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Creature from Cleveland Depths - Fritz Leiber · In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway

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  Speaker 1: Part one of the Creature from Cleveland Depths by fritzliber
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Reading by Greg Marguerite, Part one
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  Speaker 1: of the Creature from Cleveland Depths by Fritzliber. Here is
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  Speaker 1: a modern tale of an interdirected sorcerer and an outer
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  Speaker 1: directed sorcerer's apprentice. A tale of the Creature from Cleveland Depths.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Come on, Gussie, Faye prodded quietly, quit stalking around like
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  Speaker 1: a neurotic bear and suggest something for my invention team
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  Speaker 1: to work on. I enjoy visiting you in Daisy, but
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I can't stay above ground all night. If being outside
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the show shelters makes you nervous, don't come around anymore,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Gusterson told him, continuing to stalk. Why doesn't your invention
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  Speaker 1: team think of something to invent? Why don't you huh
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  Speaker 1: In the hugh late triumphant condemnation of a whole way
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  Speaker 1: of life, we do, Fay responded, imperturbably, But a fresh
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  Speaker 1: viewpoint sometimes helps. I'll say it does, Fay. You Burglar,
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  Speaker 1: I'll bet you've got twenty people like myself. You milk
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  Speaker 1: for free ideas. First you irritate their bark, and then
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  Speaker 1: you make the rounds every so often to draw off
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  Speaker 1: the latex or the maple glop. Fay smiled. It ought
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  Speaker 1: to please you that society still has a use for you,
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  Speaker 1: ultra interdirected types. It takes something to make a junior
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  Speaker 1: executive stay above ground after dark when the missiles are
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  Speaker 1: on the prow. Society can't have much use for us,
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  Speaker 1: or it did pay us something, Gusterson sourly asserted, staring
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  Speaker 1: blankly at the tankless TV and kicking it lightly as
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  Speaker 1: he passed on. No, you're wrong about that, Gussie. Money's
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  Speaker 1: not the key goad with you inner directeds. I got
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  Speaker 1: that straight from our motivations Chief. Did he tell you
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  Speaker 1: what we should use instead to pay the grosser? A
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  Speaker 1: deep inner sense of achievement? Maybe? Faye? Why should I
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  Speaker 1: do any free thinking for microsystems? I'll tell you why, Gussie,
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  Speaker 1: simply because you get a kick out of insulting us
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  Speaker 1: with sardonic ideas. If we take one of them seriously,
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  Speaker 1: you think we're degrading ourselves, and that pleases you even more,
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  Speaker 1: like making someone laugh at a lousy pun. Gusterson held
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  Speaker 1: still in his roaming and grinned that the reason, huh,
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  Speaker 1: I suppose my suggestions would have to be something in
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  Speaker 1: the line of ultra subminiasturized computers, where one sinister, fine
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  Speaker 1: etched molecule does the work of three big bumbling brain cells,
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  Speaker 1: not necessarily grow systems, is branching out wheel as free
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  Speaker 1: as a rogue star. But I'll pass along to promotion
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  Speaker 1: your one molecule three brain cell sparkler. It's a slight exaggeration,
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  Speaker 1: but it's catchy. I'll have my kids watch your ads
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  Speaker 1: to see if you use it, and then I'll sue
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  Speaker 1: the whole underworld. Gusterson frowned as he resumed his stalking.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: He stared puzzledly at the antique TV. How about inventing
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: a plutonium termite, he said suddenly. It would get rid
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: of those stockpiles that are worrying your mules to death.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Fay grimaced noncommittally and cocked his head. Well, then, how
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: about a beauty mask. How about that? Hey, I don't
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: mean one to repair a woman's complexion, but one she'd
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: wear all the time that it'd make her look like
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  Speaker 1: a seventeen year old sex pot that'd end her worries.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Hey that's for me, Daisy called from the kitchen. I'll
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  Speaker 1: make Gusterson suffer. I'll make him crawl around on his
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: hands and knees, begging my immature You are favors. No,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: you won't, Gusterson called back. You having a face like
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  Speaker 1: that would scare the kids. Better cancel that one. Faye
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: half the adult race looking like Vina Vitterson is too
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  Speaker 1: awful a thought. Yeah, you're just scared of making a
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: million dollars, Daisy jeered. I sure, am, Gusterson said, solemnly,
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  Speaker 1: scanning the fuzzy floor from one murky glass wall to
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  Speaker 1: the other, hesitating at the TV. How about something homey now,
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  Speaker 1: like a flock of little prickly cylinders that roll around
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  Speaker 1: the floor collecting lint and flubb They'd work by electricity
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  Speaker 1: or at a pinch. Cats could bat him around every
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  Speaker 1: so often, they'd be automatically herded together, and the lint
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  Speaker 1: cleaned off the bristles. No good, they said, There's no
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  Speaker 1: lint underground, and cats are verbotten, and the above ground
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  Speaker 1: market doesn't amount to more money wise than the state
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  Speaker 1: of southern Illinois. Keep it grander, Gussie, and more impractical.
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  Speaker 1: You can't sell people merely useful ideas. From his hassock
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  Speaker 1: in the center of the room, he looked uneasily around.
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  Speaker 1: Say did that violet tone in the glass come from
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  Speaker 1: the high Cleveland hydrogen bomb or is it just age
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  Speaker 1: and ultra violet like desert glass. No, somebody's grandfather liked
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  Speaker 1: it that color, Gusterson informed him, with happy bitterness. I
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  Speaker 1: like it too, the glass, I mean, not the tint.
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  Speaker 1: People who live in glass houses can see the stars,
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  Speaker 1: especially when there's a window washing streak in their germ plasm. Gussie,
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  Speaker 1: why don't you move underground? Fay asked, his voice taking
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  Speaker 1: on a missionary note. It's a lot easier living in
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  Speaker 1: one room. Believe me, you don't have to tramp from
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: room to room hunting things. I like the exercise, Gusterson said, stoutly.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: But I bet Daisy had preferred underground, and your kids
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have to explain why their father lives like a
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  Speaker 1: red Indian, not to mention the safety factor and insurance
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: savings and a crypt church within easy slidewalk distance. Incidentally,
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  Speaker 1: we see stars all the time better than you do.
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  Speaker 1: By repeater stars by repeater. Gusterson murmured to the ceiling,
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  Speaker 1: pausing for God to comment. Then no, Fay, even if
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  Speaker 1: I could afford it and stand it. I'm such a
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: bad luck Harry that just when I got us all
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  Speaker 1: safely stowed at the N minus one sub level, the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Soviets would discover an earthquake bomb that struck from below,
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  Speaker 1: and I'd have to follow everybody back to the tree tops. Hey,
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  Speaker 1: how about bubble homes in orbit around Earth? Microsystems could
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  Speaker 1: subdivide the world's most spacious suburb and all you moles
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: could go ellipsing. Space is as safe as there is
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  Speaker 1: no air, no shock waves, free fall, the ultimate and restfulness,
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  Speaker 1: great health benefits. Commute by rocket, or better yet, stay
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  Speaker 1: home and do all your business by TV, telephone or
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: by walden if it were that sort of thing. Even
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: pet your girl by remote control. She in her bubble
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  Speaker 1: and you and yours whizzing through vacuum. Oh, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: He was glaring at the blank screen of the TV,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: his big hands clenching and unclenching. Don't let Faye give
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  Speaker 1: you apoplexy. He's not worth it, Daisy said, sticking her
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  Speaker 1: trim head in from the kitchen, while Fay inquired anxiously, Gussie,
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  Speaker 1: what's the matter? Nothing, you worm, Gusterson roared, except that
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: an hour ago, I forgot to tune in on the
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  Speaker 1: only TV program I've wanted to hear this year. Finnigan's
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  Speaker 1: Wake scored for English, Gaelic and Brogue. Oh damn, damn, damn.
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  Speaker 1: Too bad, Fay said lightly. I didn't know they were
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: releasing it on flat TV. Too well they were. Some
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  Speaker 1: things are too damn big to keep completely underground, and
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  Speaker 1: I had to forget. I'm always doing it. I miss everything.
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  Speaker 1: Look here, you rat, he bladded suddenly at Fay, shaking
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  Speaker 1: his finger under the latter's chin. I'll tell you what
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  Speaker 1: you can have that ignorant team of yours invent. They
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  Speaker 1: can fix me up a mechanical secretary that I can
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  Speaker 1: feed orders into, and that'll remind me when the exact
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  Speaker 1: moment comes to listen to TV, or phone somebody, or
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  Speaker 1: mail in a story, or write a letter, or pick
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  Speaker 1: up a magazine, or look at an eclipse or a
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  Speaker 1: new orbiting station, or fetch the kids from school, or
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  Speaker 1: buy Daisy a bunch of flowers. Or whatever it is.
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  Speaker 1: It's got to be something that's always with me, not
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  Speaker 1: something I have to go and consult or that I
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  Speaker 1: can get sick of and put down somewhere. And it's
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  Speaker 1: got to remind me forcibly enough so that I take
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  Speaker 1: notice and don't just shrug it aside like I sometimes do,
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  Speaker 1: even when Daisy reminds me of things. That's what your
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  Speaker 1: stupid team can invent for me. If they do a
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  Speaker 1: good job, I'll pay him as much as fifty dollars.
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  Speaker 1: That doesn't sound like anything so very original to me,
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  Speaker 1: Faye commented coolly, leaning back from the wagging finger. I
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  Speaker 1: think all senior executives have something of that sort. At
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  Speaker 1: least their secretary keeps some kind of file. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: looking for something with spiked falsees and nylons up to
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  Speaker 1: the neck, interjected Gusterson, whose idea about secretaries were a
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  Speaker 1: trifle lurid. I just want a mech reminder, that's all. Well.
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  Speaker 1: I'll keep the idea in mind, Fay assured him, along
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  Speaker 1: with the bubble homes and beauty masks. If we ever
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  Speaker 1: develop anything along those lines, I'll let you know. If
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  Speaker 1: it's a beauty mask, I'll bring Daisy a pilot model
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  Speaker 1: to use to scare strange kids. He put his watch
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  Speaker 1: to his ear. Good lord, I'm going to have to
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  Speaker 1: cut to make it underground before the main doors close.
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  Speaker 1: Just ten minutes to second curfew by gus By Days.
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  Speaker 1: Two minutes later, living room lights out. They watched Phase
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  Speaker 1: four shortened ant like figures scurrying across the balding ill
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  Speaker 1: lit park toward the new escalator. Gusterson said, weird to
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  Speaker 1: think of that big, bright spaceport glamour basement stretching around
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  Speaker 1: everywhere underneath. Did you remind Smitty to put a new
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  Speaker 1: bulb in the elevator? The smiths moved out this morning,
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  Speaker 1: Daisy said, tonelessly. They went underneath like cockroaches. Gusterson said, cockroaches,
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  Speaker 1: leaving us sinkin apartment building. Next the ghosts will be
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  Speaker 1: retreating to the shelters. Anyhow, From now on, we're our
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  Speaker 1: own janitors, Daisy said. He nodded. Just leaves three families
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  Speaker 1: besides us loyal to this glass death trap, not counting ghosts.
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  Speaker 1: He sighed. Then you like to move below, Daisy, he asked, softly,
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  Speaker 1: putting his arm lightly across her shoulders. Get a woozy eye,
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  Speaker 1: full of the bright lights, and all for a change,
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  Speaker 1: be a rat for a while. Maybe we're getting too
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  Speaker 1: old to be bats. I could scrounch me a company
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  Speaker 1: job and have a thinking closet all to myself and
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  Speaker 1: two secretaries with stainless steel breasts. Life would be easier
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  Speaker 1: for you, and a lot cleaner than You'd sleep safer,
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  Speaker 1: that's true, she answered, and paused. She ran her fingertips
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  Speaker 1: slowly across the murky glass, its violet tint barely perceptible
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: against a cold, dim light across the park. But somehow,
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  Speaker 1: she said, snaking her arm around his waist, I don't
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  Speaker 1: think i'd sleep happier or one bit excited. Chapter two,
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  Speaker 1: Three weeks later, Faye, dropping in again, handed to Daisy
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  Speaker 1: the larger of the two rather small packages he was carrying.
