
and that his purpose must come from within himself. Bancroft scowled,
813
01:02:16.679 --> 01:02:20.760
I didn't come here to be lectured. He said, have
814
01:02:20.840 --> 01:02:24.760
it your way, answered dog Geddy, I thought you wanted
815
01:02:24.800 --> 01:02:28.320
to know what I knew of actionism. That's it, in
816
01:02:28.519 --> 01:02:33.760
imprecise verbal language. Essentially, you want to be a leader
817
01:02:33.880 --> 01:02:38.280
in a cause. Your men, such as aren't merely hired,
818
01:02:38.920 --> 01:02:43.559
want to be followers. Only there isn't a cause around
819
01:02:43.719 --> 01:02:49.159
these days except the common sense one of improving human life.
820
01:02:49.320 --> 01:02:53.760
The woman casmir leaned over the desk. There was a
821
01:02:53.920 --> 01:02:58.400
curious intensity in her eyes. You just pointed out the
822
01:02:58.480 --> 01:03:05.679
drawbacks yourself said, this is a decadent period. No, said Dalgetty,
823
01:03:06.360 --> 01:03:11.679
unless you insist on loaded connotations. It's a necessary period
824
01:03:11.840 --> 01:03:17.000
of rest, recoil time for a whole society. Well, it
825
01:03:17.039 --> 01:03:20.559
all works out neatly in teaus formulation. The present state
826
01:03:20.599 --> 01:03:24.519
of affairs should continue for about seventy five years, we
827
01:03:24.559 --> 01:03:28.679
feel at the institute. In that time, reason, can we
828
01:03:28.800 --> 01:03:32.800
hope be so firmly implanted in the basic structure of
829
01:03:32.880 --> 01:03:37.480
society that when the next great wave of passion comes,
830
01:03:37.519 --> 01:03:41.960
it won't turn men against each other. The present is
831
01:03:42.199 --> 01:03:46.239
well analytic. While we catch our breath. We can begin
832
01:03:46.360 --> 01:03:51.519
to understand ourselves. When the next synthetic or creative or
833
01:03:51.559 --> 01:03:56.159
crusading period, if you wish, comes, it will be saner
834
01:03:56.199 --> 01:04:00.679
than all which have gone before. And man can't afford
835
01:04:00.719 --> 01:04:04.119
to go insane again, not in the same world with
836
01:04:04.280 --> 01:04:09.960
the lithium bomb. Bancroft nodded. And you and the Institute
837
01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:14.119
are trying to control this process, he said, You're trying
838
01:04:14.159 --> 01:04:18.719
to stretch out the period of damn it of decadence. Oh,
839
01:04:18.760 --> 01:04:22.679
I've studied the modern school system too, doll Getty. I
840
01:04:22.760 --> 01:04:27.679
know how subtly the rising generation is being indoctrinated through
841
01:04:27.840 --> 01:04:34.880
policies formulated by your men in the government. Indoctrinated, trained,
842
01:04:34.960 --> 01:04:38.960
I would say, trained in self restraint and critical thinking.
843
01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:43.760
Dalgetty grinned with one side of his mouth. Well, we
844
01:04:43.880 --> 01:04:48.840
aren't here to our hue generalities. Specifically, Mead feels he
845
01:04:49.119 --> 01:04:53.079
has a mission. He is the natural leader of America,
846
01:04:53.679 --> 01:04:57.000
ultimately through the un in which we are still powerful
847
01:04:57.400 --> 01:05:00.840
the world. He wants to restore or what he calls
848
01:05:01.360 --> 01:05:06.440
ancestral virtues. You see, I've listened to his speeches and yours, Bancroft.
849
01:05:07.440 --> 01:05:13.800
These virtues consist of obedience physical and mental to constituted
850
01:05:13.880 --> 01:05:20.480
authority of dynamism, which operationally speaking, means people ought to
851
01:05:20.639 --> 01:05:24.760
jump when he gives an order of oh, why go on?
852
01:05:24.840 --> 01:05:29.280
It's the old story power hunger, the recreation of the
853
01:05:29.440 --> 01:05:34.679
absolute state, this time on a planetary scale, with psychological
854
01:05:34.719 --> 01:05:38.719
appeals to some and with promises of reward to others.
855
01:05:38.760 --> 01:05:43.000
He's built up quite a following, but he shrewd enough
856
01:05:43.039 --> 01:05:47.679
to know that he can't just stage a revolution. He
857
01:05:47.840 --> 01:05:52.239
has to make people want him. He has to reverse
858
01:05:52.320 --> 01:05:57.159
the social current until it swings back to authoritarianism with
859
01:05:57.360 --> 01:06:02.360
him riding the crest. And that, of course, is where
860
01:06:02.480 --> 01:06:07.320
the institute comes in. Yes, we have developed theories which
861
01:06:07.440 --> 01:06:10.880
make at least a beginning at explaining the facts of history.
862
01:06:11.559 --> 01:06:14.360
It was a matter not so much of gathering data
863
01:06:15.119 --> 01:06:19.320
as of inventing a rigorous self correcting symbolism, and our
864
01:06:19.480 --> 01:06:23.679
paramathematics seems to be just that we haven't published all
865
01:06:23.679 --> 01:06:27.039
our findings because of the uses to which they could
866
01:06:27.119 --> 01:06:31.119
be put. If you know exactly how to go about it,
867
01:06:31.559 --> 01:06:35.800
you can shape world society into almost any image you
868
01:06:35.880 --> 01:06:41.079
want in fifty years or less. You want that knowledge
869
01:06:41.119 --> 01:06:47.159
of ours for your purposes Dalgetty fell silent. There was
870
01:06:47.199 --> 01:06:54.559
a long quietness. His own breathing seemed unnaturally loud. All right,
871
01:06:55.119 --> 01:07:00.239
Bancroft nodded again, slowly. You haven't told us anything we
872
01:07:00.440 --> 01:07:05.760
don't know. I'm well aware of that, said Dalgetty. Your
873
01:07:05.800 --> 01:07:11.599
phrasing was rather unfriendly, said Bancroft. What you don't appreciate
874
01:07:12.039 --> 01:07:17.559
is the revolting, stagnation and cynicism of this age. Now
875
01:07:17.599 --> 01:07:22.840
you're using the loaded words, said Dalgetty. Facts just are.
876
01:07:23.800 --> 01:07:28.119
There's no use passing moral judgments on reality. The only
877
01:07:28.159 --> 01:07:31.519
thing you can do is to try to change it. Yes,
878
01:07:31.760 --> 01:07:35.760
said Bancroft. All right, then we're trying. Do you want
879
01:07:35.760 --> 01:07:39.280
to help us. You could beat the hell out of me,
880
01:07:39.599 --> 01:07:43.239
said Dalgetty. But it wouldn't teach you a science that
881
01:07:43.320 --> 01:07:48.079
it takes years to learn. No, but we know just
882
01:07:48.199 --> 01:07:51.320
what you have and where to find it. We have
883
01:07:51.400 --> 01:07:55.599
some good brains on our side. Given your data and equations,
884
01:07:55.679 --> 01:07:59.960
they can figure it out. The pale eyes grew wholly chilled.
885
01:08:01.280 --> 01:08:07.519
You don't seem to appreciate your situation. You're a prisoner, understand,
886
01:08:09.559 --> 01:08:16.399
Dalgetty braced his muscles. He didn't reply. Bancroft sighed, bring
887
01:08:16.479 --> 01:08:20.279
him in, he said. One of the guards went out.
888
01:08:21.000 --> 01:08:26.840
Dalgetty's heart stumbled, Dad, he thought it was anguish to him.
889
01:08:27.479 --> 01:08:30.720
Kazmir walked over to stand in front of him. Her
890
01:08:30.800 --> 01:08:36.359
eyes searched his. Don't be a fool, she said, it
891
01:08:36.520 --> 01:08:41.279
hurts worse than you know. Tell us. He looked up
892
01:08:41.319 --> 01:08:47.000
at her. I'm afraid, he thought, God knows, I'm afraid.
893
01:08:48.239 --> 01:08:54.479
His own sweat was acrid in his nostrils. No, he said,
894
01:08:55.199 --> 01:08:59.960
I tell you they'll do everything. She had a nice far,
895
01:09:00.359 --> 01:09:05.000
slow and soft, but it roughened. Now her face was
896
01:09:05.159 --> 01:09:10.720
colorless with strain. Go on, man, don't condemn yourself to mindlessness.
897
01:09:11.680 --> 01:09:16.399
There was something strange here. Dalgetty's senses began to reach out.
898
01:09:17.039 --> 01:09:20.079
She was leaning close, and he knew the signs of horror,
899
01:09:20.560 --> 01:09:24.439
even if she tried to hide them. She's not so
900
01:09:24.640 --> 01:09:27.399
hard as she makes out. But then why is she
901
01:09:27.520 --> 01:09:32.680
with them? He threw a bluff. I know who you are,
902
01:09:33.039 --> 01:09:37.520
he said, Shall I tell your friends? No, you don't.
903
01:09:38.159 --> 01:09:42.079
She stepped back rigid, and his wetted senses caught the
904
01:09:42.159 --> 01:09:45.960
fear smell. In a moment, there was control, and she said,
905
01:09:46.960 --> 01:09:50.760
all right, then have it your way, and underneath the
906
01:09:50.840 --> 01:09:54.800
thought slowed by the glooiness of panic. Does he know
907
01:09:54.880 --> 01:10:02.119
I'm FBI f b I, He jerked against the Ye gods.
908
01:10:03.520 --> 01:10:06.640
Calmness returned to him as she walked to her chief,
909
01:10:07.279 --> 01:10:13.359
but his mind word yes, why not? Institute men had
910
01:10:13.359 --> 01:10:17.000
little connection with the federal detectives, who, since the abolition
911
01:10:17.079 --> 01:10:21.880
of a discredited security, had resumed a broad function. They
912
01:10:21.960 --> 01:10:25.479
might easily have become dubious about bertrand Mead on their
913
01:10:25.560 --> 01:10:30.880
own have planted operatives with him. They had women among them, too,
914
01:10:30.920 --> 01:10:34.159
and a woman was always less conspicuous than a man.
915
01:10:35.680 --> 01:10:39.319
He felt a chill. The last thing he wanted was
916
01:10:39.359 --> 01:10:45.439
a federal agent. Here the door opened again. A quartet
917
01:10:45.479 --> 01:10:50.920
of guards brought in Michael Tigue. The Briton halted, staring
918
01:10:50.960 --> 01:10:56.520
before him. Simon, it was a harsh sound, full of pain.
919
01:10:58.000 --> 01:11:03.439
Have they hurt you, dad asked doubt very gently. No, no,
920
01:11:03.800 --> 01:11:08.079
not till now. The gray head shook. But you take
921
01:11:08.159 --> 01:11:13.520
it easy, dad, said Dalgetty. The guards hustled Tig over
922
01:11:13.600 --> 01:11:17.079
to a front row bench and sat him down. Old
923
01:11:17.199 --> 01:11:22.199
man and young locked eyes across the bear's face. Tige
924
01:11:22.520 --> 01:11:26.119
spoke to him in the hidden way, what are you
925
01:11:26.199 --> 01:11:30.359
going to do? I can't sit and let them. Dalgetty
926
01:11:30.479 --> 01:11:34.680
could not reply unheard, but he shook his head. I'll
927
01:11:34.720 --> 01:11:39.199
be okay, he answered aloud. Do you think you can
928
01:11:39.239 --> 01:11:44.079
make a break. I'll try to help you. No, said Dalgetty,
929
01:11:44.760 --> 01:11:50.800
whatever happens, you lie low. That's an order. He blocked
930
01:11:50.840 --> 01:11:55.720
off sensitivity as Bancroft snapped enough one of you is
931
01:11:55.880 --> 01:11:59.920
going to yield. If doctor T won't, then we'll work
932
01:12:00.119 --> 01:12:03.279
on him and see if mister dal Getty can hold out.
933
01:12:04.399 --> 01:12:06.600
He waved his hand as he took out a cigar.
934
01:12:07.720 --> 01:12:11.119
Two of the goons stepped up to the chair. They
935
01:12:11.239 --> 01:12:16.399
had rubberit hoses in their hands. The first blow thudded
936
01:12:16.479 --> 01:12:20.159
against Dalgetty's ribs. He didn't feel it, he had thrown
937
01:12:20.199 --> 01:12:23.560
up a nerve block, but it rattled his teeth together,
938
01:12:24.520 --> 01:12:27.560
and while he was insensitive, he'd be unable to listen
939
01:12:27.600 --> 01:12:33.000
in on another thud and another, Dalgetty clenched his fists.
940
01:12:33.840 --> 01:12:38.039
What to do? What to do? He looked over to
941
01:12:38.119 --> 01:12:43.359
the desk. Bancroft was smoking and watching as dispassionately as
942
01:12:43.359 --> 01:12:48.000
if it were some mildly interesting experiment. Kashmir had turned
943
01:12:48.000 --> 01:12:53.279
her back somethin funny here, Chief, one of the goons straightened.
944
01:12:53.920 --> 01:12:59.760
I don't think he's feelin nothing, doped, Bancroft frowned. No,
945
01:13:00.319 --> 01:13:05.000
that's hardly possible. He rubbed his chin, regarding Dalgetty with
946
01:13:05.079 --> 01:13:11.399
wondering eyes. Kasmir wheeled around to stare sweat filmed Michael
947
01:13:11.439 --> 01:13:16.840
Tigue's face glistening in the chill white light. He can
948
01:13:16.920 --> 01:13:22.199
still be hurt, said the guard. Bancroft winced. I don't
949
01:13:22.319 --> 01:13:27.279
like outright mutilation, he said, but still I've warned you. Dalgetty,
950
01:13:28.520 --> 01:13:34.439
get out, Simon whispered, Tigue, get out of here. Dalgetty's
951
01:13:34.479 --> 01:13:40.560
red head lifted. Decision crystallized within him. He would be
952
01:13:40.680 --> 01:13:43.920
no use to anyone with a broken leg, a crushed foot,
953
01:13:44.239 --> 01:13:49.640
and I knocked out, seared lungs. And Kashmir was FBI
954
01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:52.640
she might be able to do something at this end,
955
01:13:52.680 --> 01:13:57.439
in spite of all. He tested the straps, A quarter
956
01:13:57.479 --> 01:14:00.760
inch of leatherright, he could snap them, but would he
957
01:14:00.800 --> 01:14:04.439
break his bones doing it? Only one way to find out,
958
01:14:04.720 --> 01:14:08.520
he thought, Bleakly, I'll get a blowtarch, said one of
959
01:14:08.520 --> 01:14:11.199
the guards in the rear of the room. His face
960
01:14:11.319 --> 01:14:16.319
was wholly impassive. Most of these goons must be moronic,
961
01:14:16.560 --> 01:14:20.560
thought Dalgetty. Most of the guards in the twentieth century
962
01:14:20.560 --> 01:14:25.880
extermination camps had been no inconvenient empathy with the human flesh.
963
01:14:25.920 --> 01:14:31.000
They broke and flayed and burned. He gathered himself. This
964
01:14:31.199 --> 01:14:35.920
time it was rage, a cloud of fury rising in
965
01:14:36.000 --> 01:14:40.640
his mind, a ragged red haze across his vision. That
966
01:14:40.960 --> 01:14:46.760
they would dare, he snarled as the streath surged up
967
01:14:46.800 --> 01:14:50.479
in him. He didn't even feel the straps as they
968
01:14:50.520 --> 01:14:55.000
popped across the same movement hurled him across the room
969
01:14:55.119 --> 01:14:59.319
toward the door. Someone yelled, a guard leaped in his path,
970
01:14:59.479 --> 01:15:04.039
a giant of a man. Dalgetty's fist sprang before him.
971
01:15:04.439 --> 01:15:08.319
There was a cracking sound, and the goon's head snapped
972
01:15:08.359 --> 01:15:12.800
back against his own spine. Dalgetty was already past him.
