Inter Ice Age 4

by Kono Abe

  We decided to withdraw for the time being. We went out to the street, where I took leave of Tanomogi and returned home, holding a head aching with fatigue. As I listened mechanically to my wife’s chatter about how the children had got into a quarrel at school, again and again I forced myself to stay awake. But at length I slipped into a confining hole of sleep, just big enough to let me in.

  10

  The next morning I overslept somewhat, as I had anticipated I would. It was after ten by the time I got to the Institute. At first—I myself cannot explain why very well—I thought that in order to get the plan that Tanomogi and I had conceived through the committee, we would inform the Institute members after obtaining formal committee approbation. Even our adventure last night we had accomplished by ourselves and had told no one about it. The man we followed was a nobody, and so there was the advantage that the many-faceted investigation we had hitherto conducted would probably not be necessary. But we realized by our own experience that the husk encapsulating a person’s private life was not all that easy to construe. If we just spent the time at it, perhaps it would not be so difficult to construct a rough plan, but unfortunately there remained only five more days until the next meeting of the committee. If the plan didn’t get through this time, the situation would worsen and almost assuredly we would be ordered to close down, at least temporarily.

  But in the time it took to get to the Institute, I had changed the procedure and decided to be co-operative and reveal the plan in its entirety to the Institute members. If I told them the circumstances, they would keep the secret. I would proceed mechanically, dividing the business of looking into the identity of the woman and tracing the man’s background between two groups, establishing their areas of responsibility in detail. I would collect all the data I could within two days, and based on them, co-ordinate future plans, possibilities, and perspectives. First on the agenda was to get the approval of the committee.

  Before I went to my office, I looked in at the research room downstairs in search of Tanomogi. I was told that he had been awaiting me for some time in the computation room on the second floor. I left word that I had something to say and that everyone should gather upstairs, and at once went to Tanomogi.

  Tanomogi looked up at me scathingly, saying nothing in greeting, his two elbows resting on the desk beside the control console. A strange manner.

  “What’s to be done, sir?” he began suddenly without changing his position.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Something unexpected’s happened, hasn’t it?” He opened the newspaper on his lap, thrusting his finger at it as if he were challenging me.

  “What in God’s name are you talking about?”

  Tanomogi stuck out his chin as if in amazement, exposing a long neck.

  “Sir, haven’t you read the papers yet?”

  Just at that instant the people from the research room came up the stairs in a clatter of wooden sandals. Looking suspiciously at me out of the corner of his eye, Tanomogi rose. “What’s all that . . . ?”

  “I called them up. I thought I’d get them to take over part of the work.”

  “Forget it. Look at this,” he snapped, thrusting the newspaper at me. Opening the door violently, he yelled at the researchers, who had just arrived: “Later! Come back later. When we finish we’ll come and get you.”

  I could hear some witticism from Wada Katsuko, delivered in a high-pitched, displeased voice, but I could not make out exactly what it was. But that was the least of my worries. An article in one corner of the paper had been encircled in red pencil. As I stared at it, I suddenly felt as if the air around me had become like sticky jam.

  ACCOUNTING SUPERINTENDENT STRANGLED BY MISTRESS

  About midnight on the 29th, Mr. Tsuchida Susuma (56), accounting superintendent for Yoshiba Enterprises, Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, who was visiting at the Midori Apartments located at 6— Street, in the same ward, was beaten and strangled to death by his mistress Kondo Chikako (26), a resident of the same building. The girl turned herself in at the nearest police station. She claimed she bad acted in self defense in view of Mr. Tsuchida’s violent reaction to her late return. Mr. Tsuchida, said his colleagues, was a serious-minded man who bad been working at his job for 30 years. Al agreed that the event bad come like a bolt from the blue.

  Tanomogi waited patiently as I slowly read through the article five or six times.

  “That’s what I was talking about, sir.”

  “Mm. What about the other papers?” A drop of perspiration fell from my forehead, spreading out on the article.

  “I bought about five, but this seems to be the most detailed article.”

  “Pity. A month earlier and we might have been able to predict this. Well, he’s dead now, and we can’t do anything about it.”

  “How nice if things were that simple. But they’re not.”

  “What do you mean? There’s no object in predicting the future of a dead man, is there? We don’t have time to play detective.”

  “I’m worried.”

  “What’s there to worry about? Anyway, a case like this is much too special and unsuitable to use as material to try on the machine.”

  “Don’t fool yourself. It should be quite clear to you, sir, what I’m talking about. Any number of people saw us shadowing this Tsuchida fellow. Especially the old tobacconist on the corner where we bought cigarettes the last time.”

  “Oh, I don’t really think there’s much to worry about. Since the criminal’s already confessed.”

  “She has?” Tanomogi licked his lips in irritation and began to speak rapidly as if he were impatient. “I don’t think so. This single article is packed with equivocal information. For instance, don’t you think it’s overdoing it a bit to strangle someone after you’ve beaten him to death? Just because a young girl’s been called to account for coming home late?”