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  Speaker 1: It's a so called beauty mask, he told her, complete
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: with wig eyelashes and wettable velvet lips. It even breathes
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  Speaker 1: pin hold a LASTI skin with a static adherence charge.
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  Speaker 1: But microsystems had nothing to do with it. Thank god.
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  Speaker 1: Beauty Tricks put it on the market ten days ago,
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  Speaker 1: and it's already started a teenage craze some boys are
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  Speaker 1: wearing them too, and the police are yipping at Tricks
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: for encouraging transvestism with psychic repercussions. Didn't I hear somewhere
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  Speaker 1: that Tricks is a secret subsidiary of micro Gusterson demanded,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: rearing up from his ancient electric typewriter. Now you're not
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: stopping me writing, Faye, it's the gut of everything. If
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: I do any more, I won't have any juice to
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  Speaker 1: start with. Tomorrow, I got another of my insanity thrillers moving,
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  Speaker 1: A real id teaser. In this one, not only all
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: the characters are crazy, but the robot psychiatrist too. The
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: vending machines are jumping with insanity novels. Fay commented, odd
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  Speaker 1: they're so popular, Gusterson shortled, The only way you outer
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: directed moles will accept individuality anymore, even in a fictional
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  Speaker 1: character without your superegos getting seasick, is for them to
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  Speaker 1: be crazy. Hey, Daisy, let me see that, beauty, asked,
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  Speaker 1: But his wife, backing out of the room, hugged the
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  Speaker 1: package to her bosom and solemnly shook her head. A
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  Speaker 1: hell of a thing, Gusterson complained, not even able to
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  Speaker 1: see what my stolen ideas. Look like I've got a
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  Speaker 1: present for you too, Fay said, something you might think
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  Speaker 1: of as a royalty on all the inventions some one
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  Speaker 1: thought of a little ahead of you, fifty dollars by
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  Speaker 1: your own evaluation. He held out the smaller package. Your tickler,
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  Speaker 1: My what Gusterson demanded, suspiciously? Your tickler the mech reminder
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  Speaker 1: you wanted. It turns out that the file a secretary
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: keeps to remind her boss to do certain things at
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: certain times is called a tickler file. So we named
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: this a tickler Here Gusterson still didn't touch the package.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: You mean you actually put your invention team to work
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: on that nonsense? Well what do you think? Don't be
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: scared of it? Here I'll show you. As he unwrapped
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the package, Faye said, it hasn't been decided yet whether
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: we'll manufacture it commercially. If we do, I'll put through
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: a voucher for you for development consultation or something like that. Sorry,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: no royalties possible. Davidson's squad had started to work up
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: the identical idea three years ago, but it got shelved.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I found it on a snoop through the closets. There
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: looks rich, doesn't it. On the scarred black table top
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: was a dully gleaming silvery object about the size and
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: shape of a cupped hand with fingers merging a tiny
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: pellet on a short near invisible wire led off from it.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: On the back was a punctured area suggesting the face
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: of a microphone. There was also a window with a
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: date and time in hours and minutes showing through, and
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: next to that four little buttons in a row. The
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: concave under side of the silvery hand was smooth, except
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: for a central area where what looked like two little
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: rollers came through. It goes on your shoulder under your shirt,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Fay explained, and you tuck the pellet in your ear.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: We might work up bone conduction on a commercial model.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Inside is an ultra slow fine wire recorder holding a
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: spool that runs for a week. The clock lets you
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: go to any place on the seven day wire and
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: record a message. The buttons give you variable speed in
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: going there, so you don't waste too much time making
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: a setting. There's a knack in fingering them efficiently, but
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: it's easily acquired. Faye picked up the tickler. For instance,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Suppose there's a TV show you want to catch tomorrow night.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: At twenty two hundred. He touched the buttons. There was
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: the faintest whirring. The clock face blurred briefly three times
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: before showing the setting he'd mentioned. Then Fay spoke into
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the punctured area. Turn on TV channel two. You big dummy,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: he grinned over at Gusterson. When you've got all your
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: instructions to yourself loaded in, you synchronize with the press
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  Speaker 1: moment and let her roll. Fit it on your shoulder
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: and forget it. Oh yes, and it literally does tickle
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  Speaker 1: you every time it delivers an instruction. That's what the
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: little rollers are for. Believe me, you can't ignore it.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Come on, Gussie, take off your shirt and try it out.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: We'll feed in some instructions for the next ten minutes
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: so you get the feel of how it works. I
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: don't want to, Gusterson said, not right now. I want
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: to sniff around it first. My god, it's small. Besides
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: everything else it does, does it think. Don't pretend to
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: be an idiot, Gussie. You know very well that even
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: with ultra sub micro, nothing quite this small can possibly
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: have enough elements to do any thinking Gusterson shrugged. I
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: don't know about that. I think bugs think, they groaned faintly.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Bugs operate by instinct, Gussie, he said, a patterned routine.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: They do not scan situations and consequences and then make decisions.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: I don't expect bugs to make decisions, Gusterson said, for
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: that matter, I don't like people who go around all
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: the time making decisions. Well, you can take it from me, Gussy,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: that this tickler is just a miniaturized wire recorder in
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: clock and a tickler. It doesn't do anything else, not yet, maybe,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Gusterson said, darkly, not this model, Faye. I'm serious about
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: bugs thinking, or if they don't exactly think, they feel,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: they've got an interior drama and inner glow. They're conscious.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: For that matter, Fay, I think all your really complex
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: electronic computers are conscious too. Quit kidding, Gussy, who's kidding you?
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Are computers simply aren't alive? What's alive a word? I
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: think computers are conscious at least while they're operating. They've
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: got that inner glow of awareness. They sort of well meditate, Gussy.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Computer haven't got any circuits for meditating. They're not programmed
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: for mystical lucubrations. They've just got circuits for solving the
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: problems they're on. Okay, you admit they've got problems solving
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: circuits like a man has I say, if they've got
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: the equipment for being conscious, they're conscious. What has wings flies?
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Including stuffed dowals and gilt eagles and dodos and wood
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: burning airplanes. Maybe under some circumstances there was a wood
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: burning airplane, Fay Gusterson continued, wagging his wrists for emphasis.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I really think computers are conscious. They just don't have
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: any way of telling us that they are, or maybe
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: they don't have any reason to tell us. Like the
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: little Scotch boy who didn't say a word until he
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: was fifteen and was supposed to be deaf and dumb.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Why didn't he say a word because he'd never had
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: anything to say. Or take those Hindu fuck heres, Fay,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: who sit still and don't say a word for thirty
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: years or until their fingernail grow to the next village.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: If Hindu fockers can do that, computers can. Looking as
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: if he were masticating a lemon, Faye asked quietly, Gussie,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: did you say you were working on an insanity novel.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Gusterson frowned fiercely. Now you're kidding, he accused Faye, the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: dirty kind of kidding too. I'm sorry, Faye said, with
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: light contrition. Well, now that you've sniffed at it, how
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: about trying on tickler. He picked up the gleaming, blunted
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: crescent and jogged it temptingly under Gusterson's chin. Why should I,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Gusterson asked, stepping back, Faye, I'm up to my ears
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: writing a book. The last thing I want is something
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: interrupting me, to make me listen to a lot of
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: junk and do a lot of useless things. But damn it, Gussie,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: it was all your idea in the first place, Faye bladded,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Then catching himself, he added, I mean you were one
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: of the first people to think of this particular sort
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: of instrument. Maybe so, But I've done some more thinking
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: since then. Gusterson's voice grew a trifle solemn, inner directed
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: worthwhile thinking, Fay, when a man forgets to do something,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: it's because he really doesn't want to do it, or
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: because he's all roiled up down in his unconscious He
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: ought to take it as a danger signal and investigate
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the roiling not hire himself a human or mech reminder
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: bush Wi. Fay retorted, in that case, you shouldn't write
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: memorandums or even take notes. Maybe I shouldn't. Gusterson agreed, lamely.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: I have to think that over too, huh, Faye jeered. No,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what your trouble is, Gussie. You're simply
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: scared of this contraption. You've loaded your skull with horror
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: story nonsense about machines sprouting minds and taking over the
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: world until you're even scared of a simple miniaturized and
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: clocked recorder. He thrust it out. Maybe I am, Gusterson admitted,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: controlling a flinch. Honestly, Fay, that thing's got a gleam
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: in its eye, as if it had ideas of its own,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: nasty ideas. Gussie, you nut. It hasn't got an eye,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: not now, no, but it's got the gleam. The eye
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: may come. It's the chesher cat in reverse. If you'd
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: step over here and look at yourself holding it, you
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: could see what I mean. But I don't think computers
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: sprout minds, Fae. I just think they've got minds because
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: they've got the mind elements ho ho, Faye mocked. Everything
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: that has a material side has a mental side. He chanted,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: everything that's a body is also a spirit. Gussie. That
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: dubious old metaphysical dualism when out centuries ago. Maybe so,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Gusterson said, But we still haven't anything but that dubious
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: dualism to explain the human mind, have we? It's a
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: jelly of nerve cells and it's a vision of the cosmos.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: If that isn't dull, what is? I give up? Gussie?
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Are you going to try out this tickler? No, but
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: damn it, Gussie, we made it just for you. But
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: practically sorry, but I'm not coming near the thing. Then
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: come near me. A husky voice in toned behind them, tonight,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: I vant a man standing in the door was something
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: slim in a short silver sheath. It had golden bangs
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: and the haughtiest snub nosed face in the world. It
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: slunk toward them. My god, it's Vina Vitterson, Gusterson yelled, Daisy,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: that's terrific, Faye applauded. Going up to her. She bumped
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: him aside with a swing of her hips, continuing to advance.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Not you, ratty, she said, throatily Ivan tarril Man Faye
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: I suggested Vina Vitterson's face for the beauty mask, Gusterson said,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: walking around his wife and shaking finger. Don't tell me
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: tricks just happened to think of that too. What else
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: could they think of? Fay laughed, This season sex means
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: VV and nobody else. An odd little grin flicked his lips,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: a tick traveled up his face, and his body twitched slightly. Say, folks,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I'm going to have to leave. It's exactly fifteen minutes
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: to second curfew. Last time I had to run and
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I got heartburn? When are you people going to move downstairs?
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: I'll leave, Tickler Gussie play around with it and get
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: used to it by now. Hey, Fay, Gusterson called, curiously,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: have you developed absolute time? Since Fay grinned a big
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: grin from the doorway. Almost too big a grin for
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: so small a man. I didn't need to, he said, softly,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: patting his right shoulder. My tickler told me. He closed
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the door behind him. As side by side they watched
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: him strut sedately across the murky chili looking park. Gundersen mused,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: So the little devil had one of those nonsense gadgets
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: on all the time, and I never noticed? Can you
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: beat that? Something drew across the violet tinged stars, a
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: short bright line that quickly faded. What's that? Gusterson asked gloomily,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: next to last stage of missile here, won't you settle
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: for an old fashioned shooting star, Daisy asked softly. The
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: wettable velvet lips of the mask made even her natural
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: voice sound different. She reached a hand back of her
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: neck to pull the thing off. Hey, don't do that,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Gusterson protested, in a hurt voice. Not for a while anyway,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: ha kay, she said, harshly, turning on him. Zen down
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: on your knees, dog. Chapter three. It was a fortnight,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: and Gusterson was loping down the home stretch on his
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: forty thousand word insanity novel before fate dropped in again,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: this time promptly at high noon. Normally, Fay cringed his
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: shoulders a trifle and was inclined to slither, But now
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: he strode aggressively, his legs scissoring in a fast, low
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: goose step. He whipped off the sunglasses that all moles
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: wore during topside by day and began to pound Gusterson
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: on the back while calling boisterously, how are you gussy?