973
01:15:13.199 --> 01:15:16.840
The door was shut in his face. Wood crashed as
974
01:15:16.840 --> 01:15:21.000
he went through it. A bullet wailed after him. He
975
01:15:21.159 --> 01:15:25.319
dodged down the corridor, up the nearest steps. The walls
976
01:15:25.359 --> 01:15:29.560
blurred with his own speed. Another slug smacked into the
977
01:15:29.600 --> 01:15:33.680
paneling beside him. He rounded a corner, saw a window,
978
01:15:33.760 --> 01:15:36.199
and covered his eyes with an arm as he leaped.
979
01:15:37.319 --> 01:15:41.159
The plastic was tough, but one hundred and seventy pounds
980
01:15:41.239 --> 01:15:45.319
hid it. At fifteen feet per second, Dalgetty went through.
981
01:15:46.159 --> 01:15:48.800
Sunlight flamed in his eyes as he hit the ground,
982
01:15:49.479 --> 01:15:52.520
Rolling over and bouncing to his feet, he set out
983
01:15:52.560 --> 01:15:55.960
across the lawn and garden. As he ran, his vision
984
01:15:56.039 --> 01:15:59.960
swept the landscape. In that state of fear and rat
985
01:16:00.560 --> 01:16:04.239
he could not command much thought, but his memory stored
986
01:16:04.279 --> 01:16:16.600
the data for re examination. End of Part four, Part
987
01:16:16.720 --> 01:16:21.439
five of The Sensitive Man by Pool Anderson. This libre
988
01:16:21.560 --> 01:16:27.600
vox recording is in the public domain. Part five. The
989
01:16:27.840 --> 01:16:32.399
house was a rambling two story affair, all curves and
990
01:16:32.479 --> 01:16:36.760
plains between palm trees, the island sloping swiftly from his
991
01:16:36.880 --> 01:16:40.399
front to a beach and dock. On one side was
992
01:16:40.439 --> 01:16:44.359
the airfield, on another the guard barracks. To the rear.
993
01:16:44.760 --> 01:16:48.880
In the direction of Dalgetty's movement, the ground became rough
994
01:16:48.960 --> 01:16:53.760
and wild, stones and sand and sawgrass, and clumps of
995
01:16:53.840 --> 01:16:58.399
palmettos climbing upward for a good two miles. On every
996
01:16:58.520 --> 01:17:02.159
side he could see the infinite blue sparkle of ocean.
997
01:17:03.319 --> 01:17:08.560
Where could he hide? He didn't notice the slashing blades
998
01:17:08.720 --> 01:17:11.560
through which he raced, and the dry gulping of his
999
01:17:11.680 --> 01:17:16.239
lungs was something dreadfully remote. But when a bullet went
1000
01:17:16.319 --> 01:17:20.319
past one ear, he heard that and drew more speed
1001
01:17:20.399 --> 01:17:26.000
from some unknown depth. A glance behind revealed his pursuers
1002
01:17:26.439 --> 01:17:29.359
boiling out of the house, men in gray, with the
1003
01:17:29.399 --> 01:17:34.439
hot sunlight blinking off their guns. He ducked around a thicket,
1004
01:17:34.760 --> 01:17:38.640
flopped and belly crawled over a rise of land on
1005
01:17:38.720 --> 01:17:41.560
the farther side. He straightened again and ran up the
1006
01:17:41.640 --> 01:17:46.560
long slope. Another slug and another. They were almost a
1007
01:17:46.680 --> 01:17:49.920
mile behind now, but their guns had a long reach.
1008
01:17:50.920 --> 01:17:54.920
He bent low, zigzagging as he ran. The bullets kicked
1009
01:17:55.000 --> 01:17:58.920
up spurts of sand around him. A six foot bluff
1010
01:17:59.039 --> 01:18:03.760
loomed in his pack, black volcanic rock, shining like wet glass.
1011
01:18:04.720 --> 01:18:08.720
He hid it at full speed. He almost walked up
1012
01:18:08.720 --> 01:18:12.640
its surface, and in the instant when his momentum was gone,
1013
01:18:13.279 --> 01:18:16.800
caught a root and yanked himself to the top. Again
1014
01:18:16.880 --> 01:18:19.760
he was out of their sight. He sprang around another
1015
01:18:19.840 --> 01:18:24.159
hulk of stone and skidded to a halt. At his
1016
01:18:24.279 --> 01:18:28.880
feet a sheer cliff dropped nearly a hundred feet to
1017
01:18:29.000 --> 01:18:33.600
a white smother of surf. Dalgetty gulped are, working his
1018
01:18:33.760 --> 01:18:38.680
lungs like a bellow's hey long jump down, he thought dizzily.
1019
01:18:39.840 --> 01:18:42.039
If he didn't crack his skull open on a reef,
1020
01:18:42.119 --> 01:18:45.039
he might well be clawed under by the sea. But
1021
01:18:45.319 --> 01:18:49.640
there was no other place for him to go. He
1022
01:18:49.720 --> 01:18:54.319
made a swift estimate. He had run upward two miles
1023
01:18:54.399 --> 01:18:57.720
in a little over nine minutes, surely a record for
1024
01:18:57.800 --> 01:19:01.960
such terrain. It would take the pursuit another ten or
1025
01:19:02.000 --> 01:19:05.760
fifteen to reach him, but he couldn't double back without
1026
01:19:05.760 --> 01:19:09.199
being seen, and this time they'd be close enough to
1027
01:19:09.319 --> 01:19:15.279
fill him with lead. Okay, son, he told himself, you're
1028
01:19:15.279 --> 01:19:19.279
going to duck now. In more than one sense. His
1029
01:19:19.479 --> 01:19:23.640
light waterproof clothes, tattered by the island growth, would be
1030
01:19:23.680 --> 01:19:27.199
no hindrance down there. But he took off his sandals
1031
01:19:27.199 --> 01:19:31.279
and stuck them in his belt pouch. Praise all gods,
1032
01:19:31.479 --> 01:19:34.840
the physical side of his training had included water sports.
1033
01:19:35.960 --> 01:19:38.439
He moved along the cliff edge, looking for a place
1034
01:19:38.479 --> 01:19:44.600
to dive. The wind whined at his feet. There down
1035
01:19:44.640 --> 01:19:48.840
there no visible rocks, though the surf boiled and smoked.
1036
01:19:50.079 --> 01:19:55.079
He willed full energy back into himself, bent his knees,
1037
01:19:55.560 --> 01:19:59.960
jackknifed into the air. The sea was a hammer blow
1038
01:20:00.119 --> 01:20:05.199
against his body. He came up, threshing and tumbling, gasped
1039
01:20:05.239 --> 01:20:07.720
a mouthful of air that was half salt spray, and
1040
01:20:08.000 --> 01:20:13.159
was pulled under again. A rock scraped his ribs. He
1041
01:20:13.199 --> 01:20:17.960
took long strokes, always upward to the blind white shimmer
1042
01:20:18.000 --> 01:20:21.119
of light. He got to the crest of one wave
1043
01:20:21.159 --> 01:20:25.800
and rowed it, surfing over a razor back reef shallow water.
1044
01:20:26.760 --> 01:20:30.319
Blinded by the steady rain of salt mist, deafened by
1045
01:20:30.319 --> 01:20:34.680
the roar and crash of the sea, he groped towards shore.
1046
01:20:36.159 --> 01:20:39.399
A narrow, pebbly beach ran along the foot of the cliff.
1047
01:20:39.920 --> 01:20:44.359
He moved along it, hunting a place to hide. There
1048
01:20:45.000 --> 01:20:48.199
a sea worn cave some ten feet inward, with a
1049
01:20:48.279 --> 01:20:51.640
yard or so of fairly quiet water covering its bottom.
1050
01:20:52.239 --> 01:20:56.520
He splashed inside and lay down, exhaustion, clamping a hand
1051
01:20:56.560 --> 01:21:02.479
over him. It was noisy. The hollow resonance of sound
1052
01:21:02.600 --> 01:21:05.520
filled the cave like the inside of a drum, but
1053
01:21:05.640 --> 01:21:09.319
he didn't notice. He lay on the rocks and sand,
1054
01:21:10.079 --> 01:21:15.600
his mind spiraling toward unconsciousness, and let his body make
1055
01:21:15.680 --> 01:21:20.439
its own recovery. Presently, he regained awareness and looked about him.
1056
01:21:21.319 --> 01:21:24.680
The cave was dim, with only a filtered greenish light
1057
01:21:25.079 --> 01:21:30.359
to pick out black walls and slowly swirling water. Nobody
1058
01:21:30.359 --> 01:21:34.760
could see much below the surface. Good. He studied himself,
1059
01:21:35.279 --> 01:21:40.359
lacerated clothes, bruised flesh, and a long bleeding gash in
1060
01:21:40.479 --> 01:21:44.640
one side. That was not good. A stain of blood
1061
01:21:44.680 --> 01:21:49.000
on the water would give him away like a shout. Grimacing,
1062
01:21:49.479 --> 01:21:52.439
he pressed the edges of the wound together and willed
1063
01:21:52.520 --> 01:21:56.399
that the bleeding stop. By the time a good enough
1064
01:21:56.399 --> 01:21:59.920
clot was formed for him to relax his concentration, the
1065
01:22:00.119 --> 01:22:03.760
guards were scrambling down to find him. He didn't have
1066
01:22:03.880 --> 01:22:07.479
many minutes left. Now he had to do the opposite
1067
01:22:07.520 --> 01:22:12.840
of energizing. He had to slow metabolism down, ease his heartbeat,
1068
01:22:13.399 --> 01:22:19.239
lower his body temperature, dull his racing brain. He began
1069
01:22:19.359 --> 01:22:24.079
to move his hands, swaying back and forth, muttering the
1070
01:22:24.119 --> 01:22:30.199
auto hypnotic formulas his incantations. Teague had called him, but
1071
01:22:30.279 --> 01:22:34.720
they were only stylized gestures, leading to conditioned reflexes deep
1072
01:22:34.840 --> 01:22:41.279
in the medulla. Now I lay me down to sleep, heavy, heavy,
1073
01:22:41.359 --> 01:22:45.239
His eyelids were drooping. The wet walls receding into a
1074
01:22:45.399 --> 01:22:50.359
great darkness, a hand cradling his head. The noise of
1075
01:22:50.479 --> 01:22:55.119
surf dimmed, became a rustle. The skirts of the mother
1076
01:22:55.239 --> 01:22:58.439
he had never known came in to bid him good night.
1077
01:23:00.119 --> 01:23:03.760
Ulness stole over him, like veils dropping one by one
1078
01:23:04.039 --> 01:23:09.039
inside his head. There was winter outside, and his bed
1079
01:23:09.399 --> 01:23:15.479
was snug. When Dalgetty heard the nearing rattle of boots
1080
01:23:15.960 --> 01:23:19.560
just barely through the ocean and his own drowsiness, he
1081
01:23:19.640 --> 01:23:23.800
almost forgot what he had to do. No, yes, now
1082
01:23:23.840 --> 01:23:29.920
he knew. Take several long, deep breaths, oxygenate the bloodstream,
1083
01:23:30.000 --> 01:23:34.359
then fill the lungs once, and slide down under the surface.
1084
01:23:36.119 --> 01:23:39.560
He lay there in darkness, hardly conscious of the voices,
1085
01:23:39.720 --> 01:23:45.880
dimly perceived a cave here, a place for him to hide. Nah,
1086
01:23:45.920 --> 01:23:51.039
I don't see nothing. Scrunch of feet on stone. Ouch,
1087
01:23:51.319 --> 01:23:55.039
Stop my damn toe. Nah, it's a closed cave. He
1088
01:23:55.079 --> 01:24:00.520
ain't in here. Hum, look at this. Then it stains
1089
01:24:00.520 --> 01:24:05.720
on this rock. Right, he's been here at least underwater.
1090
01:24:06.359 --> 01:24:10.479
Rifle butts probed but could not sound the inlet the
1091
01:24:10.520 --> 01:24:13.960
woman's voice. If he's hiding down below, he'll have to
1092
01:24:14.000 --> 01:24:17.319
come up for air. When we got to search this
1093
01:24:17.359 --> 01:24:23.199
whole damn beach here. I'll just give the water a burst. Cashmere, sharply,
1094
01:24:23.640 --> 01:24:26.199
don't be a fool. You won't even know if you
1095
01:24:26.319 --> 01:24:29.600
hit him. Nobody can hold his breath more than three minutes.
1096
01:24:30.680 --> 01:24:33.439
Yeah that's right, Joe. How long we've been in here?
1097
01:24:34.640 --> 01:24:38.880
One minute? I guess I'll give him a couple more cripes.
1098
01:24:39.159 --> 01:24:44.600
Did you see how he ran? He ain't human, He's killable,
1099
01:24:44.640 --> 01:24:48.279
though me. I think he's just rolling around in the
1100
01:24:48.319 --> 01:24:51.960
surf out there. This could be fish blood, a koudah
1101
01:24:52.039 --> 01:24:56.800
chased another fish in here, admitted Cashmere, or if his
1102
01:24:56.880 --> 01:25:00.000
body drifted in it's safely under and got a cigarette
1103
01:25:00.840 --> 01:25:03.600
here you are, miss, But say, I never thought to ask,
1104
01:25:04.000 --> 01:25:08.680
how come you come with us? Cashmere. I'm as good
1105
01:25:08.720 --> 01:25:11.279
as shot as you are, a buster, and I want
1106
01:25:11.319 --> 01:25:18.640
to be sure this job's done right. Pause Cashmere almost
1107
01:25:18.680 --> 01:25:21.520
five minutes. If he can come up now, he's a seal,
1108
01:25:22.399 --> 01:25:26.079
especially with his body oxygen starved. After all that running,
1109
01:25:27.560 --> 01:25:30.239
in the slowness of doll Getty's brain, there was a
1110
01:25:30.399 --> 01:25:34.479
chill wonder about the woman. He had read her. Thought
1111
01:25:34.920 --> 01:25:39.680
she was FBI, but she seemed strangely eager to haunt
1112
01:25:39.800 --> 01:25:45.359
him down. Okay, let's get out of here. Casmere, you
1113
01:25:45.439 --> 01:25:47.600
go on. I'll wait here just in case, and come
1114
01:25:47.680 --> 01:25:50.560
up to the house pretty soon. I'm tired of following
1115
01:25:50.560 --> 01:25:56.960
you around. Okay, let's go, Joe. It was another four
1116
01:25:57.000 --> 01:26:00.600
minutes or so before the pain and ten and his
1117
01:26:00.720 --> 01:26:05.960
lungs became unendurable. Dalgetty knew he would be helpless as
1118
01:26:05.960 --> 01:26:10.039
he rose, still in his semi hibernating state, but his
1119
01:26:10.159 --> 01:26:14.439
body was shrieking for air. Slowly he broke the surface.
1120
01:26:15.680 --> 01:26:20.399
The woman gasped, then the automatic jumped into her hand
1121
01:26:20.399 --> 01:26:25.720
and leveled between his eyes. All right, friend, come on out.
1122
01:26:26.239 --> 01:26:29.239
Her voice was very low and shook a trifle, but
1123
01:26:29.359 --> 01:26:33.960
there was grimness in it. Dalgetty climbed on to the
1124
01:26:34.039 --> 01:26:37.840
ledge beside her and sat with his legs dangling, hunched
1125
01:26:37.880 --> 01:26:42.600
in the misery of returning strength. When full wakefulness was achieved,
1126
01:26:43.159 --> 01:26:45.640
he looked at her and found she had moved to
1127
01:26:45.720 --> 01:26:49.399
the farther end of the cave. Don't try to jump,
1128
01:26:49.720 --> 01:26:53.600
she said. Her eyes caught the vague light in a
1129
01:26:53.640 --> 01:26:56.720
wide glimmer, half frightened. I don't know what to make
1130
01:26:56.760 --> 01:27:01.680
of you, Dalgetty, drew a long, long breath and sat upright,
1131
01:27:02.279 --> 01:27:07.720
bracing himself on the cold, slippery stone. I know who
1132
01:27:07.800 --> 01:27:13.560
you are, he said, who, Then she challenged, You're an
1133
01:27:13.760 --> 01:27:20.680
FBI agent. Planted on bancroft. Her gaze narrowed, her lips compressed.