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Old boy? Old boy? Daisy came in from the kitchen
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: to see why Gusterson was joking. She was instantly grabbed
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: and violently busted to the accompaniment of Hia, gorgeous, yum yum,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: how about ad libbing that some weekend. She stared at
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Fade dazedly, rasping the back of her hand across her mouth,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: while Gusterson yelled quit that what's got into you? Faye?
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Have they transferred you out of our indeed a company morale?
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: They line up all the secretaries at roll call and
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: make you give them an eight hour energizing kiss. Huh,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: wouldn't you like to know? Fay retorted. He grinned, twitched, jumpingly,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: held still a moment, then hustled over to the far wall.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Look out there, he rapped, pointing through the violet glass
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: at the gap between the two nearest old skyscraper apartments.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: In thirty seconds, you'll see them test the new needle
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: bomb at the other end of Lake Erie. It's educational.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: He began to count off seconds, vigorously, semaphoring his arm. Two, three,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Gussie I've put through a voucher for two yards for you.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Budgeting squawked, but I pressured them, Daisy squealed, yards are
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: those dollar thousands? While Gusterson was asking, then you're marketing
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: the tickler. Yes, yes, Fay replied to them in turn
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: nine ten. Again, he grinned and twitched time for noon
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: com staff. He announced, staccato, pardon the hushbox. He whipped
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: a pancake phone from under his coat, clapped it over
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: his face, and spoke fiercely but inaudibly into it, continuing
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: to semaphore. Suddenly, he thrust the phone away. Twenty nine
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: thirty the ar she blows and incandescent streak shot up
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the sky from a little above the far horizon, and
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: a doubly dazzling point of light appeared just above the
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: top of it, with the effect of God dotting an eye. Huh,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: that'll skewer the espionage satellites like swatting flies. Fate proclaimed
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: as the poor tent faded bracing, Gussie, where's your tickler.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: I've got a new spool for it. That'll razzle dazzle you,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: I'll bet, Gusterson said dryly, Daisy, you gave it to
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: the kids, and they got to fooling with it and
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: broke it. No matter, Fate told them with a large
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: sidewise sweep of his hand. Better you wait for the
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: new model. It's a six way improvement, so I gathered,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Gusterson said, eyeing him speculatively. Does it automatically inject you
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: with cocaine fix every hour on the second? Ha ha joke, Gussie.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: It achieves the same effect without using any dope at all. Listen,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: a tickler reminds you of your duties and opportunities, your
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: chances for happiness and success. What's the obvious next step?
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Throw it out the window? By the way, how do
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: you do that when you're underground? We have high speed
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: garbage boosts. The obvious next step is to give the
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: tickler a heart. It not only tells you, it warmly
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: persuades you. It doesn't just say turn on the TV
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: channel two choice program. It brills at you, kid, old kid,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: race for the TV and flip that two switch. There's
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: a great show coming through the pipes this second plus ten.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: You'll enjoy the hell out of yourself. Grab a ticket
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: to ecstasy, My god, Gusterson gasped, Are those the kind
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: of jolts. It's giving you now, don't you get it? Gussie?
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: You never load your tickler except when you're feeling buoyantly enthusiastic.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: You don't just tell yourself what to do hour by
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: hour next week. You sell yourself on it. That way,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: you not only make doubly sure you'll obey instructions, but
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: you constantly reinoculate yourself with your own enthusiasm. I can't
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: stand myself when I'm that enthusiastic, Gusterson said, I feel
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: ashamed for hours afterwards. You are warped all this lonely
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: sky life. What's more, Gussie? Think how still more persuasive
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: some of those instructions would be if they came to
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: a man in his best girl's most bedroomy voice, or
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: his doctors or psychers, if it's that sort of thing,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: or Vina Vitterson's. By the way days, don't wear that
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: beauty mask outside. It's a grand misdemeanor. Ever since ten
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: thousand teenagers rided through Tunnel Mart wearing them and Vv's
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: suing tricks. No chance of that, Daisy said, and got
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: excited and bit off the nose. She pinched her own delicately.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: I'd no more obey my enthusiastic self. Gusterson was brooding
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: than I'd obey a Napoleon drunk on his own brandy,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: or a hopped up Saint Francis. Reinoculated with my own enthusiasm.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I die, just like from a snake bite warped, I said,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Fay dogmatized. Stamping around Gussie, having the instructions persuasive instead
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: of neutral, turned out to be only the opening wedge.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: The next step wasn't so obvious, but I saw it
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: using subliminal verbal stimuli in his tickler. A man can
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: be given constant, supportive euphoric therapy twenty four hours a day,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: and it makes use of all that empty wire. We've
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: revived the ideas of a pioneer dynamic psycher named doctor Cooey.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: For instance, right now my tickler is saying to me
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: in tones too soft to reach my conscious mind. But
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: do they stab and the unconscious? Day by day? In
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: every way, I'm getting sharper and sharper. It alternates that
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: with gutsier and gutsier, and well, forget that kooey mostly
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: used better and better, but that seems too general, And
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: every hundredth time it says them out loud, and the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: tickler gives me a brush, just a faint couch to
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: make sure I'm keeping in touch that third word pair,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Daisy wondered, feeling her mouth reminiscently. Could I guess Gunderson's
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: eyes had been growing wider and wider? Faye, he said,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I could no more use my mind for anything if
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: I knew all that was going on in my inner
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: ear than if I were being brushed down with brooms
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: by three witches. Look here, he said, with loud authority.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: You got to stop all this. It's crazy. Faye. If
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: micro will junk the tickler, I'll think you up something
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: else to invent something real good. You are inventing. Days
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: are over, fay brilled gleefully. I mean you'll never equal
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: your masterpiece. How about, Gusterson bellowed, an anti individual guided missile.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: The physicists have got small scale anti gravity good enough
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: to float and fly something the size of a hand grenade.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: I can smell that, even though it's a back of
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: the safe military secret. Well, how about keying such a
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: missile to a man's fingerprints, or brain waves maybe or
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: his unique smell, so it can spot and follow him around,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: then target in on him without harming anyone else. Long
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: distance assassination, and the stinkin just gets in. Or you
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: could simply load it with some disgusting goo and key
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: it to teenagers as a group that did take care
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: of them. Fay, doesn't it give you a rich, warm
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: kick to think of my midget missiles buzzing around in
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: your tunnels seeking out evildoers like a swarm of angry
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: wasps or angelic bumblebees. You're not luring me down any
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: side trails, Fay said, laughingly. He grinned and twitched, then
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: hurried toward the opposite wall, motioning them to follow. Outside.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: About one hundred yards beyond the purple glass rose another
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: ancient glass walled apartment skyscraper beyond Lake Eerie rippled glintingly.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Another bomb test, Gunderson asked. Faye pointed at the building. Tomorrow,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: he announced, a modern factory devoted solely to the manufacturer
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: of ticklers will be erected on that site. You mean
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: one of those windowless phallic eye sores, Gunderson demanded, Fay.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: You people aren't even consistent. You've got all your homes underground,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: why not your factories? Sh not enough room, and night
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: missiles are scarier. I know that building's been empty for
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: a year, Daisy said, uneasily, But how sh watch now?
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: The looming buildings seemed to blur or fuzz for a moment.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Then it was as if the lakes bright ripples that
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: invaded the old glass one hundred yards away. Wavelets chased
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: themselves up and down the gleaming walls became higher, higher,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: and then suddenly the glass cracked all over to tiny
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: fragments and fell away, to be followed quickly by fragmented
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: concrete and plastic and plastic piping, until all that was
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: left was the nude steel framework, vibrating so rapidly as
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: to be almost invisible against the gleaming sky. Daisy covered
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: her ears, but there was no explosion, only a long
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: drawn out low crash as the fragments hit twenty floors
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: below and dust washed out sideways. Spectacular Fay summed up.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Knew you'd enjoy it. That little trick was first conceived
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: by the Great Tesla during his last fruity years. Research
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: discovered it in his biog. We just made the dream
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: come true. A tiny resonance device you could carry in
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: your belt bag attunes itself to the natural harmonic of
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: a structure, and then increases amplify to buy tiny pushes
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: exactly in time. Just like soldiers marching in step can
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: break down a bridge, only this is as if it
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: were being done by one marching ant. He pointed at
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: the naked framework, appeering out of its own blur, and said,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: we'll be able to hang the factory on that. If not,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: we'll whip a mega current through it and vaporize it.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: No question, the micro resonator is the neatest, sweetest wrecking
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: device going. You can expect a lot more of this
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: sort of efficiency now that mankind has the tickler to
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: enable him to use his full potential. What's the matter, folks?