1134
01:27:21.760 --> 01:27:26.920
What makes you think so? Never mind? You are? That
1135
01:27:27.119 --> 01:27:30.560
gives me a certain hold on you, whatever your purpose is,
1136
01:27:31.960 --> 01:27:38.079
The blonde head nodded. I wondered about that. That remark
1137
01:27:38.159 --> 01:27:41.600
you made to me down in the cell, suggested well.
1138
01:27:41.680 --> 01:27:45.479
I couldn't take chances, especially when you showed you were
1139
01:27:45.560 --> 01:27:50.319
something extraordinary by snapping those straps and bursting the door open.
1140
01:27:51.319 --> 01:27:53.560
I came along with the search party in hope of
1141
01:27:53.560 --> 01:27:58.560
finding you. He had to admire the quick mind behind
1142
01:27:58.640 --> 01:28:03.680
the wide, smooth brow. You damn near did for them,
1143
01:28:04.159 --> 01:28:08.720
he accused her. I couldn't do anything suspicious, she answered,
1144
01:28:09.520 --> 01:28:12.159
but I figured you hadn't leaped off the cliff in
1145
01:28:12.279 --> 01:28:16.840
sheer desperation. You must have had some hiding place in mind,
1146
01:28:17.439 --> 01:28:20.800
and under water seemed the most probable in view of
1147
01:28:20.840 --> 01:28:23.279
what you've already done. I was pretty sure you could
1148
01:28:23.319 --> 01:28:28.880
hold your breath abnormally long. Her smile was a little shaky, though,
1149
01:28:29.239 --> 01:28:35.039
I didn't think it would be inhumanly long. You've got brains,
1150
01:28:35.119 --> 01:28:39.119
he said, But how much heart? What do you mean?
1151
01:28:40.239 --> 01:28:43.920
I mean? Are you going to throw Doctor T and
1152
01:28:44.079 --> 01:28:47.800
me to the wolves now? Or will you help us?
1153
01:28:48.359 --> 01:28:52.720
That depends, she answered slowly. What are you here for?
1154
01:28:54.039 --> 01:28:58.079
His mouth twisted ruefully. I'm not here on purpose at all,
1155
01:28:58.399 --> 01:29:02.079
Doggetty confessed. I was just trying to get a clue
1156
01:29:02.079 --> 01:29:06.239
to doctor T's whereabouts. They outsmarted me and brought me here.
1157
01:29:07.239 --> 01:29:10.800
Now I have to rescue him. His eyes held hers.
1158
01:29:11.760 --> 01:29:15.079
Kidnapping is a federal offense. It's your duty to help me.
1159
01:29:16.520 --> 01:29:21.560
I may have higher duties, she countered, leaning forward tautly,
1160
01:29:22.239 --> 01:29:26.479
But how do you expect to do this? I'm damned
1161
01:29:26.479 --> 01:29:29.920
if I know. Dal Geddy looked moodily out at the
1162
01:29:29.960 --> 01:29:34.239
beach and the waves and the smoking spindrift. But that
1163
01:29:34.399 --> 01:29:38.119
gun of yours would be a big help. She stood
1164
01:29:38.159 --> 01:29:41.399
a moment, scowling with thought. If I don't come back soon,
1165
01:29:41.439 --> 01:29:44.840
they'll be out hunting for me. We've got to find
1166
01:29:44.880 --> 01:29:48.399
another hiding place, he agreed. Then they will assume I
1167
01:29:48.479 --> 01:29:52.279
survived after all and grabbed you. They'll be scouring the
1168
01:29:52.279 --> 01:29:56.039
whole island for us. If we haven't been located before dark,
1169
01:29:56.079 --> 01:29:58.479
they'll be spread thin enough to give us a chance.
1170
01:30:00.159 --> 01:30:02.399
It makes more sense for me to go back now,
1171
01:30:02.600 --> 01:30:05.319
she said, Then I can be on the inside to
1172
01:30:05.359 --> 01:30:09.640
help you. He shook his head. Uh uh whit, making
1173
01:30:09.800 --> 01:30:13.279
like a stereo show detective. If you leave me your
1174
01:30:13.319 --> 01:30:17.279
gun claiming you lost it, that's sure to bring suspicion
1175
01:30:17.319 --> 01:30:20.960
on you, the way they're excited right now. If you don't,
1176
01:30:21.039 --> 01:30:24.760
I'll still be on the outside and unarmed. And what
1177
01:30:24.880 --> 01:30:28.600
could you do one woman alone in that nest. Now
1178
01:30:28.640 --> 01:30:32.079
we're two with a shooting iron between us. I think
1179
01:30:32.119 --> 01:30:37.079
that's a better bet. After a while, she nodded, okay,
1180
01:30:37.279 --> 01:30:42.479
you win, assuming the half lowered gun was raised again
1181
01:30:42.600 --> 01:30:46.760
with a jerky motion that I will aid you. Who
1182
01:30:47.079 --> 01:30:53.000
are you? What are you, doggetty? He shrugged. Let's say
1183
01:30:53.039 --> 01:30:57.520
I'm doctor Tigg's assistant and have some unusual powers. You
1184
01:30:57.680 --> 01:31:00.680
know the institute well enough to realize that this isn't
1185
01:31:00.800 --> 01:31:06.760
just a feud between two gangster groups, I wonder. Suddenly,
1186
01:31:06.880 --> 01:31:10.359
she clanked the automatic back into its holster. All right
1187
01:31:11.000 --> 01:31:14.680
for the time being, only though relief was a wave
1188
01:31:14.840 --> 01:31:19.680
rushing through him. Thank you, he whispered, Then, where can
1189
01:31:19.720 --> 01:31:24.479
we go? I've been swimming around here in the quieter spots.
1190
01:31:24.560 --> 01:31:28.960
She said, I know a place. Wait here. She stepped
1191
01:31:28.960 --> 01:31:32.720
across the cave and peered out its mouth. Someone must
1192
01:31:32.720 --> 01:31:36.079
have hailed her, for she waved back. She stood leaning
1193
01:31:36.159 --> 01:31:38.720
against the rock, and dal Getty saw how the sea
1194
01:31:38.720 --> 01:31:42.720
spray gleamed in her hair. After a long five minutes,
1195
01:31:43.159 --> 01:31:47.399
she turned to him again. All right, she said, the
1196
01:31:47.479 --> 01:31:51.199
last one just went up the path. Let's go. They
1197
01:31:51.319 --> 01:31:54.920
walked along the beach. It trembled underfoot with the rage
1198
01:31:54.960 --> 01:31:58.239
of the sea. There was a grinding under the snort
1199
01:31:58.359 --> 01:32:02.000
and roar of surf, as if the world's teeth ate rock.
1200
01:32:03.000 --> 01:32:07.039
The beach curved inward, forming a small bay sheltered by
1201
01:32:07.079 --> 01:32:12.520
outlying scaries. A narrow path ran upward from it. But
1202
01:32:12.600 --> 01:32:16.319
it was toward the sea that the woman gestured. Out there,
1203
01:32:16.600 --> 01:32:20.520
she said, follow me. She took off her shoes as
1204
01:32:20.560 --> 01:32:24.279
he had done, and checked her holster. The gun was waterproof,
1205
01:32:24.680 --> 01:32:27.399
but it wouldn't do to have it fall out. She
1206
01:32:27.479 --> 01:32:31.680
waded into the sea and struck out with a powerful crawl.
1207
01:32:33.760 --> 01:32:42.920
End of Part five, Part six of The Sensitive Man
1208
01:32:43.119 --> 01:32:46.880
by Pool Anderson. This lee Revox recording is in the
1209
01:32:46.920 --> 01:32:54.840
public domain. Part six. They climbed up on one of
1210
01:32:54.880 --> 01:32:59.159
the hog Back rocks, some ten yards from shore. This
1211
01:32:59.239 --> 01:33:03.199
one rose a good dozen feet above the surface. It
1212
01:33:03.399 --> 01:33:06.159
was cleft in the middle, forming a little hollow hidden
1213
01:33:06.199 --> 01:33:09.920
from land and water alike. They crawled into this and
1214
01:33:10.000 --> 01:33:14.560
sat down, breathing hard. The sea was loud at their backs,
1215
01:33:14.680 --> 01:33:18.920
and the air felt cold on their wet skins. Dalgetty
1216
01:33:19.159 --> 01:33:22.560
leaned back against the smooth stone, looking at the woman
1217
01:33:23.000 --> 01:33:26.359
who was unemotionally counting how many clips she had in
1218
01:33:26.359 --> 01:33:31.239
her pouch. The thin drenched tunic and slacks showed a
1219
01:33:31.439 --> 01:33:38.119
very nice figure. What's your name, he asked, Kashmir, she answered,
1220
01:33:38.159 --> 01:33:41.760
without looking up first name. I mean, mine is Simon
1221
01:33:42.880 --> 01:33:46.720
Eleanor if you must know, four packs a hundred rounds
1222
01:33:46.760 --> 01:33:49.680
plus ten in the chamber. Now, if we have to
1223
01:33:49.680 --> 01:33:53.600
shoot them all, we'd better be good. These aren't magnums,
1224
01:33:53.760 --> 01:33:55.760
so you have to hit a man just right to
1225
01:33:55.760 --> 01:34:00.600
put him out of action. Well, shrugged Dalgetty. We'll just
1226
01:34:00.800 --> 01:34:04.039
have to lumber along as best we can. I oh,
1227
01:34:04.199 --> 01:34:09.960
we don't make ashes of ourselves. Oh no. He couldn't
1228
01:34:09.960 --> 01:34:14.199
tell whether it was appreciation or dismay at a time
1229
01:34:14.359 --> 01:34:18.560
like this too. It doesn't make me very popular, he agreed.
1230
01:34:19.319 --> 01:34:22.439
Everybody says to elm with me. But as they say
1231
01:34:22.439 --> 01:34:27.760
in France, we're alone now, mor cherry and trees. A crowd.
1232
01:34:28.560 --> 01:34:33.800
Don't get ideas, she snapped, Oh, I'll get plenty of ideas,
1233
01:34:34.079 --> 01:34:36.920
though I admit this isn't the place to carry them out.
1234
01:34:37.399 --> 01:34:41.399
Dalgetty folded his arms behind his head and blinked up
1235
01:34:41.439 --> 01:34:45.920
at the sky man. Could I use a nice tall
1236
01:34:46.000 --> 01:34:51.239
mint julip right now? Eleanor frowned. If you're trying to
1237
01:34:51.239 --> 01:34:54.359
convince me you're just a simple American boy, you might
1238
01:34:54.399 --> 01:34:59.920
as well quit, she said thinly. That's sort of emotional
1239
01:35:00.079 --> 01:35:05.239
control in a situation like this only makes you less human.
1240
01:35:06.319 --> 01:35:10.000
Dalgetty swore at himself. She was too damned quick, that
1241
01:35:10.159 --> 01:35:13.359
was all, and her intelligence might be enough for her
1242
01:35:13.439 --> 01:35:18.640
to learn. Will I have to kill her? He drove
1243
01:35:18.720 --> 01:35:23.000
the thought from him. He could overcome his own conditioning
1244
01:35:23.079 --> 01:35:27.199
about anything, including murder, if he wanted to. But he'd
1245
01:35:27.239 --> 01:35:31.680
never want to. No, that was out. How did you
1246
01:35:31.720 --> 01:35:35.039
get here? He asked? How much does the FBI know?
1247
01:35:36.680 --> 01:35:40.760
Why should I tell you? Well, it'd be nice to
1248
01:35:40.800 --> 01:35:45.680
know if we can't expect reinforcements, we can't. Her voice
1249
01:35:45.720 --> 01:35:49.600
was bleak. I might as well let you know. The
1250
01:35:49.720 --> 01:35:53.840
Institute could find out anyway through its government connections, the
1251
01:35:54.000 --> 01:35:59.560
damned octopus. She looked into the sky. Dalgetty's gaze followed
1252
01:35:59.600 --> 01:36:04.119
the curve of her high cheek bones. Unusual face. You
1253
01:36:04.199 --> 01:36:07.960
didn't often see such an oddly pleasing arrangement, the slight
1254
01:36:08.000 --> 01:36:13.960
departure from cemetery. We've wondered about bertrand Meade for some time,
1255
01:36:14.039 --> 01:36:19.359
as every thinking person has. She began tonelessly. It's too
1256
01:36:19.439 --> 01:36:22.159
bad there are so few thinking people in the country.
1257
01:36:23.319 --> 01:36:26.680
Something the Institute is trying to correct. Doggetty put in
1258
01:36:27.840 --> 01:36:32.840
eleanor ignored him. It was finally decided to work agents
1259
01:36:32.880 --> 01:36:37.319
into his various organizations. I've been with Thomas Bancroft for
1260
01:36:37.399 --> 01:36:41.159
about two years now. My background was carefully faked, and
1261
01:36:41.239 --> 01:36:44.760
I'm a useful assistant. But even so, it was only
1262
01:36:44.800 --> 01:36:47.880
a short while back that I got sufficiently into his
1263
01:36:48.000 --> 01:36:51.119
confidence to be given some inkling of what's going on.
1264
01:36:52.239 --> 01:36:55.359
As far as I know, no other FBI operative has
1265
01:36:55.439 --> 01:37:00.800
learned as much. And what have you found out? Essentially
1266
01:37:00.840 --> 01:37:04.279
the same things you were describing in the cell, plus
1267
01:37:04.319 --> 01:37:08.199
more details on the actual work they're doing. Apparently the
1268
01:37:08.319 --> 01:37:12.000
institute was on two meads plans long before we were.
1269
01:37:12.640 --> 01:37:15.960
It doesn't speak well for your purposes, whatever they are,
1270
01:37:16.239 --> 01:37:19.680
that you haven't asked us for help before this. The
1271
01:37:19.800 --> 01:37:23.279
decision to kidnap doctor Tege was taken only a couple
1272
01:37:23.319 --> 01:37:26.760
of weeks ago. I haven't had a chance to communicate
1273
01:37:26.800 --> 01:37:30.439
with my associates in the force. There's always some one
1274
01:37:30.479 --> 01:37:34.359
around watching the set ups well arranged so that even
1275
01:37:34.399 --> 01:37:38.439
those not under suspicion don't have much chance to work unobserved.
1276
01:37:38.920 --> 01:37:43.319
Once they've gotten high enough to know anything important. Everybody
1277
01:37:43.439 --> 01:37:49.399
spies on everybody else and submits periodic reports. She gave
1278
01:37:49.479 --> 01:37:54.199
him a harsh look. So here I am. No official
1279
01:37:54.239 --> 01:37:58.479
person knows my whereabouts, and if I should disappear, it
1280
01:37:58.520 --> 01:38:02.600
would be called a deplorable accident. Nothing could be proved,
1281
01:38:02.720 --> 01:38:05.359
and I doubt if the FBI would ever get another
1282
01:38:05.479 --> 01:38:09.119
chance to do any effective spying. But you have proof
1283
01:38:09.199 --> 01:38:14.119
enough for a raid, he ventured, No, we haven't. Up
1284
01:38:14.159 --> 01:38:16.960
till the time I was told doctor Tigue was going
1285
01:38:17.000 --> 01:38:20.159
to be snatched, I didn't know for certain that anything
1286
01:38:20.199 --> 01:38:24.119
illegal was going on. There's nothing in the law against
1287
01:38:24.239 --> 01:38:27.359
like minded people knowing each other and having a sort
1288
01:38:27.399 --> 01:38:31.319
of club, even if they hire tough characters and arm them.
1289
01:38:31.399 --> 01:38:35.239
The law can't protest the Act of nineteen ninety nine
1290
01:38:35.479 --> 01:38:39.279
effectively forbids private armies. But it would be hard to
1291
01:38:39.359 --> 01:38:45.359
prove Mead has one. He doesn't, really, said Dalgetty. Those
1292
01:38:45.479 --> 01:38:49.279
goons aren't much more than what they claim to be bodyguards.
1293
01:38:50.000 --> 01:38:55.520
This whole fight is primarily on a mental level. So
1294
01:38:55.880 --> 01:39:01.039
I gather and can a free country forbid debate or propaganda.
1295
01:39:01.880 --> 01:39:05.159
Not to mention that meets people include some powerful men
1296
01:39:05.199 --> 01:39:08.279
in the government itself. If I could get away from
1297
01:39:08.319 --> 01:39:11.119
here alive, we'd be able to hang a kidnapping charge
1298
01:39:11.119 --> 01:39:15.039
on Thomas Bancroft, with assorted charges of threat may him
1299
01:39:15.119 --> 01:39:19.039
and conspiracy, but it wouldn't touch the main group. Her
1300
01:39:19.079 --> 01:39:24.640
fists clenched. It's like fighting shadows. You war against the
1301
01:39:24.720 --> 01:39:30.359
sunset glow. The judgment follows fast, my lord, quoted Dalgetty.
1302
01:39:30.560 --> 01:39:33.560
Harriet's Ford was one of the few poems he liked.
1303
01:39:33.840 --> 01:39:36.800
Getting Bancroft out of the way would be something, he added.
1304
01:39:37.600 --> 01:39:40.720
The way to fight Meed is not to attack him physically,
1305
01:39:41.039 --> 01:39:44.319
but to change the conditions under which he must work.
1306
01:39:45.199 --> 01:39:49.720
Change them to what her eyes challenged his. He noticed
1307
01:39:49.840 --> 01:39:53.319
that there were small gold flecks in the gray. What
1308
01:39:53.439 --> 01:40:00.520
does the Institute want? A sane world? He replied, Aye wondered.
1309
01:40:00.640 --> 01:40:04.199
She said, maybe Bancroft is more nearly right than you.
1310
01:40:04.920 --> 01:40:08.199
Maybe I should be on his side after all. I
1311
01:40:08.560 --> 01:40:12.520
take it you favor a libertarian government, he said. In
1312
01:40:12.600 --> 01:40:15.960
the past, it's always broken down sooner or later, and
1313
01:40:16.039 --> 01:40:19.119
the main reason has been that there aren't enough people
1314
01:40:19.239 --> 01:40:23.920
with the intelligence, alertness, and toughness to resist the inevitable
1315
01:40:24.000 --> 01:40:28.680
encroachments of power on liberty. The Institute is trying to
1316
01:40:28.760 --> 01:40:34.520
do two things, create such a citizenry, and simultaneously to
1317
01:40:34.680 --> 01:40:38.239
build up a society which itself produces men of that
1318
01:40:38.359 --> 01:40:42.600
kind and reinforces those traits in them. It can be
1319
01:40:42.680 --> 01:40:47.119
done given time, under ideal conditions. We estimate it would
1320
01:40:47.119 --> 01:40:50.600
take about three hundred years for the whole world. Actually
1321
01:40:50.640 --> 01:40:55.520
it'll take longer. But just what kind of person is needed?
1322
01:40:55.920 --> 01:41:00.920
Elena asked coldly, who decides it? You do? You're just
1323
01:41:01.039 --> 01:41:05.800
the same as all other reformers, including Meade, hell bent
1324
01:41:06.000 --> 01:41:10.840
to change the whole human race over to your particular ideal,
1325
01:41:11.119 --> 01:41:13.880
whether they like it or not. Oh, they'll like it,
1326
01:41:14.039 --> 01:41:17.800
he smiled. That's part of the process. It's a worse
1327
01:41:17.840 --> 01:41:21.960
tyranny than whips in barbed wire. She snapped. You've never
1328
01:41:22.039 --> 01:41:27.399
experienced those. Then you have got that knowledge, she accused.
1329
01:41:28.039 --> 01:41:32.279
You have the data and the equations to be sociological
1330
01:41:32.479 --> 01:41:38.319
engineers in theory, he said, In practice, it isn't that easy.
1331
01:41:39.520 --> 01:41:43.319
The social forces are so great that well, we could
1332
01:41:43.359 --> 01:41:47.760
be overwhelmed before accomplishing anything, and there are plenty of
1333
01:41:47.840 --> 01:41:52.560
things we still don't know. It will take decades, perhaps centuries,
1334
01:41:52.640 --> 01:41:55.840
to work out a complete dynamics of man. We're one
1335
01:41:56.000 --> 01:41:59.760
step beyond the politician's rule of thumb, but not up
1336
01:41:59.840 --> 01:42:02.520
to the point where we can use slide rules. We
1337
01:42:02.680 --> 01:42:07.439
have to feel our way. Nevertheless, she said, you've got
1338
01:42:07.439 --> 01:42:10.439
the beginnings of a knowledge which reveals the true structure
1339
01:42:10.479 --> 01:42:15.319
of society and the processes that make it. Given that knowledge,
1340
01:42:15.760 --> 01:42:19.079
man could in time build his own world order the
1341
01:42:19.119 --> 01:42:23.199
way he desired it, a stable culture that wouldn't know
1342
01:42:23.239 --> 01:42:27.600
the horrors of oppression or collapse. But you hidden away
1343
01:42:27.640 --> 01:42:32.239
the very fact that such information exists. You're using it
1344
01:42:32.359 --> 01:42:38.600
in secret because we have to Doggetty said, if it
1345
01:42:38.680 --> 01:42:41.920
were generally known that we're putting pressure on here and
1346
01:42:42.000 --> 01:42:46.000
there and giving advice slanted just the way we desire,
1347
01:42:46.520 --> 01:42:50.520
the whole thing would blow up in our faces. People
1348
01:42:50.520 --> 01:42:54.880
don't like to be shoved around, and still you're doing it.
1349
01:42:55.479 --> 01:42:59.159
Her hand dropped to her gun. You a clique of
1350
01:42:59.239 --> 01:43:03.239
maybe a hundred men. More than that, you'd be surprised
1351
01:43:03.319 --> 01:43:07.399
how many are with us. You've decided you are the
1352
01:43:07.560 --> 01:43:12.640
almighty arbiters. Your superior wisdom is going to lead poor
1353
01:43:12.680 --> 01:43:17.359
blind mankind up the road to heaven. I say it's
1354
01:43:17.399 --> 01:43:20.680
down the road to hell. The last century we saw
1355
01:43:20.760 --> 01:43:25.000
the dictatorship of the elite and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
1356
01:43:25.800 --> 01:43:30.359
This one seems to be birthing the dictatorship of the intellectuals.
1357
01:43:30.920 --> 01:43:35.479
I don't like any of them. Look, Elena Dalgetty leaned
1358
01:43:35.479 --> 01:43:39.239
on one elbow and faced her. It isn't that simple,
1359
01:43:39.880 --> 01:43:43.439
all right, We've got some special knowledge. When we first
1360
01:43:43.520 --> 01:43:47.279
realized we were getting somewhere in our research, we had
1361
01:43:47.319 --> 01:43:50.760
to decide whether to make our results public or merely
1362
01:43:50.800 --> 01:43:55.439
give out selected less important findings. Don't you see, No
1363
01:43:55.479 --> 01:43:58.560
matter what we did, it would have been us the
1364
01:43:58.600 --> 01:44:02.840
few men who decided even destroying all our information would
1365
01:44:02.880 --> 01:44:08.079
have been a decision. His voice grew more urgent, So
1366
01:44:08.319 --> 01:44:12.159
we made what I think was the right choice. History
1367
01:44:12.239 --> 01:44:16.359
shows as conclusively as our own equations, that freedom is
1368
01:44:16.399 --> 01:44:21.399
not a natural condition of man. It's a metastable, stated best,
1369
01:44:22.039 --> 01:44:26.279
all too likely to collapse into tyranny. The tyranny can
1370
01:44:26.279 --> 01:44:29.680
be imposed from outside by the better organized armies of
1371
01:44:29.720 --> 01:44:33.640
a conqueror, or it can come from within through the
1372
01:44:33.680 --> 01:44:37.239
will of the people themselves surrendering their rights to the
1373
01:44:37.279 --> 01:44:43.000
father image, the almighty leader, the absolute state. What use
1374
01:44:43.119 --> 01:44:46.159
does bertrand Mead want to make of our findings if
1375
01:44:46.159 --> 01:44:48.960
he can get them to bring about the end of
1376
01:44:49.000 --> 01:44:53.079
freedom by working on the people till they themselves desire it.
1377
01:44:53.800 --> 01:44:56.319
And the damnable part of it is that meds gold
1378
01:44:56.399 --> 01:44:59.840
is much more easily attained than ours. So suppose we
1379
01:45:00.079 --> 01:45:04.399
made our knowledge public, Suppose we educated anyone who desired
1380
01:45:04.439 --> 01:45:07.840
it in our techniques. Can't you see what would happen?
1381
01:45:08.640 --> 01:45:11.399
Can't you see the struggle that would be waged for
1382
01:45:11.520 --> 01:45:15.479
control of the human mind. It would start as innocuously
1383
01:45:15.520 --> 01:45:20.079
as a businessman planning a more effective advertising campaign. It
1384
01:45:20.119 --> 01:45:24.279
would end in a welter of propaganda, counter propaganda, social
1385
01:45:24.319 --> 01:45:29.720
and economic manipulations, corruption, competition for the key offices, and
1386
01:45:29.800 --> 01:45:35.039
so ultimately there would be violence. All the psychodynamic tensors,
1387
01:45:35.119 --> 01:45:39.960
ever written down, won't stop a machine gun violence riding
1388
01:45:40.000 --> 01:45:45.840
over a society thrown into chaos. Enforced peace and the peacemakers,
1389
01:45:46.359 --> 01:45:49.880
perhaps with the best will in the world, using the
1390
01:45:50.000 --> 01:45:55.359
Institute techniques to restore Arder. Then one step leads to another.
1391
01:45:55.960 --> 01:45:59.640
Power gets more and more centralized, and it isn't long
1392
01:45:59.720 --> 01:46:03.960
before or you have the total state back again. Only
1393
01:46:04.039 --> 01:46:09.520
this total state would never be overthrown. Eleana Kasimir bit
1394
01:46:09.560 --> 01:46:13.479
her lip, a stray breeze slid down the rock wall
1395
01:46:13.520 --> 01:46:17.119
and ruppled her bright hair. After a long while, she said,
1396
01:46:18.560 --> 01:46:21.920
maybe you're right, but America today has on the whole
1397
01:46:21.960 --> 01:46:26.439
a good government. You could let them know, too risky.
1398
01:46:27.079 --> 01:46:32.199
Sooner or later, someone probably with very idealistic motives, would
1399
01:46:32.279 --> 01:46:36.199
force the whole thing into the open. So we're keeping
1400
01:46:36.319 --> 01:46:40.840
hidden the very fact that our most important equations exist,
1401
01:46:41.119 --> 01:46:43.640
which is why we didn't ask for help. When METS
1402
01:46:43.680 --> 01:46:48.000
detectives finally learned that they know, how do you know
1403
01:46:48.159 --> 01:46:52.960
your precious institute won't become just such an oligarchy as
1404
01:46:53.000 --> 01:46:59.680
you describe. I don't, Simon said, but it's improbable. You see,
1405
01:46:59.760 --> 01:47:03.760
the recruits who are eventually taught everything we know are
1406
01:47:03.800 --> 01:47:08.319
pretty thoroughly indoctrinated with our own present day beliefs, and
1407
01:47:08.399 --> 01:47:11.880
we've learned enough individual psyche to do some real indoctrinating.
1408
01:47:12.720 --> 01:47:17.359
They'll pass it on to the next generation and so on. Meanwhile,
1409
01:47:18.039 --> 01:47:21.079
we hope the social structure and the mental climate is
1410
01:47:21.199 --> 01:47:24.439
being modified in such a way that eventually it would
1411
01:47:24.479 --> 01:47:28.880
be very difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to impose
1412
01:47:29.039 --> 01:47:33.359
absolute control by any means. For as I said before,
1413
01:47:33.960 --> 01:47:40.600
even and ultimately developed psychodynamics can't do everything. Ordinary propaganda,
1414
01:47:40.680 --> 01:47:44.760
for instance, is quite ineffective on people trained in critical thinking.
1415
01:47:45.720 --> 01:47:49.399
When enough people the world over are sane, we can
1416
01:47:49.439 --> 01:47:53.359
make the knowledge general. Meanwhile, we've got to keep it
1417
01:47:53.520 --> 01:47:57.640
under wraps and quietly prevent anyone else from learning the
1418
01:47:57.680 --> 01:48:03.000
same things independently. Most such prevention, by the way, consists
1419
01:48:03.079 --> 01:48:08.079
merely of recruiting promising researchers into our own ranks. The
1420
01:48:08.119 --> 01:48:12.520
world's too big, she said, very softly. You can't foresee
1421
01:48:12.560 --> 01:48:17.159
all that'll happen. Too many things could go wrong. Maybe
1422
01:48:17.520 --> 01:48:20.399
it's a chance we've got to take His own gaze
1423
01:48:20.600 --> 01:48:24.479
was somber. They sat for a while in stillness. Then
1424
01:48:24.520 --> 01:48:30.079
she said, it all sounds very pretty. But what are you,
1425
01:48:30.399 --> 01:48:36.600
doll Getty Simon, he corrected, what are you? She repeated,
1426
01:48:37.359 --> 01:48:41.600
You've done things I wouldn't have believed were possible. Are
1427
01:48:41.840 --> 01:48:48.079
you human? I'm told so, he smiled, Yes, I wonder
1428
01:48:48.800 --> 01:48:52.720
how is it possible that you he wagged a finger. Ahh,
1429
01:48:52.920 --> 01:48:58.000
right of privacy, and with swift seriousness. You know too
1430
01:48:58.079 --> 01:49:01.199
much already. I have to assume you can keep it
1431
01:49:01.279 --> 01:49:06.560
secret all your life. That remains to be seen, Eleana said,
1432
01:49:06.960 --> 01:49:17.600
not looking at him. End of Part six, Part seven
1433
01:49:17.640 --> 01:49:23.079
of The Sensitive Man by Pool Anderson. This LibriVox recording
1434
01:49:23.279 --> 01:49:30.319
is in the public domain. Part seven sundown burned across
1435
01:49:30.359 --> 01:49:33.159
the waters, and the island rose like a mountain of
1436
01:49:33.279 --> 01:49:39.199
night against the darkening sky. Dalgetty stretched cramped muscles and
1437
01:49:39.279 --> 01:49:43.359
peered over the bay. In the hours of waiting, there
1438
01:49:43.399 --> 01:49:45.880
had not been much said between him and the woman.
1439
01:49:47.039 --> 01:49:51.119
He had dropped a few questions with the careful casualness
1440
01:49:51.119 --> 01:49:56.119
of the skilled analyst, and gotten the expected reactions. He
1441
01:49:56.199 --> 01:49:59.920
knew a little more about her, a child of the strangling,
1442
01:50:00.199 --> 01:50:04.199
dying cities and shadowy family life of the nineteen eighties,
1443
01:50:04.880 --> 01:50:08.760
forced to armor herself in harshness, finding in the long
1444
01:50:08.880 --> 01:50:11.560
training for her work, and now in the job itself,
1445
01:50:11.840 --> 01:50:15.439
an ideal to substitute for the tenderness she had never known.
1446
01:50:16.800 --> 01:50:19.439
He felt pity for her, but there was little he
1447
01:50:19.479 --> 01:50:23.199
could do to help. Just now. To her own queries,
1448
01:50:23.239 --> 01:50:27.399
he gave guarded replies. It occurred to him briefly that
1449
01:50:27.520 --> 01:50:31.960
he was in his way as lonesome as she. But
1450
01:50:32.279 --> 01:50:38.000
of course I don't mind, or do I. Mostly they
1451
01:50:38.119 --> 01:50:41.680
tried to plan their next move. For the time, at
1452
01:50:41.760 --> 01:50:46.159
least they were of one purpose. She described the layout
1453
01:50:46.199 --> 01:50:49.479
of the house and grounds, and indicated the cell where
1454
01:50:49.520 --> 01:50:53.479
Michael Tigue was ordinarily kept, But there was not much
1455
01:50:53.520 --> 01:50:57.760
they could do to think out tactics. If Bancroft gets
1456
01:50:57.800 --> 01:51:01.720
alarmed enough, she said, he'll have doctor t flown elsewhere.