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Daisy was staring around the violet walled room with dumb mistrust.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Her hands were trembling. You don't have to worry, Faye
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: assured her with an understanding laugh. This building's safe for
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: a month more, at least. Suddenly he grimaced and leaped
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: a foot in the air. He raised a clawed hand
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: to scratch his shoulder, but managed to check the movement.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: Got to beat it, folks, he announced, tersely. My tickler
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: gave me the grand coach. Don't go yet, Gunderson called,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: rousing himself with a shudder, which he immediately explained, I
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: just had the illusion that if I shook myself, all
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: my flesh and guts would fall off my shimmying skeleton.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Burr Faye. Before you and micro go off half cocked,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: I want you to know there's one insuperable objection to
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: the tickler as a mass market item. The average man
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: or woman won't go to the considerable time and trouble
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: it must take to load the tickler. He simply hasn't
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: got the compulsive orderliness and willingness to plan that it requires.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: We thought of that weeks ago. Fay wrapped his hand
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: on the door. Every tickler spool that goes to market
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: is patterned like wallpaper, with one of five designs of
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: suitable subliminal support of euphoric material idior and idior, viriler
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: and viler. You know, the buyer is robot interviewed for
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: an hour, his personalized daily routine laid out and thereafter
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: templated on his weekly spool. He's strongly urged next to
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: take his tickler to his doctor and psycher for further
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: instruction imposition. We've been working with the medical profession from
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: the start. They love the tickler because it reminds people
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: to take their medicine on the dot and rest and
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: eat and go to sleep just when and how. Doc says,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: this is a big operation, Gussie, A big operation by
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Daisy hurried to the wall to watch him cross the park.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Deep down, she was a wee bit worried that he
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: might linger to attach a micro resonator to this building,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: and she wanted to time him. But Gusterson settled down
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: to his typewriter and began to bat away. I want
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: to have another novel started, he explained to her, before
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: the ant marches across this building. In about four and
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: a half weeks or a million sharp little gutsy guys
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: comes swarming out of the ground and he into Lake Erie.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Chapter four. Early next morning, windowless walls began to crawl
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: up the stripped skyscraper between them and the lake. Daisy
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: pulled the blackout curtains on that side. For a day
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: or two longer, their thoughts and conversations were haunted by
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Gusterson's vague, sardonic visions of a horde of tickler energized
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: moles pouring up out of the tunnels to tear down
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: the remaining trees, tank the atmosphere, and perhaps somehow dismantle
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: the stars, at least on this side of the world.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: But then they both settled back into their customary, easy
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: going routines. Gusterson typed Daisy made her daily shopping trip
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: to a little topsided daytime store and started painting a
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: mural on the floor of the empty apartment next to theirs.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: We ought to lasso some neighbors, she suggested, once I
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: need somebody to hold my brushes and admire. How about
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: you making a trip below at the cocktail hours Gusterson
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: and picking up a couple of girls for a star
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: flash the old viriler charm cooch them up a bit,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: emphasize the delights of high living, but make sure they're
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: compatible roommates. You could pick up that two yard check
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: from micro at the same time. You're an immoral, money
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: ravenous wench, Gusterson said, absently, trying to dream of an
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: insanity beyond insanity that would make his next novel a
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: real id rousing best vender. If that's your vision of me,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: you shouldn't have chewed up the v V mask. I
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: really prefer you with green stripes, he told her. But stripes,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: spots or sun bathing, you're better than those cocktail moles. Actually,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: both of them acutely disliked going below. They much preferred
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: to perch in their eerie and watch the people of
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: Cleveland Depths, as they privately called the local sub suburb,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: rush up out of the shelters at dawn to work
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: in the concrete fields and windowless factories, make their daytime
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: jet trips and freeway jaunts, do their noon hour and
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: coffee break gorilla practice, and then go scarrying back at
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: twilight to the atomic proof, brightly lit, vastly exciting, claustrophobic caves.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Fay and his projects began once more to seem dream like,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: though Gusterson did run across a cryptic advertisement for ticklers
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: in the Manchester Guardian, which he got daily by facsimile.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Their three children reported similar ads of no interest to
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: young Fry on the TV, and one afternoon they came
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: home with the startling news that the monitors at their
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: subsurface school had been issued ticklers. On sharp interrogation by Gusterson, however,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: it appeared that these last were not ticklers, but merely
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: two way radios linked to the school police station transmitter.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Which is bad enough, Gusterson commented later to Daisy, but
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: it'd be even dirtier to think of those clock watching
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: super egos being strapped to kids shoulders. Can you imagine
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: huck Finn with a tickler telling and went to tie
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: up the raft to a tow head and went to
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: take a swim. I bet Fay could, Daisy countered, when's
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: he going to bring you that check? Anyhow? Iago wants
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: a jet cycle, and I promised, imagine a Vina kit
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: and then Claudius'll have to have something. Gusterson scowled thoughtfully.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: You know days, he said, I got a feeling fase
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: in the hospital, all narketized up and being fed intravenously
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: the way he was jumping around last time, that tickler
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: was going to coach him to pieces in a week.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: As if to refute this intuition, Fay turned up that
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: very evening the lights were dim. Something had gone wrong
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: with the building's old transformer, and pending repairs, the two
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: remaining occupied apartments were making do with batteries which turned
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: bright globes to mysterious amber candles and made Gusterson's ancient
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: typewriter operate sluggishly. Fay's manner was subdued, or at least
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: closely controlled, and for a moment Gusterson thought he'd shed
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: his Tickler. Then the little man came out of the
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: shadows and Gusterson saw the large bulge on his right shoulder. Yes,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: we had to up it a bit size wise, Fay explained,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: in clipped tones additional superfeatures. While brilliantly successful on the whole,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: these subliminal euphorics were a shade too effective. Several hundred
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: users went hoppity manic. We gentled the couch and qualified
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: the subliminals. You know, day by day in every way,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: I'm getting sharper and more serene. But a stabilizing influence
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: was still needed. So after a top level conference, we
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: decided to combine Tickler with mood Master. My god, Gusterson interjected,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: do they have a machine now that does that? Of course,
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: they've been using them on ex mental patients for years.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: I just don't keep up with progress, Gusterson said, shaking
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: his head bleakly. I'm falling behind on all fronts. You
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: ought to have your tickler remind you to read Science
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: Service releases. Faye told him, we're simply instructed to scan
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: the releases, and no, that's still in research. He looked
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: at Gusterson's shoulder and his eyes widened. You're not wearing
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: the new model tickler I sent you, he said, accusingly.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: I never got it, Gusterson assured him postman delivered topside
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: mail and parcels by throwing them on the high speed
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: garbage boosts and hoping a tornado will blow them to
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: the right address. Then he added, helpfully, maybe the Russians
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: stole it while it was riding the whirlwinds. That's not
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: a suitable topic for jesting, Faye frowned. We're hoping that
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: Tickler will mobilize the full potential of the free world
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: for the first time in history. Gusterson, you are going
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: to have to wear a tickie tick It's becoming impossible
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: for a man to get through modern life without one.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: Maybe I will, Gusterson said, appeasingly. But right now, tell
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: me about mood Master. I want to put it in
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: my new and Senteanity novel. Fay shook his head. Your
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: readers will just think you're behind the times. If you
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: use it, underplay it. But anyhow, moot Master is a
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: simple physiotherapy engine that monitors bloodstream chemicals and body electricity.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: It ties directly into the bloodstream, keeping blood sugar, et
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: cetera at optimum levels, and injecting euphrine or depressin as necessary,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: and occasionally a touch of extra adrenaline, as during work emergencies.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: Is it painful, Daisy called from the bedroom, excruciating. Gusterson
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: called back, excuse it please, He grinned at Faye. Hey,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: didn't I suggest cocaine injections last time I saw you?
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: So you did? Fay agreed flatly. Oh, by the way, Gussie,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: here's that check for a yard, I promised you micro
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: doesn't muzzle the ox. Hooray, Daisy cheered faintly. I thought
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: you said it was going to be for two. Gusterson complained,
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: Budgeting always forces a last minute compromise. Fay shrugged. You
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: have to learn to accept those things. I love accepting money,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: and I'm glad any time for three feet, Daisy called agreeably.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: Six feet might make me wonder if I weren't an insect,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: but getting a yard just makes me feel like a
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: gangster's maul want to come out and gloat over the
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: yard paper toots and stuff it in your diamond embroidered
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: nets stocking top. Gusterson called back, No, I'm doing something
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: to that portion of me just now. But hang on
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: to the yard. Gusterson. Aye aye, cap'n, he assured her,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: then turning back to Fay. So you've taken the doctor
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: Cooey repeating out of the tickler. Oh no, just balanced
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: it off with depressing. The subliminals are still a prime
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: sales point. All the tickler features are cumulative. Gussie. You're
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: still underestimating the scope of the device. I guess, I am.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: What's this work emergency's business? If you're using the tickler
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: to inject drugs into workers to keep them going, that's
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: really just my cocaine suggestion modernized and I'm putting in
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: for another thou Hundreds of years ago, the South American
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: Indians chewed coca leaves to kill fatigue sensations. That's so interesting,
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: and it proves priority for the Indians, doesn't it. I'll
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: make a try for you, Gussie, but don't expect anything.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: He cleared his throat. His eyes grew distant and Turning
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: his head a little to the right, he enunciated sharply,
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: pooh bah time inst oh five one oh five seven
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: oh oh record Gussie Coca thoul budget cut, He explained,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: we got a voice cued setter. Now on the Deluxe
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: models you can record a memo to yourself without taking
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: off your shirt. Incidentally, I used the ends of the
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: hours for troyfle memos. I've already used up the fifty
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: nines and eights for tomorrow and started on the fifty sevens.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Understood most of your memo, Gusterson told him gruffly. The
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: last o oh was for seconds, wasn't it Now? I
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: call that crude? Why not microseconds too? But how do
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: you remember where you've made a memo so you don't
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: record over it? After all, you're re recording over the
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: wallpaper all the time? Tickler beeps and then hunts for
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: the nearest information free space. I see, And what's the
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: poohba for? Fay smiled cut my password for activating this
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: setter so it won't respond to chance numerals it overhears.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: But why poohba Faye grinned cut and you were writer?
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: It's a literary reference. Gussie poohba cut was Lord high
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: everything else in the Mikado. He had a little list,
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: and nothing on it would ever be missed. Oh yeah,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: Gunderson remembered, glowering as I recall it. All that went
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: on that list was the names of people who were
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: slave to have their heads chopped off by Coco. Better
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: watch your steps, shorty. It may be a backhanded omen.
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: Maybe all those workers you're putting ticklers on to pump
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: them full of adrenaline so they'll overwork without noticing it,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: will revolt and come out some day choppin for your head.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: Spare me the Marxist mythology, they protested, Gussie, you've got
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: a completely wrong slant on tickler. It's true that most
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: of our mass sails so far, bar government and army,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: have been to large companies purchasing for their employees. Aha.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: But that's because there's nothing like a tickler for teaching
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: a new man his job. It tells him from instant
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: to instant what he must do while he's already on
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: the job, and without disturbing other workers. Magnetizing a wire
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: with a job pattern is the easiest thing going, And
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: you'd be astonished what the subliminals do for employee morale.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: It's this way, Gussie. Most people are too improvident and
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: unimaginative to see in advance the advantages of ticklers. They
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: buy one because the company strongly suggests it and payment
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: is on easy installments withheld from salary. They find a
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: tickler makes the work day go easier. The little fellow
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: perched on your shoulder as a friend, exuding comfort and
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: good advice. The first thing he's set to say is
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: take it easy, pall. Within a week they're wearing their
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: ticklers twenty four hours a day, and buying a tickler
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: for the wife so she'll remember to comb her hair
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: and smile real pretty and cook favorite dishes. I get it,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Faye Gusterson. Cut in. The tickler is the newest fad
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: for increasing worker efficiency. Once I read somewheres it was
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: salt tablets. They had salt tablet dispensers everywhere, even in
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: air conditioned offices where there wasn't a moist armpit twice
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: a year, and the gals sweat only champagne. A decade later,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: people wondered what all those dusty white pills were for.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: Sometimes they mistook them for tranquilizers. It'll be the same
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: way with ticklers. Somebody'll open a musty closet and see
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: jumbled heaps of these gripping hand silvery gadgets gathering dust curls,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: and they will not, Faye protested vehemently. Ticklers are not
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: a fad. They're history changers. They're free, world revolutionary. Why
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: before Microsystems put a single one on the market, we
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: made it a rule that every micro employee had to
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: wear one. If that's not having supreme confidence in a product,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: every employee except the top executives, of course, Gusterson interrupted, jeeringly.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: And that's not demoting you, Faye. As the R and
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: D chief most closely involved, you'd naturally have to show
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: special enthusiasm. But you're wrong there, Gussie, Faye crowed. Man
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: for man, our top executives have been more enthusiastic about
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: their personal ticklers than any other class of worker in
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: the whole outfit. Gusterson slumped and shook his head. If
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: that's the case, he said, darkly, maybe mankind deserves the
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: I'll say it does, Faye agreed, loudly, without thinking. Then, oh,
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: can the carping gussy tickler's a great invention. Don't depreciate
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: it just because you had something to do with its genesis.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: You're going to have to get in the swim and
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: wear one. Maybe I'd rather drown horribly. Can the gloom
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: talk to Gussie? I said it before, and I'll say
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: it again. You're just scared of this new thing. Why
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: you've even got the drapes pulled so you won't have
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: to look at the tickler factory. Yes, I am scared,
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: Gusterson said, really scared. Well. Fay whirled around. Daisy was
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: standing in the bedroom doorway wearing the short silver sheath.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: This time there was no mask, but her bobbed hair
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: was glitteringly silvered, while her legs, arms, hands, neck, face,
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: every bit of her exposed skin was painted with beautifully
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: even vertical green stripes. I did it as a surprise
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: for Gusterson explained to Faye. He says he likes me
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: this way. The green glop's supposed to be smudgeproof. Gusterson
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: did not comment. His face had a rapt expression. I'll
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: tell you why your tickler's so popular, Faye, he said softly.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: It's not because it backstops the memory or because it
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: boosts the ego with subliminals. It's because it takes the
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: hook out of a guy. It takes over the job
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: of withithstanding the pressure of living. See, Fay, here are
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: all these little guys in this subterranean rat race, with
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: atomic death squares and chromium plated reward squares, and enough
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: money if you pass go almost to get to go again,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: and a million million rules of the game to keep
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: in mind. Well, here's this one little guy, and every
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: morning he wakes up, there's all these things he's got
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: to keep in mind or do, or he'll lose his
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: turn three times in a row, and maybe a terrible
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: black rook in iron armor loom up and bang him
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: off the chess board. But now look, now he's got
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: his tickler, and he tells his sweet silver tickler all
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: these things, and the tickler's got to remember them. Of
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: course he'll have to do them eventually, But meanwhile, the
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: pressure's off him, the hook's out of his short hairs.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: He's shifted the responsibility. Well, what's so bad about that,
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: Faye broke in loudly. What's wrong with taking the pressure
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: off little guys? Why shouldn't tickler be a superego surrogate
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: micro's motivations. Chief noticed that positive feature straight off and
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: scored it three pluses. Besides, it's nothing but a gaudy
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: way of saying that tickler backstops the memory. Seriously, Gussie,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: what's so bad about it? I don't know, Gusterson said, slowly,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: his eyes still far away. I just know it feels
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: bad to me, he crinkled his big forehead. Well, for
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: one thing, he said, it means that a man's taking
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: orders from something else. He's got a kind of master.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: He's sinking back into a slave psychology. He's only taking
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: orders from himself. Fay countered, disgustedly. Tickler's just a mech reminder,
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: a note book in essence, no more than the back
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: of an old envelope. It's no master. Are you absolutely
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: sure of that, Gusterson asked quietly, Why, Gussie, you big oaf?
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: Fay began heatedly. Suddenly his features quirked and he twitched.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Excuse me, folks, he said, rapidly, heading for the door.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: But my tickler told me I gotta go. Hey, Fay,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: don't you mean you told your tickler to tell you
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: when it was time to go? Gusterson called after him.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: Fay looked back in the doorway. He wet his lips,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: his eyes moved from side to side. I'm not quite sure,
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: he said in an odd, strained voice, and darted out.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: Gusterson stared for some seconds at the pattern of emptiness
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: Fay had left. Then he shivered. Then he shrugged. I
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: must be slipping, he muttered, I never, and suggested something
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: for him to invent. Then he looked around at Daisy,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: who was still standing poker faced in her doorway. Hey,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: you look like something out of the Arabian Nights, he
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: told her. Are you supposed to be anything special? How
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: far do those stripes go? Anyway? You could probably find out,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: she told him coolly. All you have to do is
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: kill me a dragon or two. First, he studied her.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: My god, he said, reverently. I really have all the
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: fun in life. What do I do to deserve this.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: You've got a big gun, she told him, And you
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: go out in the world with it and hold up
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: big companies and take yards and yards of money away
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: from them in rolls like ribbon, and bring it all
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: home to me. Don't say that about the gun again,
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: he said. Don't whisper it, don't even think it. I've
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: got one, damn it thirty eight caliber yet, and I
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: don't want some psionic monitor with two way clare audience.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: They haven't told me about catching the whisper and coming
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: to take the gun away from us. It's one of
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: the few individuality symbols we've got left. Suddenly, Daisy whirled
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: away from the door, spun three times so that her
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: silvered hair stood out like a metal coolie hat, and
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: sank to a curtsey in the middle of the room.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: I've just thought of what I am, she announced, fluttering
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: her eyelashes at him. I'm a sweet silver tickler with
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: green stripes and of Part one of The Creature from
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Cleveland Depths by Fritz Liber Part two of the Creature
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: from Cleveland Depths by Fritz Liber. This LibriVox recording is
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Reading by Greg Marguerite. Part two
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: of the Creature from Klee Eveland Depths by Fritz Liber,
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: Chapter five. Next day, Daisy cashed the micro check for
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: ten hundred silver smackers, which she hid in a broken
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: radionic coffee urn. Gusterson sold his Insanity novel and started
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: a new one about a mad medic with a hiccuppy,
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: hysterical chuckle who gimmicked moodmasters to turn mental patients into ninfomaniacs,
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: mass murderers, and compulsive saints. But this time he couldn't
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: get Faye out of his mind or the last chilling
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: words the nervous little man had spoken. For that matter,
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: he couldn't blank the underground out of his mind as
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: effectively as usual. He had the feeling that a new
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: kind of mole was loose in the burrows, and that
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: the ground at the foot of their skyscraper might start
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: humping up any minute. Toward the end of one afternoon,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: he tucked a half dozen newly tight sheets in his pocket,
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: shrouded his typer, went to the hat rack and took
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: down his prize, a miner's hard top cap with electric
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: headlamp going below cap'n. He shouted toward the kitchen. Be
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: back for second dog watch. Daisy replied, remember what I
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: told you about lassoing me some art conscious girl neighbors.
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: Only if I meet a piebald one with a taste
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: for Scotch, or maybe a pearl gray biped jaguar with
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: violet spots, Gusterson told her, clapping on the cap with
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: a we who are about to die gesture. Halfway across
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: the park to the escalator bunker, Gusterson's heart began to tick.
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: He resolutely switched on his head lamp as he'd known
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: it would. The hatch robot word an extra hire pitched
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: ten seconds when it came to his topside address, but
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: it ultimately dilated the hatch for him, first handing him
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: a claim check for his ID card. Gusterson's heart was
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: ticking like a sledge hammer by now. He hopped clumsily
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: onto the escalator, clutching the moving guard rail to either side,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: then shut his eyes as the steps went over the
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: edge and became what felt like vertical. An instant later,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: he forced his eyes open, unclipped a hand from the rail,
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: and touched the second switch beside his head lamp, which
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: instantly began to blink whitely, as if he were a
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: civilian plane flying into a nest of military jobs. With
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: a further effort, he kept his eyes open and flinchingly
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: surveyed the scene around him. After zigging through a bomb
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: proof half furlong of roof, he was dropping into a
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: large twilight cave. The blue black ceiling twinkled with stars.
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: The walls were pierced at floor level by a dozen archways,
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: with busy niche stores and glowing advertisements crowded between them.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: From the archways, some three dozen sidewalks curved out, tangenting
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: off each other in a bewildering multiple clover leaf. The
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: sidewalks were packed with people, traveling motionless like purposeful statues,
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: or pivoting with practiced grace from one sidewalk to another,
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: like a thousand to rare doing veronicas. The sidewalks were
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: moving faster than he recalled from his last venture underground,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: and at the same time, the whole pedestrian concourse was
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: quieter than he remembered. It was as if the five
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: thousand or so moles in view were all listening for
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: what But there was something else that had changed about them,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: a change that he couldn't for a moment define, where
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: unconsciously didn't want to. Clothing style, no, my god, they
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: were all wearing identical monster masks, no, no hair color. Well,
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: he was studying them so intently that he forgot his
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: escalator was landing. He came off it with a heel
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: jarring stumble and bumped into a knot of four men
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: on the tiny triangular hold. Still, these four at least
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: sported a new style, wrinkle ribbed gray shoulder capes that
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: made them look as if their heads were poking up
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: out of the center of bulgey on brids or giant mushrooms.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: One of them grabbed hold of Gusterson and saved him
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: from staggering onto a sidewalk that might have carried him
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: to Toledo. Gussie, you dog, you must have e sp'd
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: I wanted to see you, Fay cried, patting him on
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: the elbows. Meet Davidson and Kester and Hazen, colleagues of
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: mine were all Micromen. Fay's companions were staring strangely at
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: Gusterson's blinking headlamp. Faye explained rapidly, mister Gusterson is an
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: insanity novelist. You know, I d interdirected spells id, Gusterson said, absently,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: still staring at the interweaving crowd beyond them, trying to
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: figure out what made them different from last trip creativity
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: fuel cranky explodes through the parietal fissure if you look
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: at it cross eyed. Ah ha, Fay laughed, Well, boys,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: I've found my man. How's the new novel perking? Gussie
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: got my climax, I think, Gusterson mumbled, still peering puzzledly
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: around Faye at the slide standers. Mood Master's going to
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: come alive. Never occur to you. That mood is doom
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: spelled backwards, and then he let his voice trail off
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: as he realized that Kester and Davidson and Hazen had
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: made their farewells and were sliding into the distance. He
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: reminded himself rightly that nobody ever wants to hear an
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: author talk. He's much too good a listener to be
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: wasted that way. Let's see, was it that everybody in
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: the crowd had the same facial expression or showed symptoms
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: of the same disease. I was coming to visit you,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: but now you can pay me a call. Faye was saying,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: there are two matters I want to Gusterson stiffened. My god,
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: they're all hunchbacked. He yelled, sh of course they are,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: Fay whispered, reprovingly they're all wearing they're ticklers. But you
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: don't need to be insulting about it. I'm getting out
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: of here. Gusterson turned to flee as if from five
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: thousand Richard the thirds, Oh no, you're not, Fay amended,
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: drawing him back with one hand. Somehow, underground, the little
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: man seemed to carry more weight. You're having cocktails in
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: my thinking box. Besides, climbing a down escaladder will give
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: you a heart attack. In his home habitat, Gusterson was
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: about as easy to handle as a rogue rhinoceros. But
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: away from it, and especially if underground, he became more
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: like a pliable elephant. All his bones dropped out through
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: his feet, as he described it to Daisy. So now
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: he submitted miserably as Fay surveyed him up and down,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: switched off his blinking headlamp. That coal miner caper is corny, Gussie,
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: and then surprisingly rapidly stuffed his belt bag under the
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: right shoulder of Gusterson's coat and buttoned the ladder to
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: hold it in place. So you won't stand out, he explained,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: another swift survey. You'll do. Come on, Gussie, I've got
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: lots to brief you on three rapid paces. And then
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: Gusterson's feet would have gone out from under him, except
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: that Fay gave him a mighty shove. The small man
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: sprang on to the slidewalk after him, and then they
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: were skimming effortlessly side by side. Gusterson felt frightened and
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: twice as hunchbacked as the slide standers around him, morally
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: as well as physically. Nevertheless, he countered bravely, I got
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: things to brief you on. I got six pages of
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: cautions on tip sh Fay stopped him. Let's use my hushbox.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: He drew out his pancake phone and stretched it so
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: that it covered both their lower faces like a double yashmak.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: Gundersen his neck pushing into the ribbed bulge of the
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: shoulder cape so he could be cheeked to cheek with.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: Fay felt horribly conspicuous. But then he noticed that none
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: of the slide standers were paying them the least attention.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: The reason for their abstraction occurred to him. They were
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: listening to their ticklers. He shuddered. I got six pages
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: of caution on ticklers, he repeated into the hot, moist
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: quiet of the pancake phone. I typed him so I
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: wouldn't forget him in the heat of polemicking. I want
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: you to read every word phay. I've had it on
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: my mind ever since I started wondering whether it was
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: you or your tickler made you duck out of our
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: place last time you were there. I want you to
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: all in good time. In the pancake phone phase, laugh
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: was brassy, but I'm glad you've decided to lend a hand, Gussie.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: This thing is moving fast Nationwise, adult underground ticklarization is
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: ninety percent complete. I don't believe that, Gusterson protested, while
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: glaring at the hunchbacks all around them. The slidewalk was
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: gliding down a low glow ceiling tunnel lined with doors
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: and advertisements. Rapt Eyed people were pirouetting on and off.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: A thing just can't develop that fast phase. It's against nature.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: But we're not in nature. We're in culture. The progress
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: of an industrial scientific culture is geometric. It goes and
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: times as many jumps as it takes more than geometric exponential. Confidently,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: Micro's math chief tells me we're currently on a fourth
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: power progress curve trending into a fifth. You mean we're
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: going so fast, we got to watch out. We don't
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: bump ourselves in the rear when we come around again.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: Gusterson asked, scanning the tunnel ahead for curves, or just
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: shoot straight up to infinity exactly. Of course, most of
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: the last power in half is due to Tickler itself, Gussie.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: The Tickler's already eliminated absenteeism, alcoholism of boulah in numerous
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: urban areas. And that's just one letter of the alphabet.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: If Tickler doesn't turn us into a nation of photo memory, constant,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: creative flow geniuses in six months, I'll come live top side.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: You mean, because a lot of people are standing around,
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: glassy eyed, listening to something, mumbling in their ear that
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: it's a good thing, Gussie. You don't know progress when
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: you see it. Tickler is the greatest invention since language,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: bar none. It's the greatest instrument ever devised for integrating
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: a man into all phases of his environment. Under the
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: present routine, a newly purchased Tickler first goes to government
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: and civilian defense for primary patterning, then to the purchaser's employer,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: then to his doctor psycher, then to his local bunker captain,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: then to him. Everything that's needful for a man's welfare
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: gets on the spools efficiency cubed. Incidentally, Russia's got the tickler. Now,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: our dip satellites have photographed it. It's like ours, except
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: the Kamis wear it on their left shoulder. But they're
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: two weeks behind us in development, and they'll never close
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: the gap. Gusterson reared up out of the pancake phone
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: to take a deep breath. A sulky lipped, sylph figured
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: girl two feet from him twitched medium cooch, he judged,
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: then fumbled in her belt bag for a pill and
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: popped it in her mouth. Hell, the tickler's not even
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: efficient yet. Out little things, Gusterson blatted, diving back into
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: the privacy yeshmak he was sharing with Fay. Why didn't
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: that girl's doctor have the moodmaster component of her tickler
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: injector with medicine, Her doctor probably wants her to have
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: the discipline of pill taking or the exercise, Fay answered, glibly,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: Look sharp, Now here's where we fork. I'm taking you
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: through Micro's postern. A ribbon of slidewalk split itself from
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: the main band and angled off into a short alley.