1457
01:51:02.279 --> 01:51:06.359
He agreed, that's why we'd better hit tonight before he
1458
01:51:06.399 --> 01:51:12.159
can get that worried. The thought was pain within him, Dad,
1459
01:51:12.560 --> 01:51:16.640
what are they doing to you now? There is also
1460
01:51:16.760 --> 01:51:20.319
the matter of food and drink. Her voice was husky
1461
01:51:20.399 --> 01:51:24.279
with thirst and dull with the discouragement of hunger. We
1462
01:51:24.520 --> 01:51:27.760
can't stay out here like this much longer. She gave
1463
01:51:27.840 --> 01:51:32.319
him a strange glance. Don't you feel weak? Not now,
1464
01:51:32.640 --> 01:51:37.880
he said, he had blocked off the sensations they simon.
1465
01:51:38.439 --> 01:51:43.199
She grabbed his arm. A boat here. The murmur of
1466
01:51:43.319 --> 01:51:49.000
jets drifted to him through the beating waves. Yeah, quick underneath.
1467
01:51:50.399 --> 01:51:53.479
They scrambled over the hog back and slid down its
1468
01:51:53.520 --> 01:51:58.399
farther side. The sea clawed at Dalgetty's feet, and foam
1469
01:51:58.520 --> 01:52:02.800
exploded over his head. He hunched low, throwing one arm
1470
01:52:02.840 --> 01:52:07.079
about her as she slipped. The air boat murmured overhead,
1471
01:52:07.479 --> 01:52:11.880
hot gold in the sunset light. Dalgetty crouched, letting the
1472
01:52:11.920 --> 01:52:16.279
breakers run coldly around him. The ledge where they clung
1473
01:52:16.479 --> 01:52:22.479
was worn smooth, offering little to hold onto. The boats circled,
1474
01:52:22.840 --> 01:52:27.560
its jets thunderous at low speed. They're worried about her. Now,
1475
01:52:28.319 --> 01:52:32.720
they must be sure I am still alive. White water
1476
01:52:33.119 --> 01:52:37.199
roared above his head. He breathed a hasty gasp of
1477
01:52:37.239 --> 01:52:40.880
air before the next comber hit him. Their bodies were
1478
01:52:40.920 --> 01:52:45.079
wholly submerged. Their faces shouldn't show in that haze of foam,
1479
01:52:45.760 --> 01:52:48.560
But the jet was soaring down and there would be
1480
01:52:48.640 --> 01:52:54.279
machine guns on it. Dalgetty's belly muscles stiffened, waiting for
1481
01:52:54.319 --> 01:52:59.000
the tracers to burn through him. Eleanor's body slipped from
1482
01:52:59.000 --> 01:53:03.039
his grasp and went under. He hung there, not daring
1483
01:53:03.079 --> 01:53:07.720
to follow a stolen glance upward. Yes, the jet was
1484
01:53:07.760 --> 01:53:11.680
out of sight again. Moving back toward the field, he
1485
01:53:11.800 --> 01:53:15.079
dove off the ledge and struck into the waves. The
1486
01:53:15.119 --> 01:53:19.000
girl's head rose over them as he neared. She twisted
1487
01:53:19.079 --> 01:53:21.399
from him and made her own way back to the rock.
1488
01:53:21.880 --> 01:53:24.479
But when they were in the hollow again, her teeth
1489
01:53:24.560 --> 01:53:29.880
rattled with chill, and she pressed against him for warmth. Okay,
1490
01:53:30.520 --> 01:53:34.439
he said, shakily, okay, we're all right now. You are
1491
01:53:34.479 --> 01:53:39.560
hereby entitled to join our Pacific Veterans Club. Her laugh
1492
01:53:39.680 --> 01:53:42.840
was small under the boom of breakers and hiss of scud.
1493
01:53:43.840 --> 01:53:48.439
You're trying hard, aren't you. I oh, oh, get down.
1494
01:53:50.079 --> 01:53:54.159
Peering over the edge, Dalgetty saw the men descending the path.
1495
01:53:55.199 --> 01:53:58.840
There were half a dozen, armed and wary. One had
1496
01:53:58.880 --> 01:54:02.800
a w T unit on his back. In the shadow
1497
01:54:02.840 --> 01:54:05.880
of the cliff, they were almost invisible as they began
1498
01:54:06.000 --> 01:54:11.399
prowling the beach, still hunting us. Her voice was a groan.
1499
01:54:12.439 --> 01:54:16.000
You didn't expect otherwise, did you. I'm just hoping they
1500
01:54:16.039 --> 01:54:19.279
don't come out here. Does anybody else know of this spot?
1501
01:54:20.159 --> 01:54:23.880
He held his lips close to her ear. No, I
1502
01:54:23.880 --> 01:54:27.720
don't believe, so, she breathed. I was the only one
1503
01:54:27.720 --> 01:54:30.159
who cared to go swimming at this end of the island.
1504
01:54:30.560 --> 01:54:35.960
But Dalgatty waited grimly. The sun was down at last,
1505
01:54:36.359 --> 01:54:40.439
the twilight thickening. A few stars twinkled to life in
1506
01:54:40.479 --> 01:54:44.399
the east. The goons finished their search and settled in
1507
01:54:44.479 --> 01:54:49.640
a line along the beach. Oh oh, muttered Dalgatty. I
1508
01:54:49.800 --> 01:54:54.279
get the idea. Bancroft's had the land beaten for me
1509
01:54:54.439 --> 01:54:58.319
so thoroughly. He's sure I must be somewhere out to sea.
1510
01:54:59.239 --> 01:55:02.680
If I were, he I'd guess I'd swum far out
1511
01:55:02.680 --> 01:55:06.039
to be picked up by a water boat. So he's
1512
01:55:06.159 --> 01:55:10.760
guarding every possible approach against a landing party. What can
1513
01:55:10.760 --> 01:55:15.000
we do, whispered Eleanor even if we can swim around
1514
01:55:15.039 --> 01:55:19.159
the radius of sight, we can't land just anywhere. Most
1515
01:55:19.159 --> 01:55:23.159
of the island is vertical cliff or can you? No,
1516
01:55:23.640 --> 01:55:26.960
he said, Regardless of what you may think, I don't
1517
01:55:26.960 --> 01:55:30.840
have vacuum cups on my feet. But how far does
1518
01:55:30.880 --> 01:55:34.680
that gun of yours carry? She stole a glance over
1519
01:55:34.720 --> 01:55:39.239
the edge. Night was sweeping in the island was a
1520
01:55:39.279 --> 01:55:42.039
wall of blackness, and the men at its foot were hidden.
1521
01:55:43.119 --> 01:55:48.479
You can't see, she protested. He squeezed her shoulder. Oh
1522
01:55:48.560 --> 01:55:52.479
yes I can, honey, But whether I'm good enough shot
1523
01:55:52.520 --> 01:55:56.520
to We'll have to try it, that's all. Her face
1524
01:55:56.880 --> 01:55:59.800
was a white blur, and fear of the unknown put
1525
01:55:59.880 --> 01:56:06.319
metal in her voice. Port seal port, cat port, dear port.
1526
01:56:06.359 --> 01:56:12.239
What else? I don't think you're human, Simon Dalgetty. He
1527
01:56:12.279 --> 01:56:17.199
didn't answer. The abnormal voluntary dilation of pupils hurt his eyes.
1528
01:56:18.760 --> 01:56:22.840
What else has doctor T done? Her tone was chill
1529
01:56:22.960 --> 01:56:27.279
in the dark. You can't study the human mind without
1530
01:56:27.319 --> 01:56:32.560
studying the body too. What's he done? Are you the mutant?
1531
01:56:32.640 --> 01:56:37.039
They are always speculating about. Did Doctor T create or
1532
01:56:37.199 --> 01:56:41.359
fine Homo superior? If I don't plug that radio concept
1533
01:56:41.399 --> 01:56:45.159
before they can use it, he said, I'll be homogenized.
1534
01:56:46.399 --> 01:56:49.760
You can't leave it off, she said, through taut lips.
1535
01:56:50.560 --> 01:56:53.840
If you aren't of our species, I have to assume
1536
01:56:53.960 --> 01:56:59.359
your enemy till you prove otherwise. Her fingers closed hard
1537
01:56:59.520 --> 01:57:03.199
on his own. Is that what your little gang at
1538
01:57:03.199 --> 01:57:07.399
the institute is doing? Have they decided that mere humanity
1539
01:57:07.520 --> 01:57:11.279
isn't good enough to be civilized? Are they preparing the
1540
01:57:11.319 --> 01:57:16.399
way for your kind to take over? Listen? He said wearily.
1541
01:57:17.560 --> 01:57:22.520
Right now, we're two people, very mortal, indeed being hunted.
1542
01:57:22.680 --> 01:57:27.520
So shut up. He took the pistol from her holster
1543
01:57:28.119 --> 01:57:32.319
and slipped a full clip into its magazine. His vision
1544
01:57:32.479 --> 01:57:36.560
was at high sensitivity now. Her face showed white against
1545
01:57:36.560 --> 01:57:39.960
the wet rock, with gray highlights along its strong cheek
1546
01:57:40.000 --> 01:57:44.800
bones beneath the wide, frightened eyes. Beyond the reefs, the
1547
01:57:44.880 --> 01:57:48.920
sea was gun metal under the stars, streaked with foam
1548
01:57:49.159 --> 01:57:53.399
and shadow. Ahead of him, as he rose to his feet,
1549
01:57:54.039 --> 01:57:57.680
the line of guards stood out as paler darkness against
1550
01:57:57.680 --> 01:58:01.840
the vertiginous island face. They had mounted a heavy machine
1551
01:58:01.880 --> 01:58:05.920
gun to point seaward, and a self powered spotlight not
1552
01:58:06.039 --> 01:58:10.800
turned on, rested near by. Those two things could be dangerous,
1553
01:58:10.840 --> 01:58:13.720
but first he had to find the radio set that
1554
01:58:13.800 --> 01:58:19.439
could call the whole garrison down on them. There it
1555
01:58:19.640 --> 01:58:21.960
was a small hump on the back of one man
1556
01:58:22.079 --> 01:58:25.640
near the middle of the beach. He was pacing restlessly
1557
01:58:25.760 --> 01:58:27.960
up and down. With a Tommy gun in his hands,
1558
01:58:29.239 --> 01:58:34.279
Dalgetty raised the pistol with slow, hard hell concentration, wishing
1559
01:58:34.319 --> 01:58:39.680
it were a rifle. Remember your target practice now, arm loose,
1560
01:58:40.079 --> 01:58:45.960
fingers extended. Don't pull a trigger, but squeeze, because you've
1561
01:58:45.960 --> 01:58:51.119
got to be right. The first time he shot, the
1562
01:58:51.279 --> 01:58:55.840
weapon was a military model SIMI, noiseless and with no
1563
01:58:55.920 --> 01:59:00.439
betraying streak of light. The first bullet spun thegoon on
1564
01:59:00.560 --> 01:59:03.520
his heels and sent him lurching across sand and rock.
1565
01:59:04.560 --> 01:59:08.399
Dalgetty worked the trigger, spraying around his victim a storm
1566
01:59:08.439 --> 01:59:13.359
of lead that must ruin the sender. Chaos on the beach.
1567
01:59:13.880 --> 01:59:16.159
If that spotlight went on, with his eyes at their
1568
01:59:16.199 --> 01:59:21.960
present sensitivity, he'd be blind for hours. He fired carefully,
1569
01:59:22.119 --> 01:59:26.199
smashing the lins and bulb. The machine gun opened up,
1570
01:59:26.359 --> 01:59:30.600
stuttering wildly into the dark. If someone elsewhere on the
1571
01:59:30.640 --> 01:59:35.000
island heard that noise, Dalgetty shot again, dropping the gunner
1572
01:59:35.079 --> 01:59:39.960
over his weapon. Bullets spanged around him, probing the darkness.
1573
01:59:41.159 --> 01:59:46.079
One down, two down, three down. A fourth was running
1574
01:59:46.079 --> 01:59:50.720
along the upward path. Dalgetty fired and missed, fired and missed,
1575
01:59:51.239 --> 01:59:55.560
fired and missed. He was getting out of range carrying
1576
01:59:55.600 --> 02:00:00.159
the alarm. There he fell slowly, like a joint did
1577
02:00:00.399 --> 02:00:04.960
dal rolling down the trail. The two others were dashing
1578
02:00:05.000 --> 02:00:07.800
for the shelter of a cave, offering no chance to
1579
02:00:07.880 --> 02:00:12.119
nail them. Doggetty scrambled over the rock, splashed into the bay,
1580
02:00:12.159 --> 02:00:15.880
and struck out for the shore. Shots raked the water.
1581
02:00:16.720 --> 02:00:18.880
He wondered if they could hear his approach through the
1582
02:00:18.920 --> 02:00:22.920
sea noise. Soon he'd be close enough for normal night vision.
1583
02:00:23.720 --> 02:00:28.680
He gave himself wholly to swimming. His feet touched sand,
1584
02:00:28.760 --> 02:00:33.279
and he waded ashore, the water dragging at him. Crouching,
1585
02:00:33.359 --> 02:00:36.680
he entered the shots coming from the cave. The shriek
1586
02:00:36.920 --> 02:00:41.439
and yeowl were everywhere around him. Now it seemed impossible
1587
02:00:41.479 --> 02:00:44.520
that they should not hear up above. He tensed his
1588
02:00:44.720 --> 02:00:49.119
jaws and crawled toward the machine gun. A cold part
1589
02:00:49.119 --> 02:00:51.920
of him noticed that the fire was in a random pattern.
1590
02:00:52.359 --> 02:00:56.119
They couldn't see him. Then the man lying by the
1591
02:00:56.159 --> 02:01:00.760
gun was still alive, but unconscious. That was enough. Doggetty
1592
02:01:00.840 --> 02:01:04.520
crouched over the trigger. He had never handled a weapon
1593
02:01:04.600 --> 02:01:07.479
like this, but it must be ready for action. Only
1594
02:01:07.520 --> 02:01:10.720
minutes ago, when it tried to kill him. He sighted
1595
02:01:10.760 --> 02:01:15.560
it on the cave mouth and cut loose recoil. Made
1596
02:01:15.600 --> 02:01:18.159
the gun dance till he caught on to the trick
1597
02:01:18.199 --> 02:01:21.159
of using it. He couldn't see any one in the cave,
1598
02:01:21.680 --> 02:01:25.439
but he could bounce lead off its walls. He shot
1599
02:01:25.439 --> 02:01:29.920
for a full minute before stopping. Then he crawled away
1600
02:01:29.920 --> 02:01:33.239
at an angle till he reached the cliff. Sliding along this,
1601
02:01:33.439 --> 02:01:38.359
he approached the entrance and waited. No sounds came from inside.
1602
02:01:39.159 --> 02:01:43.000
He risked a quick glance. Yes, it had done the job.
1603
02:01:43.680 --> 02:01:47.760
He felt a little sick. Eleanor was climbing out of
1604
02:01:47.800 --> 02:01:51.279
the water when he returned. There was a strangeness in
1605
02:01:51.319 --> 02:01:54.880
the look she gave him. All taken care of, she
1606
02:01:55.039 --> 02:01:59.960
asked tonelessly. He nodded, remembering she could hardly see the movement,
1607
02:02:00.159 --> 02:02:03.479
said aloud, yes, I think so, Grab some of this
1608
02:02:03.560 --> 02:02:07.760
hardware and let's get moving. With his nerves already keyed
1609
02:02:07.800 --> 02:02:10.720
for night vision, it was not difficult to heighten other
1610
02:02:10.760 --> 02:02:15.439
perceptions and catch your thinking. Not human? Why should he
1611
02:02:15.520 --> 02:02:18.359
mind if he kills human beings when he isn't one himself?
1612
02:02:19.800 --> 02:02:23.920
But I do mind, he said gently. I've never killed
1613
02:02:23.960 --> 02:02:27.359
a man before, and I don't like it. She jerked
1614
02:02:27.359 --> 02:02:30.760
away from him. It had been a mistake, he realized.
1615
02:02:31.640 --> 02:02:34.199
Come on, he said, here's your pistol. Better take a
1616
02:02:34.239 --> 02:02:37.520
Tommy gun too, if you can handle it. Yes, she said,
1617
02:02:38.119 --> 02:02:41.960
he had lowered his reception again. Her voice fell quiet
1618
02:02:42.199 --> 02:02:48.399
and hard. Yes, I can use one on whom, he wondered.