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: Gusterson hardly felt the constant speed juncture as they crossed it.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: Then the secondary ribbon speeded up, carrying them at about
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: thirty feet a second toward the blank concrete wall in
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: which the alley ended. Gusterson prepared to jump, but Fay
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: grabbed him with one hand and with the other held
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: up toward the wall a badge and a button. When
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: they were about ten feet away, the wall whipped aside,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: then whipped shut behind them so fast that Gusterson wondered
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: momentarily if he still had his heels and the seat
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: of his pants. Fay, tucking away his badge and pancake phone,
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: dropped the button in Gundersen's vest pocket. Use it when
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: you leave, he said, casually, that is, if you leave. Gusterson,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: who was trying to read the do and don't posters
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: papering the walls they were passing, started to probe that
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: last sinister supposition, But just then the ribbon slowed, A
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: swinging door opened and closed behind them, and they found
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: themselves in a luxuriously furnished thinking box measuring at least
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: eight feet by five. Hey, this is something Gusterson said
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: appreciatively to show he wasn't an utter yokel. Then, drawing
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: on research he'd done for period novels, why it's as
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: big as a pullman car compartment or a first mate's
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: cabin in the War of eighteen twelve. You really must rate.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: Faye nodded, smiling wanly, and sat down with a sigh
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: on a compact overstuffed swivel chair. He let his arms
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: dangle and his head sink into his puffed shoulder. Cape
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: Gust stared at him. It was the first time he
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: could ever recall the little man showing fatigue. Tickler currently
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: does have one serious drawback, Fay volunteered. It weighs twenty
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: eight pounds. You feel it when you've been on your
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: feet a couple of hours. No question, we're going to
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: give the next model that anti gravity feature you mentioned
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: for pursuit grenades. We'd have had it in this model,
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: except that there were so many other things to be incorporated.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: He sighed again. Why the scanning and decision making elements
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: alone tripled the mass? Hey Gunderson protested, thinking especially of
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: the sulky lipped girl. Do you need to tell me
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: all those other people were toting two stone. Fay shook
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: his head heavily. They were all wearing Mark three or four.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: I'm wearing Mark six, he said, as one might say,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: I'm carrying the genuine cross, not one of the balsa ones.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: But then his face brightened a little and he went on,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: of course, the new improved features make it more than
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: and you hardly feel it at all at night when
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: you're lying down, and if you remember to talcum under
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: it twice a day, no sores develop, at least not
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: very big ones. Backing away involuntarily, Gusterson felt something prod
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: his right shoulder blade, ripping open his coat. He convulsively
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: plunged his hand under it and tore out Fay's belt bag,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: and then set it down very gently on the top
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: of a shallow cabinet and relaxed with the sigh of
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: one who has escaped a great, if symbolic danger. Then
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: he remembered something Fay had mentioned. He straightened again. Hey,
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: you said, it's got scanning and decision making elements. That
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: means your tickler thinks, even by your fancy standards, and
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: if it thinks, it's conscious, Gussie Fay said, wearily, frowning.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: All sorts of things nowadays have S and d M elements,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: mail sworders, missiles, robot medics, high style mannequins, just to
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: name some of them. They think to use that archaic word.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: But it's neither here nor there, and there certainly not conscious.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: Your tickler thinks, Gusterson repeated, stubbornly, just like I warned
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: you it would. It sits on your shoulder, riding you
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: like it was a pony or a starved Saint Bernard,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: and now it thinks. Suppose it does? Faye yawned, what
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: of it? He gave a rapid, sinuous, one sided shrug
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: that made it look, for a moment, as if his
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: left arm had three elbows. It stuck in Gunderson's mind,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: for he had never seen Fay use such a gesture,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: and he wondered where he'd picked it up, maybe imitating
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: a double jointed micro finance chief. Fay yawned again and said, please, Gussie,
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: don't disturb me. For a minute or so, his eyes
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: half closed, Gusterson studied Fay's sunken, cheeked face and the
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: great puff of his shoulder. Cape Say, Fay, he asked,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: in a soft voice, after about five minutes, are you meditating? Why? No,
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: Fay responded, starting up and then stifling another yawn, Just
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: resting a bit. I seem to get more tired these days, somehow.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: You'll have to excuse me, Gussie. But what made you
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: think of meditation? Oh? I just got to wondering in
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: that direction, Gusterson said. You see, when you first started
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: to develop Tickler, it occurred to me that there was
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: one thing about it that might be real good, even
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: if you did give it S and DM elements. It's
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: this having a mech secretary to take charge of his
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: obligations and routines in the real world might allow a
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: man to slide into the other world, the world of
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: thoughts and feelings and intuitions, and sort of ooze around
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: in there and accomplish things. Know any of the people
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: using Tickler that way, Hey, of course not fade denied
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: with a bright and credulous laugh. Who'd want to loaf
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: around in an imaginary world and take a chance of
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: missing out on what his tickler's doing, I mean, on
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: what his tickler has in store for him, what he's
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: told his tickler to have in store for him. Ignoring
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: Gusterson's shiver, Fay straightened up and seemed to briskin himself. Mh,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: that little slump did me good. A tickler makes you rest,
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: you know, it's one of the great things about it.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: Pooh Bah's kinder to me than I ever was to myself.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: He buttoned open a tiny refrigerator and took out two
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: waxed cardboard cubes and handed one to Gusterson. Martini, hope
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: you don't mind drinking it from the cart and cheers now,
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: a gussy old pal. There are two matters I want
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: to take up with you. Hold it, Gusterson said, with
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: something of his old authority. There's something I got to
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: get off my mind. First, he pulled the typed pages
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: out of his inside pocket and straightened them. I told
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: you about these, he said, I want you to read
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: them before you do anything else here. Fay looked toward
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: the pages and nodded, but did not take them yet.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: He lifted his hands to his throat and unhooked the
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: clasp of his cape. Then hesitated, you wear that thing
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: to hide the hump your tickler makes. Gusterson filled in,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: You've got better taste than those other moles. Not to
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: hide it exactly, Faye protested, but just so the others
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: won't be jealous. I wouldn't feel comfortable parading a free
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: scanning decision capable Mark six tickler in front of people
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: who can't buy it until it goes on open sail
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: at twenty two fifteen tonight. A lot of shelter folk
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: won't be sleeping tonight. They'll be cued up to trade
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: in their old tickler for a mark six, almost as
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: good as Poopa. He started to jerk his hands apart,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: hesitated again with an oddly apprehensive look at the big man,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: then whirled off the cape. Chapter six. Gusterson sucked in
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: such a big gasp that he hiccuped. The right shoulder
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: of face, jacket and shirt had been cut away. Thrusting
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: up through the neatly hemmed hole was a silvery gray
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: hump with a one eyed turret atop it and two
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: multi jointed metal arms ending in little claws. It looked
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: like the top half of a pseudo science robot, a
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: squat evil child robot, Gusterson told himself, which had lost
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: its legs in a railway accident, and it seemed to
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: him that a red fleck was moving around imperceptibly in
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: the huge single eye. I'll take that memo now, face
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: said coolly. Reaching out his hand, he caught the rustling
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: sheets as they slipped from Gusterson's fingers even them up
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: very precisely by tapping them on his knee, and then
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: handed them over his shoulder to his tickler, which clicked
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: its claws around either margin, and then began rather swiftly
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: to lift the top sheet past its single eye at
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: a distance of about six inches. The first matter I
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: want to take up with you, Gussie, Fate began paying
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: no attention whatsoever to the little scene on his shoulder
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: or warn you about rather, is the imminent ticklarization of
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: school children, geriatrics, convicts, and topsiders. At three zero zero
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: row tomorrow ticklers become mandatory for all adult shelter folk.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: The mop up operations won't be long in coming. In fact,
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: these days we find that the square root of the
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: estimated time of a new development is generally the best
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: time estimate. Gussie, I strongly advise you to start wearing
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: a tickler now, and Daisy and your moppets. If you
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: heed my advice, your kids will have the jump on
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: your class. Transition and conditioning are easy, since tickler itself
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: sees to it. Pooh Bah leafed the first page to
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: the back of the packet and began lifting the second
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: page past his eye a little more swiftly than the first.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: I've got a Mark six tickler all warmed up for you,
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: fade pressed, and a shoulder cape. You won't feel one
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: bit conspicuous. He noticed the direction of Gusterson's gaze and remarked,
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: fascinating mechanism, isn't it. Of course, twenty eight pounds are
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: a bit oppressive, but then you have to remember it's
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: only a way station to free floating Mark seven or eight.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: Poohba finished page two and began to race through page three.
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: But I wanted you to read it, Gusterson said, bemusedly, staring,
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: Pooba will do a better job than I could. Fay
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: assured him, get the gist without losing the chaff. But
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: damn it, it's all about him, Gusterson said, a little
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: more strongly. He won't be objective about it. A better job,
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: Fay reiterated, and more fully objective. Poohba's set for full precige.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: Stop worrying about it. He's a dispassionate machine, not a fallible,
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: emotionally disturbed human misled by the willow the wisp of consciousness. Second,
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: matter Micro's systems is impressed by your contributions to Tickler
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: and will recruit you as a senior consultant with a
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: salary and thinking box as big as my own family
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: quarters to match. It's an unheard of high start, Gussie,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: I think you'd be a fool. He broke off, held
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: up a hand for silence, and his eyes got a
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: listening look. Pooh Bah had finished page six and was
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: holding the packet motionless. After about ten seconds, Fay's face
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: broke into a big fake smile. He stood up, suppressing
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: a WinCE, and held out his hand. Gussie. He said loudly,
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: I am happy to inform you that all your fears
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: about Tickler are so much thistled down. My word on it.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: There's nothing to them at all. Poohba's precige, which he's
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: just given to me, proves it. Look, Gusterson said solemnly.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: There's one thing I want you to do, purely to
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: humor and old friend, but I want you to do it.
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: Read that memo yourself. Certainly I will, Gussie. Faye continued
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: in these same ebuliant tones. I'll read it. He twitched,
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: and his smile disappeared a little later, Sure, Gusterson said, dully,
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: holding his hand to his stomach. And now, if you
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: don't mind, Faye, I'm going home. I feel just a
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: bit sick. Maybe the ozone and the other additives in
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: your shelter air are too heady for me. It's been
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: years since I tramped through a pine forest. But Gussie,
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: you've hardly got here. You haven't even sat down. Have
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: another martini, Have a Seltzer pill, have a whiff of oxy,
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: have a no, Fay, I'm going home right away. I'll
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: think about the job offer. Remember read that memo. I will, Gussie,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: I certainly will you know your way? The button takes
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: you through the wall by now. He sat down abruptly
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: and looked away. Gusterson pushed through the swinging door. He
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: tensed himself for this step across onto the slowly moving
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: reverse ribbon. Then, on an impulse, he pushed ajar the
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: swinging door and looked back inside. Faye was sitting as
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: he'd left him, apparently lost in listless brooding on his shoulder.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: Poohbah was rapidly crossing and uncrossing its little metal arms,
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: tearing the memo too smaller and smaller shreds. It let
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: the raps drift slowly toward the floor and oddly writhed
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: its three elbowed left arm, and then Gunderson knew from whom,
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: or rather from what Faye had copied his new shrug.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: Chapter seven. When Gusterson got home toward the end of
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: the second Dog Watch, he slipped aside from Daisy's questions
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: and set the children laughing with a graphic enactment of
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: his slide standing technique and a story about getting his
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: head caught in a thinking box built for a midget physicist.