1619
02:02:49.800 --> 02:02:52.159
He picked up an automatic rifle from one of his
1620
02:02:52.279 --> 02:02:56.720
sprawled figures. Let's go, he said, turning, he led the
1621
02:02:56.760 --> 02:03:00.520
way up the path. His spine prickled with the thought
1622
02:03:00.560 --> 02:03:03.479
of her at his back, keyed to a pitch of
1623
02:03:03.720 --> 02:03:09.600
near hysteria. We're out to rescue Michael Tigue, Remember, he
1624
02:03:09.640 --> 02:03:13.920
whispered over his shoulder. I've had no military experience, and
1625
02:03:13.960 --> 02:03:16.399
I doubt that you've ever done anything like this either,
1626
02:03:17.199 --> 02:03:20.479
so we'll probably make every mistake in the books. But
1627
02:03:20.760 --> 02:03:27.720
we've got to get doctor Tigue. She didn't answer. At
1628
02:03:27.720 --> 02:03:30.800
the top of the path, Dolgeddy went down on his
1629
02:03:30.880 --> 02:03:34.920
stomach again and slithered up over the crest. Slowly, he
1630
02:03:35.079 --> 02:03:38.920
raised his head to peer in front of him. Nothing moved,
1631
02:03:39.560 --> 02:03:45.399
nothing stirred. He stooped low as he walked forward. The
1632
02:03:45.600 --> 02:03:49.840
thickets fenced off vision a few yards ahead beyond them.
1633
02:03:50.079 --> 02:03:53.159
At the end of the slope, he could glimpse lights.
1634
02:03:53.880 --> 02:03:58.239
Bancroft's place must be one glare of radiance. How to
1635
02:03:58.279 --> 02:04:02.920
get in there without being sick? He drew Eleanor close
1636
02:04:02.960 --> 02:04:06.199
to him for a moment. She stiffened at his touch.
1637
02:04:06.399 --> 02:04:11.960
Then she yielded any ideas, he asked, No, she replied,
1638
02:04:12.920 --> 02:04:17.760
I could play dead, he began tentatively. You could claim
1639
02:04:17.800 --> 02:04:20.199
to have been caught by me, to have gotten your
1640
02:04:20.239 --> 02:04:23.680
gun back and killed me. They might lose suspicion then
1641
02:04:23.760 --> 02:04:27.479
and carry me inside. You think you could fake that,
1642
02:04:28.439 --> 02:04:32.399
She pulled away from him again. Sure, make a small
1643
02:04:32.479 --> 02:04:34.319
cut and force it to bleed enough to look like
1644
02:04:34.359 --> 02:04:39.039
a bullet wound, which doesn't usually bleed much anyway. Slow
1645
02:04:39.079 --> 02:04:43.000
down heart beat and respiration till their ordinary senses couldn't
1646
02:04:43.000 --> 02:04:49.039
detect them. Near total muscular relaxation, including even those unromantic
1647
02:04:49.079 --> 02:04:52.840
aspects of death which are so rarely mentioned. Oh, yes,
1648
02:04:53.920 --> 02:04:57.760
now I know you aren't human, she said, There was
1649
02:04:57.800 --> 02:05:02.319
a shudder in her voice. Are you a synthetic thing?
1650
02:05:03.079 --> 02:05:07.399
Did they make you in the laboratory? Doggedtty? I just
1651
02:05:07.560 --> 02:05:10.359
want your opinion of the idea, he muttered, with a
1652
02:05:10.399 --> 02:05:15.039
flicker of anger. It must have taken an effort for
1653
02:05:15.119 --> 02:05:18.079
Eleanor to wrench clear of her fear of him, But
1654
02:05:18.199 --> 02:05:22.119
then she shook her head. Too risky. If I were
1655
02:05:22.159 --> 02:05:24.840
one of those fellows with all you've already done to
1656
02:05:24.880 --> 02:05:27.520
make me wonder about you, the first thing I do
1657
02:05:27.640 --> 02:05:31.159
on finding your supposed corpse would be to put a
1658
02:05:31.239 --> 02:05:35.119
bullet through its brain and maybe a stake through his heart.
1659
02:05:35.560 --> 02:05:40.960
Or can you survive that too? No, he admitted, all right,
1660
02:05:41.039 --> 02:05:44.079
it was just a thought. Let's work a bit closer
1661
02:05:44.119 --> 02:05:48.920
to the house. They went through brush and grass. It
1662
02:05:48.960 --> 02:05:51.600
seemed to him that an army would make less noise.
1663
02:05:52.720 --> 02:05:56.399
Once his straining ears caught a sound of boots, and
1664
02:05:56.479 --> 02:06:00.439
he yanked Elena into the gloom under a palmetto. Two
1665
02:06:00.479 --> 02:06:04.840
guards tramped by, circling the land on patrol. Their farms
1666
02:06:04.920 --> 02:06:09.039
loomed large and black against the stars. Near the edge
1667
02:06:09.039 --> 02:06:12.560
of the grounds, Dalgetty and Eleanor crouched in the long,
1668
02:06:12.640 --> 02:06:16.279
stiff grass and looked at the place they must enter.
1669
02:06:17.319 --> 02:06:20.520
The man had had to lower his visual sensitivity as
1670
02:06:20.560 --> 02:06:25.319
they approached the light. There were floodlights harsh on doc airfield,
1671
02:06:25.399 --> 02:06:29.840
barracks and lawn, with parties of guards moving around each section.
1672
02:06:30.920 --> 02:06:33.439
Light showed in only one window of the house on
1673
02:06:33.560 --> 02:06:38.880
the second story. Bancroft must be there, pacing and peering
1674
02:06:38.920 --> 02:06:42.600
out into the night where his enemy stirred. Had he
1675
02:06:42.680 --> 02:06:46.800
called by radio for reinforcements. At least no air boat
1676
02:06:46.800 --> 02:06:50.520
had arrived or left. Dalgetty knew he would have seen
1677
02:06:50.560 --> 02:06:55.520
one in the sky. Doctor t was here yet if
1678
02:06:55.720 --> 02:07:01.640
he lived, decision grew in the man. There was a
1679
02:07:01.920 --> 02:07:06.199
wild chance. Are you much of an actress? Eleanor, he whispered,
1680
02:07:07.199 --> 02:07:11.399
after two years as a spy, I'd better be Her
1681
02:07:11.439 --> 02:07:14.520
face bore a hint of puzzlement under the tension. As
1682
02:07:14.600 --> 02:07:18.159
she looked at him. He could guess her thought. For
1683
02:07:18.279 --> 02:07:22.640
a superman, he asks some simple minded questions. But then
1684
02:07:22.800 --> 02:07:28.399
what is he? Or is he only dissembling? He explained
1685
02:07:28.399 --> 02:07:33.319
his idea. She scowled. I know it's crazy, he told her,
1686
02:07:33.880 --> 02:07:38.399
But have you anything better to offer? No, if you
1687
02:07:38.560 --> 02:07:42.680
can handle your part, and you yours. He gave her
1688
02:07:42.720 --> 02:07:47.439
a bleak look, but there was an appeal in it. Suddenly,
1689
02:07:47.560 --> 02:07:52.760
his half glimpsed face looked strangely young and helpless. I'll
1690
02:07:52.800 --> 02:07:55.520
be putting my life in your hands. If you don't
1691
02:07:55.520 --> 02:07:58.760
trust me, you can shoot but you'll be killing a
1692
02:07:58.840 --> 02:08:03.880
lot more than me. Tell me what you are, she said.
1693
02:08:04.800 --> 02:08:07.479
How can I know what the ends of the institute
1694
02:08:07.479 --> 02:08:10.920
are when they're using such means as you mutant or
1695
02:08:11.079 --> 02:08:15.239
android or she caught her breath, or actually a creature
1696
02:08:15.239 --> 02:08:20.279
from outer space the stars. Simon Dalgetty, what are you?
1697
02:08:21.840 --> 02:08:25.560
If I answered that, he said, with desolation in his voice,
1698
02:08:26.479 --> 02:08:30.199
I'd probably be lying anyway. You've got to trust me
1699
02:08:30.279 --> 02:08:35.520
this far, she sighed, all right, He didn't know if
1700
02:08:35.560 --> 02:08:39.000
she was lying too. He laid the rifle down and
1701
02:08:39.039 --> 02:08:42.479
folded his hands on top of his head. She walked
1702
02:08:42.520 --> 02:08:46.079
behind him down the slope toward the light, her submachine
1703
02:08:46.119 --> 02:08:50.239
gun at his back. As he walked, he was building
1704
02:08:50.319 --> 02:08:53.439
up a strength and speed no human ought to possess.
1705
02:08:54.800 --> 02:08:57.399
One of the sentries pacing through the garden came to
1706
02:08:57.439 --> 02:09:00.279
a halt, his rifle swung up in the voice was
1707
02:09:00.279 --> 02:09:05.359
a hysterical yammer. Who goes it's me, Buck said Eleanor
1708
02:09:05.640 --> 02:09:10.640
don't get trigger happy, I'm bringing in the prisoner. Huh. Doll.
1709
02:09:10.720 --> 02:09:14.479
Geddy shuffled into the light and stood slumped, letting his
1710
02:09:14.760 --> 02:09:18.880
jaw hang slack as if he were near falling with weariness.
1711
02:09:19.680 --> 02:09:24.399
You got him. The goon sprang forward. Don't holler, said Eleanor.
1712
02:09:25.039 --> 02:09:27.279
I got this one, all right, but there are others.
1713
02:09:27.960 --> 02:09:31.199
You keep on your beat. I got his weapons from him.
1714
02:09:31.239 --> 02:09:36.920
He's harmless. Now. Is mister Bancroft in the house, Yeah, yeah, sure.
1715
02:09:37.800 --> 02:09:40.239
The heavy face peered at Dalgetty with more than a
1716
02:09:40.279 --> 02:09:44.239
tinge of fear. But let me go along. You know
1717
02:09:44.319 --> 02:09:48.920
what he done last time. Stay on your post, she snapped.
1718
02:09:49.239 --> 02:09:53.760
You've got your orders. I can handle him. End of
1719
02:09:53.920 --> 02:10:03.920
part seven, Part eight of The Sensitive Man by Pool Andersen.
1720
02:10:04.680 --> 02:10:09.680
This libriy vox recording is in the public domain. Part eight.
1721
02:10:11.199 --> 02:10:14.439
It might not have worked on most men, but these
1722
02:10:14.560 --> 02:10:18.439
goons were not very bright. The guard nodded, gulped, and
1723
02:10:18.560 --> 02:10:22.840
resumed his pacing. Dollgetty walked on up the path toward
1724
02:10:22.880 --> 02:10:26.079
the house. A man at the door lifted his rifle.
1725
02:10:26.720 --> 02:10:30.239
Halt there, I'll have to call mister Bancroft first. The
1726
02:10:30.319 --> 02:10:36.119
sentry went inside and thumbed an intercom switch. Dollgetty, poised
1727
02:10:36.159 --> 02:10:39.479
in a nervous tautness that could explode into physical strength,
1728
02:10:39.960 --> 02:10:44.439
felt a clutch of fear. The whole thing was so
1729
02:10:45.000 --> 02:10:52.359
fiendishly uncertain anything could happen. Bancroft's voice drifted out that
1730
02:10:52.560 --> 02:10:56.560
you Eleanor, good work, girl, how'd you do it? The
1731
02:10:56.600 --> 02:11:00.239
warmth in his tone under the excitement made doll Gatty
1732
02:11:00.319 --> 02:11:04.279
wondered briefly just what the relationship between those two had been.
1733
02:11:05.640 --> 02:11:09.000
I'll tell you upstairs, Tom, she answered. This is too
1734
02:11:09.000 --> 02:11:11.640
big for any one else to hear. But keep the
1735
02:11:11.680 --> 02:11:16.279
patrols going. They are more like this creature around the island.
1736
02:11:17.199 --> 02:11:22.600
Dalgetty could imagine the primitive shudder in Thomas bancroft instinct
1737
02:11:22.600 --> 02:11:25.920
from ages when the night was prowling terror about a
1738
02:11:25.960 --> 02:11:30.439
tiny circle of fire. All right, if you're sure he won't,
1739
02:11:30.800 --> 02:11:34.760
I've got him well covered. I'll send over half a
1740
02:11:34.800 --> 02:11:38.319
dozen guards just the same. Hold it. The men came
1741
02:11:38.439 --> 02:11:41.159
running from barracks where they must have been waiting for
1742
02:11:41.239 --> 02:11:45.319
a call to arms, and closed in. It was a
1743
02:11:45.399 --> 02:11:49.439
ring of tight faces and wary eyes and pointing guns.
1744
02:11:50.520 --> 02:11:54.560
They feared him, and the fear made them deadly. Eleanor's
1745
02:11:54.640 --> 02:12:01.159
countenance was wholly blank. Let's go, she said. A man
1746
02:12:01.319 --> 02:12:05.159
walked some feet ahead of the prisoner, casting glances behind
1747
02:12:05.239 --> 02:12:09.000
him all the time. There was one on either side.
1748
02:12:09.319 --> 02:12:12.920
The rest were at the rear. Eleanor walked among them,
1749
02:12:13.319 --> 02:12:17.680
her weapon never wavering from his back. They went down
1750
02:12:17.680 --> 02:12:21.479
the long, handsome corridor and stood on the purring escalator.
1751
02:12:22.560 --> 02:12:26.840
Doll Getty's eyes roved with a yearning in them. How
1752
02:12:27.000 --> 02:12:30.640
much longer, he wondered, would he be able to see
1753
02:12:30.680 --> 02:12:35.920
anything at all? The door to Bancroft's study was ajar,
1754
02:12:36.560 --> 02:12:40.800
and Tigue's voice drifted out. It was a quiet drawl,
1755
02:12:41.319 --> 02:12:44.159
unshaken despite the blow it must have been to hear
1756
02:12:44.319 --> 02:12:50.199
doll Getty's recapture. Apparently he was continuing a conversation begun earlier.
1757
02:12:51.560 --> 02:12:57.239
Science goes back a long way. Actually, Francis Bacon speculated
1758
02:12:57.359 --> 02:13:00.960
about a genuine science of man. Pool did some work
1759
02:13:01.000 --> 02:13:04.359
along those lines, as well as inventing the symbolic logic,
1760
02:13:04.840 --> 02:13:07.399
which was to be such a major tool in solving
1761
02:13:07.439 --> 02:13:11.279
the problem. In the last century, a number of lines
1762
02:13:11.319 --> 02:13:14.880
of attack were developed. There was already the psychology of
1763
02:13:14.960 --> 02:13:18.199
Freud and his successors, of course, which gave the first
1764
02:13:18.279 --> 02:13:23.479
real notion of human semantics. There were the biological, chemical,
1765
02:13:23.520 --> 02:13:28.399
and physical approaches to a man as a mechanism. Comparative
1766
02:13:28.520 --> 02:13:34.079
historians like Spangler, Pareto and Toynbee realized that history did
1767
02:13:34.119 --> 02:13:39.880
not merely happen, but had some kind of pattern. Cybernetics
1768
02:13:39.920 --> 02:13:45.039
developed such concepts as homeostasis and feedback, concepts which were
1769
02:13:45.079 --> 02:13:48.760
applicable to individual man and to society as a whole.
1770
02:13:50.279 --> 02:13:55.479
Games theory, the principle of least effort and Hamil's generalized
1771
02:13:55.520 --> 02:14:01.119
epistemology pointed toward basic laws and the analytical approach. The
1772
02:14:01.239 --> 02:14:06.720
new symbologies in logic and mathematics suggested formulations for the
1773
02:14:06.800 --> 02:14:10.479
problem was no longer one of gathering data so much
1774
02:14:10.520 --> 02:14:14.359
as of finding a rigorous symbolism to handle them and
1775
02:14:14.479 --> 02:14:18.439
indicate new data. A great deal of the Institute's work
1776
02:14:18.560 --> 02:14:23.840
has lain simply in collecting and synthesizing all these earlier findings.