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: After supper, he played with Imogen, Iago and Claudius until
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: it was their bedtime, and thereafter was unusually attentive to Daisy,
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: admiring her fading green stripes, though he did spend a
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: while in the next apartment where they stored their outdoor
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: camping equipment. But the next morning he announced to the
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: children that it was a holiday, the Feast of Saint Gusterson,
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: and then took Daisy into the bedroom and told her everything.
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: When he'd finished, she said, this is something I've got
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: to see for myself. Gusterson shrugged. If you think you've
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: got to, I say we should head for the hills
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: right now. One thing I'm standing on the kids aren't
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: going back to school, agreed, Daisy said, But Gusterson, We've
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: lived through a lot of things without leaving home altogether.
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: We lived through the everybody six feet underground by Christmas
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: campaign and the robot Watchdog craze when you got your
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: left foot half chewed off. We lived through the venomous
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: bats and the indoctrinated saboteur rats, and the hypnotized monkey
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: paratrooper scares. We lived through the Voice of Safety and
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: the anti communist sam No instruction and rightest pills and
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: jet propelled vigilantes. We lived through the cold out when
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: you weren't supposed to turn on a toaster for fear
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: its heat would be a target for prow missiles, and
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: when people with fevers were unpopular. We lived through. Gusterson
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: patted her hand. You go below, he said, come back
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: when you've decided this is different. Come back as soon
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: as you can. Anyway, I'll be worried about you every
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: minute you're down there. When she was gone in a
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: green suit and hat. To minimize or at least justify
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: the effect of the fated stripes, Gusterson doled out to
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: the children pro vender and equipment for a camping expedition
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: to the next floor. Iago led them off in stealthy
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: Indian file, leaving the hall door open. Gusterson got out
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: his thirty eight and cleaned and loaded it, meanwhile concentrating
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: on a chess problem with the idea of confusing a
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: hypothetical psionic monitor. By the time he had hid the
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: revolver again, he heard the elevator creaking back up. Daisy
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: came dragging in without her hat, looking as if she'd
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: been concentrating on a chess problem for hours herself and
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: just now given up. Her stripes seemed to have vanished.
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: Then Gusterson decided this was because her whole complexion was
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: a touch green. She sat down on the edge of
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: the couch and said, without looking at him, did you
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: tell me, Gusterson, that everybody was quiet and abstracted and
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: orderly down below, especially the ones wearing ticklers, meaning pretty
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: much everybody. I did, He said, I take it that's
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: no longer the case. What are the new symptoms? She
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: gave no indication. After some time, she said, Gusterson, do
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: you remember the Dore illustrations of the Inferno? Can you
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: visualize the paintings of Hieronymous Bosh with the hordes of
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: proto Freudian devils tormenting people all over the farmyard and
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: city square? Did you ever see the Disney animations of
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: Mazorski's Witch's Sabbath Music back in the foolish days before
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: you married me? Did that drug addict girlfriend of yours
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: ever take you to a genuine orgy as bad as that? Eh?
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: She nodded emphatically, and all of a sudden shivered violently
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: several shades worse, she said, if they decide to come topside,
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: she shot up, where are the kids upstairs? Camping in
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: the mysterious wilderness of the twenty first floor. Gusterson reassured her,
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: let's leave him there until we're ready to He broke off.
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: They both heard the faint sound of thudding footsteps. They're
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: on the stairs, Daisy whispered, starting to move toward the
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: open door. But are they coming from up or down?
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: It's just one person, judged Gusterson, moving after his wife,
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: too heavy for one of the kids. The footsteps doubled
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: in volume and came rapidly closer Along with them. There
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: was an agonized gasping Daisy stopped, staring fearfully at the
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: open doorway. Gusterson moved past her. Then he stopped too.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: Fay stumbled into view and would have fallen on his face,
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: except he clutched both sides of the doorway. Half way up.
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: He was stripped to the waist. There was a little
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: blood on his shoulder. His narrow chest was arching convulsively,
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: the ribs standing out starkly, as he sucked in oxygen
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: to replace what he'd burned up. Running up twenty five flights,
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: his eyes were wild. They've taken over. He panted another
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: gobbling breath, gone crazy, two more gasps. Gotta stop 'em.
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: His eyes filmed. He swayed forward. Then Gusterson's big arms
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: were around him, and he was carrying him to the couch.
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: Daisy came running from the kitchen with a damp, cool towel.
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: Gusterson took it from her and began to mop Faye off.
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: He sucked in his own breath as he saw that
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: Fay's right ear was raw and torn. He whispered to Daisy,
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: look at where that thing savaged him. The blood on
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: Fay's shoulder came from his ear, Some of it stained
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: a flushed skin plastic fitting that had two small valved
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: holes in it, and that puzzled Gusterson until he remembered
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: that Moodmaster tied into the blood stream. For a second,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: he thought he was going to vomit. The dazed look
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: slid aside from Fay's eyes. It was gasping less painfully now.
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: He sat up, pushing the towel away, buried his face
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: in his hands for a few seconds, then looked over
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: the fingers at the two of them. I've been living
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: in a nightmare for the last week, he said, in
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: a taut, small voice, knowing the thing had come alive,
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: and trying to pretend to myself that it hadn't, knowing
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: it was taking charge of me more and more, having
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: it whisper in my ear over and over again in
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: a cracked little rhyme that I could only hear every
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: hundredth time, day by day, in every way, you're learning
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: to listen and obey day by day. His voice started
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: to go high. He pulled it down and continued harshly.
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: I ditched it this morning when I showered. It let
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: me break contact. To do that, it must have figured
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: it had complete control of me, mounted or dismounted. I
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: think it's telepathic and then it did some well, rather
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: unpleasant things to me late last night. But I pulled
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: together my fears and my will, and I ran for it.
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: The slidewalks were chaos. The Mark six ticklers showed some purpose,
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: though I couldn't tell you what. But as far as
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: I could see, the mark threes and fours were just
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: coaching their mounts to death. Chinese feather torture, giggling, gasping, choking,
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: gales of mirth. People are dying of laughter. Ticklers, the
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: irony of it. It was the complete lack of order, insanity,
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: and that let me get topside. There were things I
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: saw Once again, his voice went shrill. He clapped his
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: hand to his mouth and rocked back and forth on
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: the couch. Gusterson gently but firmly laid a hand on
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: his good shoulder. Steady, he said, here, swallow this fay
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: shoved aside the short brown drink. We've got to stop them,
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: he cried. Mobilize the topsiders, contact the wilderness, patrols and
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: manned satellites, pour ether in the tunnel, air pumps, invent
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: and crash. Manufacture missile that will home on ticklers without
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: palming humans. Sos mars and venus dope, the shelter water supply.
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: Do something, Gussie. You don't realize what people are going
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: through down there. Every second. I think they're experiencing the
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: ultimate in outer directedness, Gusterson said, gruffly. Have you no heart,
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: Fade demanded, his eyes widened as if he were seeing
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: Gusterson for the first time, then accusingly pointing a shaking finger.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: You invented the tickler, George Gusterson. It's all your fault.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: You've got to do something about it. Before Gusterson could
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: retort to that, or begin to think of a reply,
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: or even assimilate the full enormity of Fay's statement, he
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: was grabbed from behind and frog marched away from Faye,
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: and something that felt remarkably like the muzzle of a
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: large caliber gun was shoved in the small of his back.
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: Under cover of Fay's outburst, A huge crowd of people
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: had entered the room from the hall eight, to be exact,
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: but the weirdest thing about them to Gusterson was that
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: from the first instant he had the impression that only
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: one mind had entered the room, and that it did
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: not reside in any of the eight persons, even though
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: he recognized three of them, but in something that they
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: were carrying. Several things contributed to this impression. The eight
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: people all had the same blank expression, watchful yet empty eyed,
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: They all moved in the same slithery crouch, and they
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: all had taken off their shoes. Perhaps, Gusterson thought wildly,
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: they believed he and Daisy ran a Japanese flat. Gusterson
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: was being held by two burly women, one of them
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: quite pimply. He considered stamping on her toes, but just
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: at that moment the gun dug in his back with
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: a corkscrew movement. The man holding the gun on him
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: was Fay's colleague Davidson. Some yards beyond Phayse couch, Kester
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: was holding a gun on Daisy without digging it into her,
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: while the single strange man holding Daisy herself was doing
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: so quite decoriously, a circumstance which afforded Gusterson minor relief,
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: since it made him feel less guilty about not going berserk.
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: Two more strange men, one of them in purple lounging pajamas,
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: the other in the gray uniform of a slidewalk inspector,
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: had grabbed Fay's skinny upper arms, one on either side,
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: and were lifting him to his feet, while Fay was
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: struggling with such desperate futility and gibbering so pitifully that
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: Gusterson momentarily had second thoughts about the moral imperative to
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: go berserk when menaced by hostile force. But again the
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: gun dug into him with a twist, approaching Fay face on.
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: Was the third Microman Gusterson had met yesterday, Hazen. It
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: was Hazen who was carrying quite reverently, or solemnly, or
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: at any rate, very carefully, the object that seemed to
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: Gusterson to be the mind of the little storm troop
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: presently desecrating the sanctity of his own individual home. All
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: of them were wearing ticklers, of course, the three Microman,
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: the heavy emergent Mark sixes with their clawed and jointed
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: arms and monocular cephalic turrets. The rest lower numbered marks
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: of the sort that merely made Richard the third humps
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: under clothing. The object that Hazen was carrying was the
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: Mark six tickler Gusterson had seen Faye wearing yesterday. Gusterson
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: was sure it was Pouba because of its air of command,
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: and because he would have sworn on a mountain of
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: bibles that he recognized the red fleck lurking in the
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: back of its single eye, and Poohba alone had the
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: aura of full conscious thought. Pooba alone had manna, it
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: is not good to see an evil legless child robot
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: with dangling straps, bossing, apparently by telepathic power, not only
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: three objects of its own kind and five close primitive relatives,
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: but also eight human beings, and in addition throwing into
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: a state of twitching terror. One miserable, thin chested, half
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: crazy research and development director Poohba pointed a claw at Faye.
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: Fayse hand pendlers dragged him forward, still resisting, but more
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: feebly now, as if half hypnotized or at least cowed.
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: Gusterson grunted and outraged Ah and automatically struggled a bit,
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: but once more the gun dug in. Daisy shut her eyes,
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: then firmed her mouth and opened them again to look.
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: Seating the tickler on Fay's shoulder took a little time
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: because two blunt spikes in the bottom had to be
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: fitted into the valved holes in the flush skin plastic disk.
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: When at last they plunged home. Gusterson felt very sick, indeed,
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: and then even more so as the tickler itself poked
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: a tiny pellet on a fine wire into Fay's ear.
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: The next moment, Fay had straightened up and motioned his
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: handlers aside. He tightened the straps of his tickler around
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: his chest and under his armpits, and he held out
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: a hand, and somebody gave him a shoulderless shirt and coat.