1777
02:14:25.399 --> 02:14:29.600
Dalghetty felt a rush of admiration. Trapped and helpless among
1778
02:14:29.720 --> 02:14:34.560
enemies made ruthless by ambition and fear, Michael Tigue could
1779
02:14:34.640 --> 02:14:39.640
still play with them. He must have been stalling for hours,
1780
02:14:39.680 --> 02:14:43.640
staving off drugs and torture by revealing first one thing
1781
02:14:43.760 --> 02:14:48.520
and then another, but subtly so that his captors probably
1782
02:14:48.560 --> 02:14:51.359
didn't realize he was only telling them what they could
1783
02:14:51.439 --> 02:14:56.560
find in any library. The party entered a large room
1784
02:14:56.760 --> 02:15:02.239
furnished with wealth and taste, lined with bookshelf. Dalgetty noticed
1785
02:15:02.239 --> 02:15:06.720
an intricate Chinese chest set on the desk. So Bancroft
1786
02:15:06.800 --> 02:15:10.640
are Mede played chess. That was something they had in common,
1787
02:15:10.680 --> 02:15:15.279
at least on this night of murder. Teigue looked up
1788
02:15:15.279 --> 02:15:19.159
from the arm chair. A couple of guards stood behind him,
1789
02:15:19.319 --> 02:15:25.039
their arms folded, but he ignored them. Hello, son, he murmured,
1790
02:15:25.720 --> 02:15:29.279
There was pain in his eyes. Are you all right?
1791
02:15:30.159 --> 02:15:34.800
Dollgetty nodded mutely. There was no way to signal the Englishman,
1792
02:15:35.039 --> 02:15:38.920
no way to let him hope. Bancroft stepped over to
1793
02:15:38.960 --> 02:15:42.439
the door and locked it. He gestured at the guards,
1794
02:15:42.760 --> 02:15:46.279
who spread themselves around the walls, their guns aimed inward.
1795
02:15:47.319 --> 02:15:51.359
He was shaking, ever so faintly, and his eyes glittered
1796
02:15:51.479 --> 02:15:58.239
as with fever. Sit down, he said there. Dalgetty took
1797
02:15:58.239 --> 02:16:03.159
the indicated arm chair. It was deep and soft, it
1798
02:16:03.159 --> 02:16:06.680
would be hard to spring out of quickly. Eleanor took
1799
02:16:06.720 --> 02:16:10.760
a seat opposite him, poised on its edge, the Tommy
1800
02:16:10.800 --> 02:16:14.880
gun in her lap. It was suddenly very still in
1801
02:16:14.960 --> 02:16:18.680
the room. Bancroft went over to the desk and fumbled
1802
02:16:18.720 --> 02:16:22.960
with a humidor. He didn't look up, So you caught him,
1803
02:16:23.359 --> 02:16:28.319
he said, Yes, replied Elena. After he caught me first,
1804
02:16:29.600 --> 02:16:33.360
how did you turn the tables? Bancroft took out a
1805
02:16:33.399 --> 02:16:37.719
cigar and bit the end off savagely. What happened? I
1806
02:16:37.879 --> 02:16:41.760
was in a cave, resting, she said tonelessly. He rose
1807
02:16:41.840 --> 02:16:44.479
out of the water and grabbed me. He'd been hiding
1808
02:16:44.559 --> 02:16:48.959
underneath longer than anybody would have thought possible. He forced
1809
02:16:48.959 --> 02:16:51.360
me out to a rock in the bay. There, you
1810
02:16:51.440 --> 02:16:54.280
know it. We hid till sundown. When he opened up
1811
02:16:54.280 --> 02:16:57.520
on your men on that beach, he killed them all.
1812
02:16:58.840 --> 02:17:02.040
I'd been tied, but I'd managed to rub the strips loose.
1813
02:17:02.680 --> 02:17:05.000
It was just a piece off his shirt he tied
1814
02:17:05.040 --> 02:17:08.360
me with while he was shooting. I grabbed a stone
1815
02:17:08.399 --> 02:17:11.520
and clipped him behind the ear. I dragged him to
1816
02:17:11.600 --> 02:17:13.799
shore while he was still out, took one of the
1817
02:17:13.840 --> 02:17:18.559
guns lying there and marched him here. Good work, Bancroft
1818
02:17:18.639 --> 02:17:22.399
inhaled raggedly. I'll see that you get a proper bonus
1819
02:17:22.440 --> 02:17:27.760
for this, Eleanor. But what else? You said? Yes? Her
1820
02:17:27.799 --> 02:17:31.799
gaze was steady on him. We talked out there in
1821
02:17:31.879 --> 02:17:36.920
the bay he wanted to convince me I should help him. Tom.
1822
02:17:37.719 --> 02:17:44.319
He isn't human, eh. Bancroft's heavy form jerked with an effort.
1823
02:17:44.319 --> 02:17:49.959
He steadied himself, What do you mean that muscular strength
1824
02:17:50.040 --> 02:17:54.000
and speed and telepathy? He can see in the dark
1825
02:17:54.120 --> 02:17:57.959
and hold his breath longer than any man. No, he
1826
02:17:58.159 --> 02:18:04.440
isn't human. Bancroft looked at Dalgetty's motionless form. The prisoner's
1827
02:18:04.440 --> 02:18:07.239
eyes clashed with his, and it was he who looked
1828
02:18:07.239 --> 02:18:13.079
away again a telepath, did you say yes? She answered?
1829
02:18:13.959 --> 02:18:18.399
Do you want to prove it? Dalgetty? There was stillness
1830
02:18:18.399 --> 02:18:25.079
in the room. After a moment, Dalgetty spoke, you were thinking, Bancroft,
1831
02:18:25.799 --> 02:18:27.920
All right, damn you you can read my mind. Go
1832
02:18:27.959 --> 02:18:30.239
ahead and try it and you'll know what I'm thinking
1833
02:18:30.319 --> 02:18:36.799
about you. The rest was obscenities. A guess, said Bancroft.
1834
02:18:37.200 --> 02:18:40.040
There was sweat on his cheeks. Just a good guess.
1835
02:18:40.600 --> 02:18:48.120
Try again, another pause, then ten nine seven A b
1836
02:18:48.479 --> 02:18:54.200
m z Z. Shall I keep on? Dalgetty asked quietly. No,
1837
02:18:54.879 --> 02:19:01.239
muttered Bancroft. No, that's enough. What are you? He told me,
1838
02:19:01.559 --> 02:19:04.159
Put in eleanor you're going to have trouble believing it.
1839
02:19:04.920 --> 02:19:08.159
I'm not sure if I believe it myself, but he's
1840
02:19:08.319 --> 02:19:14.000
from another star. Bancroft opened his lips and shut them again.
1841
02:19:14.680 --> 02:19:20.799
The massive head shook in denial. He is from Tau Sentai,
1842
02:19:21.040 --> 02:19:25.799
said Eleanor They're way beyond us. It's the thing people
1843
02:19:25.840 --> 02:19:30.239
have been speculating about for the last hundred years longer,
1844
02:19:30.360 --> 02:19:33.920
my girl, said Tatigue. There was no emotion in his
1845
02:19:34.000 --> 02:19:38.719
face or voice, save a dry humor. But Dalgetty knew
1846
02:19:38.760 --> 02:19:42.159
what a flame must suddenly be leaping up inside him.
1847
02:19:43.079 --> 02:19:49.399
Read Voltaire's micromagis. I've read such fiction, said Bancroft harshly.
1848
02:19:49.479 --> 02:19:53.200
Who hasn't all right? Why are they here? What do
1849
02:19:53.239 --> 02:19:59.479
they want? You could say, spoke Dalgetty, that we favor
1850
02:19:59.639 --> 02:20:05.079
the in institute. But you've been raised from childhood. Oh yes,
1851
02:20:05.920 --> 02:20:09.000
My people have been on Earth a long time. Many
1852
02:20:09.040 --> 02:20:12.319
of them are born here. Our first spaceship arrived in
1853
02:20:12.399 --> 02:20:17.079
nineteen sixty five. He leaned forward in the chair. I
1854
02:20:17.200 --> 02:20:20.760
expected Cashmere to be reasonable and help me rescue doctor Tigue.
1855
02:20:21.360 --> 02:20:24.479
Since she hasn't done so, I must appeal to your
1856
02:20:24.520 --> 02:20:29.000
own common sense. We have crews on Earth. We know
1857
02:20:29.079 --> 02:20:33.479
where all our people are at any given time. If necessary,
1858
02:20:33.559 --> 02:20:36.159
I can die to preserve the secret of our presence.
1859
02:20:37.000 --> 02:20:40.399
But in that case you will die too, Bancroft, The
1860
02:20:40.479 --> 02:20:45.000
island will be bombed. I the chief, looked out the
1861
02:20:45.000 --> 02:20:49.239
window into the enormity of night. You can't expect me to,
1862
02:20:49.680 --> 02:20:52.639
but you accept this as if I've some things to
1863
02:20:52.719 --> 02:20:56.319
tell you which may change your mind, said Dalgetty. They
1864
02:20:56.360 --> 02:21:00.000
will certainly prove my story. Send your men out, though
1865
02:21:00.200 --> 02:21:04.200
this is only for your ears, and have you jump me,
1866
02:21:04.760 --> 02:21:10.520
snapped Bancroft. Casimir can stay, said Dalgetty, And anyone else
1867
02:21:10.680 --> 02:21:14.079
you are absolutely certain can keep a secret and control
1868
02:21:14.239 --> 02:21:19.959
his own greed. Bancroft paced once around the room. His
1869
02:21:20.079 --> 02:21:24.799
eyes flickered back and forth over the watching men, frightened faces,
1870
02:21:24.840 --> 02:21:30.360
bewildered faces, ambitious faces. It was a hard decision, and
1871
02:21:30.639 --> 02:21:34.280
Dalgetty knew grimly that his life rested on his and
1872
02:21:34.399 --> 02:21:40.799
Elena's estimate of Thomas Bancroft's character. All right, Humphrey, Zimmermann O'Brien,
1873
02:21:40.959 --> 02:21:45.719
stay in here. If that bird moves, shoot him. The
1874
02:21:45.760 --> 02:21:50.639
rest of you wait just outside. They filed out. The
1875
02:21:50.680 --> 02:21:55.680
door closed behind them. The three guards left, posted themselves
1876
02:21:55.680 --> 02:21:58.920
with smooth efficiency, one at the window and one at
1877
02:21:58.920 --> 02:22:03.440
either a jarning wall. There was a long quiet. Elena
1878
02:22:03.520 --> 02:22:06.559
had to improvise the scheme and think it at Dalgetty.
1879
02:22:07.200 --> 02:22:12.920
He nodded. Bancroft planted himself before the chair, legs spread
1880
02:22:13.319 --> 02:22:18.600
as if braced for a blow. Fists on hips. All right,
1881
02:22:19.159 --> 02:22:23.079
he said, what do you want to tell me? You've
1882
02:22:23.079 --> 02:22:26.239
caught me, said Dalgetty, So I'm prepared to bargain for
1883
02:22:26.319 --> 02:22:29.760
my life and doctor Tige's freedom. Let me show you.
1884
02:22:30.520 --> 02:22:32.959
He made a move as if to rise. Stay where
1885
02:22:32.959 --> 02:22:37.120
you are, snapped Bancroft, and three guns swiveled around to
1886
02:22:37.159 --> 02:22:41.000
point at the prisoner. Eleanor backed away until she stood
1887
02:22:41.040 --> 02:22:44.920
beside the one near the desk. As you will, Dalgetty
1888
02:22:45.000 --> 02:22:48.719
leaned back again, casually shoving his chair a couple of feet.
1889
02:22:49.840 --> 02:22:52.360
He was now facing the window, and, as far as
1890
02:22:52.399 --> 02:22:56.000
he could tell, sitting exactly on a line between the
1891
02:22:56.079 --> 02:22:59.479
man there and the man at the farther wall. The
1892
02:22:59.639 --> 02:23:03.200
Union of Tao Sentai is interested in seeing that the
1893
02:23:03.319 --> 02:23:07.959
right kind of civilizations develop on other planets. You could
1894
02:23:07.959 --> 02:23:11.159
be of value to us, Thomas Bancroft, if you can
1895
02:23:11.239 --> 02:23:15.520
be persuaded to our side and the rewards are considerable.
1896
02:23:16.600 --> 02:23:19.280
His glance went for a moment to the girl, and
1897
02:23:19.440 --> 02:23:24.760
she nodded imperceptibly. For example, the power rushed up in him.
1898
02:23:25.200 --> 02:23:28.000
Eleana clubbed her gun butt and struck the man next
1899
02:23:28.000 --> 02:23:31.319
to her behind the ear. In the fractional second before
1900
02:23:31.360 --> 02:23:36.200
the others could understand and react, Dalgetty was moving. The
1901
02:23:36.239 --> 02:23:39.600
impetus which launched him from the chair, sent that heavy
1902
02:23:39.639 --> 02:23:43.159
padded piece of furniture sliding across the room to hit
1903
02:23:43.200 --> 02:23:47.200
the man behind him with a muffled thud. His left
1904
02:23:47.239 --> 02:23:49.920
fist took Bancroft on the jaw as he went by.
1905
02:23:50.879 --> 02:23:53.079
The guard of the window had no time to swing
1906
02:23:53.120 --> 02:23:56.120
his gun back from Elena and squeeze the trigger before
1907
02:23:56.200 --> 02:24:02.200
Dalgetty's hand was on his throat his necks. Elena stood
1908
02:24:02.200 --> 02:24:04.559
over her victim even as he toppled and aimed at
1909
02:24:04.559 --> 02:24:07.600
the man across the room. The armchair had knocked his
1910
02:24:07.680 --> 02:24:13.440
rifle aside. Drop that or I shoot, she said. Dalgetty
1911
02:24:13.520 --> 02:24:16.399
snatched up a gun himself, leveling it at the door.
1912
02:24:17.479 --> 02:24:21.120
He more than half expected those outside to come rushing in.
1913
02:24:21.639 --> 02:24:26.079
Expected hell would explode, but the thick oak panels must
1914
02:24:26.079 --> 02:24:30.680
have choked off sound slowly, the man behind the chair
1915
02:24:30.760 --> 02:24:34.520
let his rifle fall to the floor. His mouth was
1916
02:24:34.600 --> 02:24:41.520
stretched wide with supernatural fear. My god, Doctor Teg's long
1917
02:24:41.680 --> 02:24:47.040
form was erect shaking, his calm broken into horror. Simon,
1918
02:24:47.440 --> 02:24:51.000
the risk. We didn't have anything to lose, did we.
1919
02:24:51.639 --> 02:24:55.680
Dalgetty's voice was thick, but the abnormal energy was receding
1920
02:24:55.719 --> 02:24:59.680
from him. He felt a surge of weariness and knew
1921
02:24:59.719 --> 02:25:02.600
that soon the payment must be made for the way
1922
02:25:02.639 --> 02:25:06.159
he had abused his body. He looked down at the
1923
02:25:06.200 --> 02:25:10.200
corpse before him. I didn't mean to do that, he whispered.
1924
02:25:11.399 --> 02:25:15.680
Tigu collected himself with an effort of disciplined will and
1925
02:25:15.840 --> 02:25:20.159
stepped over to bancroft. He's alive, at least, he said,
1926
02:25:20.719 --> 02:25:24.319
Oh my god, Simon, you could have been killed so easily.
1927
02:25:26.120 --> 02:25:29.799
I may. Yet we aren't out of the woods by
1928
02:25:29.840 --> 02:25:33.280
any means. Find something to tie these two others up,
1929
02:25:33.319 --> 02:25:39.799
will you, Dad? The Englishman nodded. Eleanor's slugged guard was
1930
02:25:39.879 --> 02:25:44.000
stirring and groaning. Tigue bound and gagged him with strips
1931
02:25:44.079 --> 02:25:47.840
torn from his tunic under the submachine gun. The other
1932
02:25:47.959 --> 02:25:52.600
submitted meekly enough. Dalgetty rolled them behind a sofa with
1933
02:25:52.680 --> 02:25:58.319
the one he had slain. Bancroft was wakening too. Dalgetty
1934
02:25:58.360 --> 02:26:01.000
located a flask of bourbon and gave it to him.
1935
02:26:01.440 --> 02:26:05.920
Clearing eyes looked up with the same terror. Now what,
1936
02:26:06.719 --> 02:26:11.280
mumbled Bancroft. You can't get away? We can damn well try.
1937
02:26:12.719 --> 02:26:14.639
If it had come to fighting with the rest of
1938
02:26:14.680 --> 02:26:18.399
your gang, we'd have used you as a hostage. But
1939
02:26:18.479 --> 02:26:22.319
now there's a neater way on your feet. Here, straighten
1940
02:26:22.360 --> 02:26:26.239
your tunic, comb your hair. Okay, you'll do just as
1941
02:26:26.280 --> 02:26:31.360
you're told, because if anything goes wrong, we'll have nothing
1942
02:26:31.399 --> 02:26:36.360
at all to lose by shooting you. Dalgetty wrapped out
1943
02:26:36.360 --> 02:26:40.879
his orders. Bancroft looked at Eleanor and there was more
1944
02:26:40.920 --> 02:26:46.399
than physical hurt in his eyes. Why did you do it, FBI,
1945
02:26:47.040 --> 02:26:51.799
she said. He shook his head, still stunned, and shuffled
1946
02:26:51.879 --> 02:26:56.040
over to the desk visophone and called the hangar. I've
1947
02:26:56.079 --> 02:26:58.600
got to get to the mainland in a hurry. Have
1948
02:26:58.719 --> 02:27:02.159
the speech already in ten mens, No, just the regular pilot,
1949
02:27:02.360 --> 02:27:05.879
nobody else. I'll have Dalgetty with me. But it's okay.
1950
02:27:05.920 --> 02:27:09.399
He's on our side now. They went out the door.
1951
02:27:10.040 --> 02:27:13.639
Elma cradled her Tommy gun under one arm. You can
1952
02:27:13.680 --> 02:27:16.879
go back to the barracks, boys, said Bancroft wearily to
1953
02:27:16.920 --> 02:27:22.200
the men outside. It's all been settled. A quarter hour later,
1954
02:27:22.319 --> 02:27:26.680
Bancroft's private jet was in the air. Five minutes after that,
1955
02:27:27.239 --> 02:27:29.479
he and the pilot were bound and locked in a
1956
02:27:29.520 --> 02:27:35.799
rear compartment. Michael Tigue took the controls. This boat has legs,
1957
02:27:35.879 --> 02:27:39.559
he said. Nothing can catch us between here and California.
1958
02:27:40.559 --> 02:27:45.639
All right, Dalgetty's tones were flat with exhaustion. I'm going
1959
02:27:45.680 --> 02:27:49.680
back to rest dad. Briefly, his hand rested on the
1960
02:27:49.680 --> 02:27:54.079
older man's shoulder. It's good to have you back, he said.
1961
02:27:55.120 --> 02:27:58.719
Thank you, son, said Michael Tig. I can't tell you
1962
02:27:58.799 --> 02:28:03.479
how wonderful it is to be free again. End of
1963
02:28:03.559 --> 02:28:12.520
Part eight, Part nine of The Sensitive Man by Poul Anderson.
1964
02:28:13.280 --> 02:28:21.600
This librevox recording is in the public domain. Part nine
1965
02:28:22.000 --> 02:28:25.760
Dalgetty found a reclining seat and eased himself into it.
1966
02:28:26.479 --> 02:28:31.799
One by one, he began releasing the controls over himself. Sensitivities,
1967
02:28:32.079 --> 02:28:37.920
nerve blocks, glandular stimulation, fatigue, and pain mounted within him.
1968
02:28:39.040 --> 02:28:41.159
He looked out at the stars and listened to the
1969
02:28:41.239 --> 02:28:46.360
dark whistle of air with merely human senses. Eleana Kasimir
1970
02:28:46.559 --> 02:28:49.639
came to sit beside him, and he realized that his
1971
02:28:49.799 --> 02:28:54.920
job wasn't done. He studied the strong lines of her face.
1972
02:28:56.159 --> 02:28:59.200
She could be a hard foe, but just as stubborn
1973
02:28:59.239 --> 02:29:02.600
a friend. What do you have in mind for Bancroft?
1974
02:29:02.799 --> 02:29:07.200
He asked, kidnapping charges for him and that whole gang.
1975
02:29:07.319 --> 02:29:09.959
She said, he won't wriggle out of it. I can
1976
02:29:10.000 --> 02:29:14.440
guarantee you. Her eyes rested on him. I'm sure a
1977
02:29:14.479 --> 02:29:20.120
little frightened. Federal prison psychiatrists have institute training. She murmured.
1978
02:29:20.959 --> 02:29:24.399
You'll see that his personality is reshaped your way, won't you?
1979
02:29:26.120 --> 02:29:29.879
As far as possible, Simon said, though it doesn't matter much.
1980
02:29:30.639 --> 02:29:33.360
Bancroft is finished as a factor to be reckoned with.
1981
02:29:34.399 --> 02:29:38.520
There's still bertrand Meade himself. Of course, even if Bancroft
1982
02:29:38.520 --> 02:29:41.719
made a full confession, I doubt that we could touch him.
1983
02:29:42.719 --> 02:29:46.520
But the institute has now learned to take precautions against
1984
02:29:46.600 --> 02:29:50.200
extra legal methods, and within the framework of law, we
1985
02:29:50.239 --> 02:29:53.479
can give him cards and spades and still defeat him
1986
02:29:54.000 --> 02:29:57.760
with some help from my department. Eleanor said. There was
1987
02:29:57.799 --> 02:30:01.200
a touch of steel in her voice. But the whole
1988
02:30:01.239 --> 02:30:03.760
story of this rescue will have to be played down.
1989
02:30:04.600 --> 02:30:08.000
It wouldn't do to have too many ideas floating around
1990
02:30:08.040 --> 02:30:12.159
in the public mind, would it. That's right, he admitted.
1991
02:30:13.559 --> 02:30:17.079
His head felt heavy. He wanted to rest it on
1992
02:30:17.200 --> 02:30:22.079
her shoulder and sleep for a century. It's up to you, really,
1993
02:30:22.360 --> 02:30:25.200
If you submit the right kind of report to your superiors,
1994
02:30:25.600 --> 02:30:29.120
it can all be worked out. Everything else will just
1995
02:30:29.319 --> 02:30:34.200
be detailed. But otherwise you'll ruin everything. I don't know.
1996
02:30:35.079 --> 02:30:38.840
She looked at him for a long while. I don't
1997
02:30:38.840 --> 02:30:42.760
know if I should or not. You may be correct
1998
02:30:42.760 --> 02:30:46.000
about the institute and the justice of its aims and methods,
1999
02:30:46.639 --> 02:30:49.120
but how can I be sure when I don't know
2000
02:30:49.200 --> 02:30:52.920
what's behind it? How do I know there wasn't more
2001
02:30:53.040 --> 02:30:57.200
truth than fiction in that Tao Sintai story, that you
2002
02:30:57.319 --> 02:31:01.079
aren't really the agent of some non human power quietly
2003
02:31:01.200 --> 02:31:06.799
taking over all our race. At another time, Dalgetty might
2004
02:31:06.799 --> 02:31:10.200
have argued, tried to veil it from her, tried to
2005
02:31:10.280 --> 02:31:13.600
trick her once again. But now he was too weary.
2006
02:31:14.239 --> 02:31:17.799
There was a great surrender in him. I'll tell you
2007
02:31:17.879 --> 02:31:21.239
if you wish, he said, And after that, it's in
2008
02:31:21.440 --> 02:31:26.399
your hands. You can make us or break us. Go on.
2009
02:31:26.559 --> 02:31:32.840
Then her tone withdrew into weariness. I'm human, he said,
2010
02:31:33.959 --> 02:31:37.760
I'm as human as you are, only I've had rather
2011
02:31:37.959 --> 02:31:42.840
special training. That's all. It's another discovery of the Institute,
2012
02:31:43.079 --> 02:31:46.440
for which we don't feel the world is ready. It'd
2013
02:31:46.479 --> 02:31:49.520
be too big a temptation for too many people to
2014
02:31:49.600 --> 02:31:54.639
create followers like me. He looked away into the windy dark.
2015
02:31:55.840 --> 02:31:59.520
The scientist is also a member of society and has
2016
02:31:59.559 --> 02:32:05.079
a respet responsibility toward it. This restraint of ours is
2017
02:32:05.159 --> 02:32:09.639
one way in which we meet that obligation. She didn't speak,
2018
02:32:10.040 --> 02:32:13.000
but suddenly one hand reached over and rested on his.
2019
02:32:14.319 --> 02:32:18.840
The impulsive gesture brought warmth flooding through him. Dad's work
2020
02:32:18.959 --> 02:32:22.360
was mostly in mass action psych he said, making his
2021
02:32:22.520 --> 02:32:26.000
tone try to cover what he felt. But he has
2022
02:32:26.120 --> 02:32:30.159
plenty of associates trying to understand the individual human being
2023
02:32:30.239 --> 02:32:34.600
as a functioning mechanism. A lot's been learned since Freud,
2024
02:32:35.200 --> 02:32:40.200
both from the psychiatric and the neurological ankle. Ultimately those
2025
02:32:40.280 --> 02:32:45.040
two are interchangeable. Some thirty years ago, one of the
2026
02:32:45.079 --> 02:32:49.360
teams which founded the Institute learned enough about the relationship
2027
02:32:49.399 --> 02:32:54.079
between the conscious, subconscious, and involuntary minds to begin practical
2028
02:32:54.159 --> 02:32:57.479
tests along with a few others. I was a guinea
2029
02:32:57.520 --> 02:33:02.680
pig and their theories were I needn't go into the
2030
02:33:02.719 --> 02:33:07.639
details of my training. It involved physical exercises, mental practice,
2031
02:33:07.959 --> 02:33:12.920
some hypnotism, diet, and so on. It went considerably beyond
2032
02:33:12.959 --> 02:33:16.159
the important synthesis education, which is the most advanced they
2033
02:33:16.239 --> 02:33:20.719
known to the general public, but its aim only partially
2034
02:33:20.760 --> 02:33:25.040
realized as yet. Its aim was simply to produce the
2035
02:33:25.159 --> 02:33:32.520
completely integrated human being. Dalghetty paused, the wind flowed and
2036
02:33:32.639 --> 02:33:38.000
muttered beyond the wall. There is no sharp division between
2037
02:33:38.000 --> 02:33:42.239
conscious and subconscious, or even between those and the center's
2038
02:33:42.239 --> 02:33:48.840
controlling involuntary functions. He said. The brain is a continuous structure. Suppose,
2039
02:33:48.879 --> 02:33:51.959
for instance, that you became aware of a runaway car
2040
02:33:52.079 --> 02:33:55.840
bearing down on you. Your heart beat speeds up, your
2041
02:33:55.840 --> 02:34:01.239
adrenaline output increases, your sight sharpens, your sensitivity to pain drops.
2042
02:34:02.120 --> 02:34:06.840
It's all preparation for fight or flight, even without obvious
2043
02:34:06.879 --> 02:34:10.799
physical necessity. The same thing can happen on a lesser scale,
2044
02:34:10.920 --> 02:34:15.040
for example, when you read an exciting story, and psychotics,
2045
02:34:15.200 --> 02:34:20.399
especially hysterics, can produce some of the damnedest physiological symptoms
2046
02:34:20.440 --> 02:34:26.959
you ever saw. I begin to understand. She whispered, rage
2047
02:34:27.159 --> 02:34:31.840
or fear brings abnormal strength and fast reaction. But the
2048
02:34:31.879 --> 02:34:35.840
psychotic can do more than that. He can show physical
2049
02:34:35.920 --> 02:34:42.479
symptoms like burns, stigmata, or if female, false pregnancy. Sometimes
2050
02:34:42.520 --> 02:34:46.040
he becomes wholly insensitive in some part of his body
2051
02:34:46.360 --> 02:34:50.479
via a nerve block. Bleeding can start or stop without
2052
02:34:50.479 --> 02:34:53.799
apparent cause. He can go into a coma, or he
2053
02:34:53.799 --> 02:34:57.280
can stay away for days without getting sleepy. He can
2054
02:34:57.799 --> 02:35:02.680
read minds. It was a defiance, not that I know of,
2055
02:35:03.120 --> 02:35:08.760
Simon chuckled, But human sense organs are amazingly good. It
2056
02:35:08.799 --> 02:35:12.000
only takes three or four quanta to stimulate the visual
2057
02:35:12.040 --> 02:35:15.360
purple a little more actually, because of absorption by the
2058
02:35:15.399 --> 02:35:18.959
eyeball itself. There have been hysterics who could hear a
2059
02:35:19.079 --> 02:35:22.719
watch ticking twenty feet away that the normal person could
2060
02:35:22.719 --> 02:35:26.799
not hear it one foot, and so on. There are
2061
02:35:26.840 --> 02:35:30.520
excellent reasons why the threshold of perception is relatively high
2062
02:35:30.559 --> 02:35:34.440
in ordinary people. The stimuli of usual conditions would be
2063
02:35:34.479 --> 02:35:40.840
blinding and deafening, unendurable if there weren't a defense. He grimaced,
2064
02:35:41.239 --> 02:35:47.959
I know, But the telepathy Eleanor persisted, it's been done before.
2065
02:35:48.399 --> 02:35:51.760
He said, some apparent cases of mind reading in the
2066
02:35:51.799 --> 02:35:55.559
last century were shown to be due to extremely acute hearing.
2067
02:35:56.639 --> 02:36:01.479
Most people subvocalize their surface thoughts. With a little practice,
2068
02:36:01.680 --> 02:36:04.680
A person who can hear those vibrations can learn to
2069
02:36:04.760 --> 02:36:09.520
interpret them. That's all, he smiled with one side of
2070
02:36:09.520 --> 02:36:12.559
his mouth. If you want to hide your thoughts from me,
2071
02:36:12.879 --> 02:36:16.200
just break that habit, Elenor. She looked at him with
2072
02:36:16.280 --> 02:36:21.479
an emotion he could not quite recognize. I see, she breathed.
2073
02:36:22.280 --> 02:36:24.760
And your memory must be perfect too. If you can
2074
02:36:24.799 --> 02:36:28.280
pull any datam out of the subconscious and you can
2075
02:36:28.840 --> 02:36:33.520
do everything, can't you? No, he said, I'm only a
2076
02:36:33.559 --> 02:36:37.280
test case. They've learned a great deal by observing me.
2077
02:36:38.159 --> 02:36:40.920
But the only thing that makes me unusual is that
2078
02:36:41.040 --> 02:36:46.360
I have conscious control of certain normally subconscious and involuntary functions,
2079
02:36:47.040 --> 02:36:49.959
not all of them by a long shot, and I
2080
02:36:50.040 --> 02:36:53.920
don't use that control any more than necessary. There are
2081
02:36:54.040 --> 02:36:58.680
sound biological reasons why man's mind is so divided, and
2082
02:36:58.760 --> 02:37:02.360
plenty of penalties attached to a case like mine. It'll
2083
02:37:02.399 --> 02:37:04.319
take me a couple of months to get back in
2084
02:37:04.399 --> 02:37:08.239
shape after this bout I'm due for a good old
2085
02:37:08.319 --> 02:37:11.959
fashioned nervous breakdown, and while it won't last long, it
2086
02:37:12.040 --> 02:37:16.120
won't be much fun while it does last. The appeal
2087
02:37:16.280 --> 02:37:20.120
rose in his eyes as he watched Eleanor. All right,
2088
02:37:20.399 --> 02:37:23.479
he said, now you have the story, what are you
2089
02:37:23.600 --> 02:37:26.799
going to do about it? For the first time, she
2090
02:37:26.879 --> 02:37:32.280
gave him a real smile. Don't worry, she said, don't worry, Simon.
2091
02:37:33.399 --> 02:37:36.879
Will you come hold my hand while I'm recuperating? He
2092
02:37:36.920 --> 02:37:43.799
asked anxiously, I'm holding it now, you fool. Eleanor answered, Dalgetty,
2093
02:37:43.879 --> 02:37:49.280
chuckled happily. Then he went to sleep. End of Part
2094
02:37:49.399 --> 02:37:53.600
nine End of The Sensitive Man by Paul Anderson. This
2095
02:37:53.719 --> 02:37:57.479
book recorded by Phil Schinevere March two thousand sixteen.