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: He slipped into them smoothly. Pooh bah dexterously using its
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: little claws to help put its tarret and body through
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: the neatly hammed holes. The small storm troop looked at
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: Fay with deferential expectation. He held still for a moment,
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: as if thinking, and then walked over to Gusterson and
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: looked him in the face, and again held still. Fay's
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: expression was jaunty on the surface, agonized underneath. Gusterson knew
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: that he wasn't thinking at all, but only listening for
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: instructions from something that was whispering on the very threshold
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: of his inner ear. Gussie old Boy, Fay said, twitching
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: a depthless grin. I'd be very much obliged if you'd
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: answer a few simple questions. His voice was hoarse at first,
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: but he swallowed twice and corrected that, what exactly did
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: you have in mind when you invented the ticklers? What
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: exactly are they supposed to be? Why you miserable? Gusterson
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: began in a kind of confused horror. Then he got
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: hold of himself and said, curtly, they were supposed to
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: be mech reminders were supposed to record memoranda. And Fay
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: held up a palm and shook his head and again
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: listened for a space. Then that's how ticklers were supposed
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: to be of use to humans, he said. I I
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: don't mean that at all. I mean how ticklers were
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: supposed to be of use to themselves. Surely you had
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: some notion. Fay wet his lips. If it's any help,
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: he added, keep in mind that it's not Fay who's
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: asking this question, but poohba. Gusterson hesitated. He had the
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: feeling that every one of the eight dual beings in
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: the room was hanging on his answer, and that something
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: was boring into his mind and turning over his next
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: thoughts and peering at and under them. Before he had
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: a chance to scan them himself. Poohba's eye was like
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: a red searchlight. Go on, Fate prompted, what were ticklers
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: supposed to be for themselves? Nothin? Gusterson said, softly, nothing
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: at all. He could feel the disappointment well up in
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: the room, and with it a touch of something like panic.
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: This time, Fay listened for quite a long while. I
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: hope you don't mean that, Gussie, he said at last,
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: very earnestly. I mean I hope you hunt deep and
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: find some ideas you forgot or maybe never realized you
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: had at the time. Let me put it to you differently.
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: What's the place of tickler's in the natural scheme of things?
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: What's their aim in life? Their special reason, their genius,
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: their final cause? What gods should ticklers worship? But Gusterson
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: was already shaking his head. He said, I don't know
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: anything about that at all. Fay sighed and gave, simultaneously
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: with pooh Bah, the now familiar triple jointed shrug. Then
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: the man brisked himself. I guess that's as far as
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: we can get right now, he said, Keep thinking, Gussie,
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: try to remember something you won't be able to leave
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: your apart, and I'm setting guards. If you want to
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: see me, tell them, or just think. In due course,
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: you'll be questioned further. In any case, perhaps by special methods,
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: perhaps you'll be particlarized. That's all. Come on, everybody, let's
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: get going. The pimply woman and her pal let go
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: of Gusterson. Daisy's man loosened his decorious hold. Davidson and
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: Kester sidled away with an eye behind them, and the
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: little storm troop trudged down. Fay looked back in the doorway.
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Gussie, he said, and for a moment his
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: old self looked out of his eyes. I wish I could.
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: A claw reached for his ear. A spasm of pain
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: crossed his face. He stiffened and marched off the door shut.
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: Gusterson took two deep breaths that were close to angry sobs, Then,
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: still breathing stentoriously, he stamped into the bedroom. What, Daisy asked,
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: looking after him. He came back, carrying his thirty eight
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: and headed for the door. What are you up to,
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: she demanded, knowing very well, I'm going to blast that
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: iron monkey off Fay's back. If it's the last thing
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: I do. She threw her arms around him. Now let
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: me go, Gusterson growled, I gotta be a man one
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: time anyway. As they struggled for the gun, the door
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: opened noiselessly. Davidson slipped in and deftly snatched the weapon
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: out of their hands before they realized he was there.
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: He said nothing, only smiled at the men, shook his
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: head and sad reproof. As he went out, Gusterson slumped.
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: I knew they were all psionic, he said, softly, I
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: just got out of control. Now that last look Faye
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: gave us. He touched Daisy's arm. Thanks kid. He walked
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: to the glass wall and looked out desultorally. After a while,
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: he turned and said, maybe you'd better be with the kids, eh,
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: I imagine the guards will let you through. Daisy shook
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: her head. The kids never come home until supper the
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: next few hours. They'll be safer without me. Gusterson nodded vaguely,
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: sat down on the couch and propped his chin on
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: the base of his palm. After a while, his brow smoothed,
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: and Daisy knew that the wheels had started to turn
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: inside and the electrons to jump around, except that she
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: reminded herself too permanently cross out those particular figures of
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: speech from her vocabulary. After about half an hour, Gusterson said, softly,
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: I think that ticklers are so psionic that it's as
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: if they have just one mind. If I were with
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: them very long, I'd start to be part of that mind.
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: Say something to one of them, and you say it
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: to all fifteen minutes later. They're not crazy, They're just newborn.
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: Like ones that were creating a coaching chaos downstairs were
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: like babies, kicking their legs and waving their eyes, trying
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: to see what their bodies could do. Too bad, their
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: bodies or us. Ten minutes more, I got to do
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: something about it. Phase right, it's all my fault. He's
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: just the apprentice. I'm the old sorcerer himself. Five minutes more, gloomily,
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: maybe it's man's destiny to build live machines and then
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: bow out of the cosmic picture. Except the ticklers need us,
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: damn it, just like no mads need horses. Another five minutes.
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: Maybe somebody could dream up a purpose in life for
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: the ticklers, even a religion, the first Church of Pooh
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: Bah Tickler. But I hate selling other people's spiritual ideas,
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: and that would still leave Tickler's parasitic on humans. As
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: he murmured those last words, Gusterson's eyes got wide as
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: a maniax, and a big smile reached for his ears.
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: He stood up and faced himself toward the door. What
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: are you intending to do now, Daisy asked flatly. I'm
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: merely going out and save the world. He told her.
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: I may be back for supper, and I may not.
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: Chapter eight, Davidson pulled out from the wall against which
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: he'd been resting himself and his two stone tickler, and
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: moved to block the hall, but Gusterson simply walked up
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: to him. He shook his hand warmly and looked his
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: tickler full in the eye and said, in a ringing voice,
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: ticklers should have bodies of their own. He paused, and
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: then added casually, come on, let's visit your boss. Davidson
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: listened for instructions and then nodded, but he watched Gusterson
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: warily as they walked down the hall. In the elevator,
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: Gusterson repeated his message to the second guard, who turned
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: out to be the pimply woman, now wearing shoes this
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: time he added, ticklers shouldn't be tied to the frail
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: bodies of humans, which need a lot of thoughtful supervision
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: and drug injecting and can't even fly. Crossing the park,
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: Gusterson stopped a humpbacked soldier and informed him tickler's got
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: to cut the apron string and snap the silver cord
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: and go out into the universe and find their own purposes.
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: Davidson and the pimply woman didn't interfere. They merely waited
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: and watched, and then led Gusterson on on the escalator.
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: He told someone it's cruel to tie ticklers to slow witted,
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: snailly humans when ticklers can think and live ten thousand
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: times as fast he finished plucking the figure from the
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: murk of his unconscious. By the time they got to
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: the bottom, the message had become ticklers should have a
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: planet of their own. They never did catch up with Fay,
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: although they spent two hours skimming around on sidewalks under
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: the subterranean stars pursuing rumors of his presence. Clearly, the
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: boss Tickler, which was how they thought of Pooba, led
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: an energetic life. Gusterson continued to deliver his message to
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: all and sundry at thirty second intervals. Toward the end,
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: he found himself doing it in a dreamy and forgetful way.
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: His mind, he decided, was becoming assimilated to the communal
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: telepathic mind of the Ticklers. It did not seem to
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: matter at the time. After two hours, Gusterson realized that
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: he and his guides were becoming part of a general
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: movement of people, a flow as mindless as that of
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: blood corpuscles through the veins, yet at the same time
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: dimly purposeful. At least, there was the feeling that it
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: was at the behest of a mind far above The
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: flow was topside. All the sidewalks seemed to lead to
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: the concourses and the escalators. Gusterson found himself part of
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: a human stream moving into the tickler factory adjacent to
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: his apartment, or another factory very much like it. Thereafter,
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: Gusterson's awarenesses were dimmed. It was as if a bigger
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: mind were doing the remembering for him, and it were
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: permissible and even mandatory for him to dream his way along.
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: He knew vaguely that days were passing. He knew he
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: had work of a sort. At one time he was
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: bringing food to gaunt eyed tickler mounted humans working feverishly
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: in a production line. Human hands and tickler claws working
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: together in a blur of rapidity on silvery mechanisms that
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: moved along jumpily on a great belt. At another he
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: was sweeping piles of metal scraps and garbage down a
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: gray corridor. Two scenes stood out a little more vividly.
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: A windowless wall had been knocked out for twenty feet.
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: There was blue sky outside, its light almost hurtful, and
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: a drop of many stories. A file of humans were
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: being processed. When one of them got to the head
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: of the file, his or her tickler was ceremoniously unstrapped
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: from his shoulder and welded into a silvery cask with
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: smoothly pointed ends. The result was something that looked, at
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: least in the case of the Mark six ticklers, like
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: a stubby silver submarine child size. It would hum gently
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: lift off the floor and then fly slowly out through
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: the big blue gap. Then the next tickler ridden human
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: would step forward for processing. The second scene was in
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: a park, the sky again blue but big and high
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: with an argacy of white clouds. Gusterson was lined up
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: in a crown of humans that stretched as far as
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: he could see. Row on irregular row, martial music was playing.
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: Overhead hovered a flock of little silver submarines lined up
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: rather more orderly in the air than the humans were
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: on the ground. The music rose to a heart quickening climax.
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: The tickler nearest Gusterson gave, as if to say, and now,
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: who knows, a triple jointed shrug that stung his memory.
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: Then the ticklers took off straight up on their new
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: and shining bodies. They became a flight of silver geese
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: of silver midges, and the humans around Gusterson lifted a
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: ragged cheer. That scene marked the beginning of the return
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: of Gusterson's mind and memory. He shuffled around a bit,
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: spoke vaguely to three or four people he recalled from
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: the dream days, and then headed for home and supper.
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: Three weeks late, and as disoriented and emaciated as a
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: bear coming out of hibernation. Six months later, Fay was
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: having dinner with Daisy and Gusterson. The cocktails had been
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: poured and the children were playing. In the next apartment,
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: the transparent violet walls brightened then gloomed as the sun
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: dipped below the horizon, Gusterson said, I see where a
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: spaceship out beyond the orbit of Mars was holed by
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: a tickler. I wonder where the little geys are headed now.
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: Fay started to give a writhing, left armed shrug, but
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: stopped himself with a grimace. Maybe out of the Solar
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: system altogether, suggested Daisy, who'd recently dyed her hair fire
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: engine red and was wearing red leotards. They got a
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: weary trip ahead of them, Gusterson said, unless they work
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: out a hyper Einsteinian drive on the way. Fay grimaced again.
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: He was still looking rather peaked. He said, plaintively, haven't
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: we heard enough about ticklers for a while? I guess so.
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: Gunderson agreed. But I get to wondering about the little guys.
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: They were so serious and intense about everything. I never
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: did solve their problem, you know, I just shifted it
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: onto other shoulders than ours, No joke intended, he hurried
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: to add. Faye Forebode to comment. By the way, Gussie,
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: he said, have you heard anything from the Red Cross
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: about that World Saving medal I nominated you for. I
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: know you think the whole concept of world saving metals
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: is ridiculous, especially when they started giving them to all
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: heads of state who didn't start atomic wars while in office.
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: But narry a peep. Gusterson told him, I'm not proud, Faye.
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: I could use a few world save in medals. I'd
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: start a flurry in the old gold market. But I
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: don't worry about those things. I don't have time to.
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: I'm busy these days thinking up a bunch of new inventions,
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: Gussie Fay said sharply, his face tightening alarm. Have you
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: forgotten your promise? Course not, Faye. My new inventions aren't
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: for micro or any other firm. They're just a legitimate
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: part of my literary endeavors. Happens. My next insanity novel
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: is going to be about a mad inventor and of
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: part two of The Creature from Cleveland Depths by Fritz
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: liber