  “When she struck him, he got violent and she killed him, I presume.”

  “Impossible. How could a young girl strangle a violent man? But anyway, let’s assume she did. You must remember it yourself, sir. As soon as he entered the room, the lights went on for an instant and there was the sound of something falling; then it was immediately dark again. Now, sir, you said you saw the shadow of someone in the window at the time. In point of fact, I also saw the shadow of someone moving against the glass in the door. When I think about it, I find a real contradiction. How is it possible, with one source of light, for a shadow to be cast at the same time on a door and a window located in opposite directions? It means there were two individuals.”

  “Well, the man and the girl, I suppose.”

  ‘But the article says the girl came back later than the man.”

  “Not necessarily. It’s rather vague on that. According to the way it’s written, it can be taken to mean either.”

  “But I distinctly saw the man open the door with a key myself. Besides, I checked with the operator on the telephone number he called last, and it turns out to be the one to that apartment. He was checking whether the girl was back or not. Judging from his subsequent behavior, there’s little doubt that she was not.”

  “But supposing she returned just after the telephone call?”

  “Well, why was the room dark then? What was the falling sound? What’s the meaning of the light switched on and then right off again?”

  “What are you trying to say? I don’t get it. Anyway she gave herself up.”

  “No, she did not. Even the police aren’t so stupid as to think that. Maybe the people in the room below remember the time they heard the noise of something falling. Maybe someone next door will testify that the lights were out all the time. Or maybe they’ll deduce from the traces of the strangling on the neck that it wasn’t the work of a woman at all. And once they’ve doubts, they’ll follow their investigation through to the end. Traces of stocking sticking to the floor of the corridor . . . fingerprints on the wall by the door . . . and then the mysterious shadowers.�
��

  “Did you leave your fingerprints in a place like that?”

  “Maybe. I never dreamt things would turn out like this.”

  “Well, even though they have, if the police just look into it, they’ll find evidence right away. Ridiculous! You obviously have no motive. They may be suspicious, but there’s not a shred of evidence.”

  “I suppose that’s true. But they’ll certainly be suspicious. Until we definitely convince them of the substance of our work.”

  “Most unwise!”

  “Yes, unwise. The papers’ll get wind of the project in no time. And they’ll put aside the murder business and start writing about our work. A nightmare of the machine age that spurns the dignity of man, et cetera, et cetera . . .”

  Tanomogi shut his mouth as if something had suddenly occurred to him. Perhaps he was afraid he might hurt me doubly. But that was enough. At this point I had no time for playing at introspection.

  “You’re quite right. A project like this could easily be considered risky. At the slightest evidence of danger the committee, which is timid in any case, would be only too glad to have the pretext of showing its heels. But you’ve really thought things through. You could be a detective or even a lawyer.”

  “I didn’t think so coherently at all from the beginning. It’s just that I had a terribly strong and ominous feeling as I stood there in front of the door. Then when I read the article, I intuitively felt that the criminal was not the girl. If she isn’t, then we’re the ones who are going to be suspected first. If we intend to continue our work, we can’t pull out now.”

  “Which means?”

  “Which means that we’ve no other choice than to take the initiative ourselves and push ahead.”

  “Push ahead? Mm ... I wonder.”

  “Before we have all sorts of people coming in on us we’ve got to come to an understanding with the police.”

  “I suppose it would be possible if we go through Tomoyasu. It would be a mistake to try and cover up. Besides establishing a plan of action, we’ve got to be firm and say what’s really necessary.”

  “Thank God, explanations aren’t lacking. Mind you, Tsuchida’s body is still fresh. He hasn’t been dead long.”

  “Tsuchida’s body?”

  “Tangible material on which to draw future conclusions. If the method of preservation is good, they say the physical body can be kept alive about three days. Even after the nerves have died.”

  Suddenly day dawned in my brain, the windows opened, and the cells began to move briskly. Once again I had been bested by Tanomogi. But I was not angry. After all, he was my successor.

  “Isn’t it a splendid plan? It’s not just fantasy; it’s worth trying. An excellent idea, I think, to start from a dead body.”

  “We’ll start with the mathematical inductive method. Then the girl. We might have stumbled on this business by chance, but it’s really perfect.”

  “Then, if we’re successful, will the real criminal be next?”

  “Oh, no. Then comes practical application. That’ll be fine bait to catch our committee with.”

  11

  Now that the plan was set, I could not waver. There was still time before the arm of the law got to us, but we had to think of something before the body of the murdered man was returned to the bereaved family. It was impossible, of course, not to bring in our colleagues downstairs. Tanomogi said he would feel confident if he were put in charge of them. We divided them, according to their respective strong points, into three work groups: one for the body, one for the girl, and one for uncovering the real criminal. Tanomogi decided to take charge of the whole investigation himself, with the body as the central point. While I was gone negotiating with Tomoyasu at the Statistics Bureau, Tanomogi would finish the group division and tell everyone of the course of action, asking all to stand by to begin at any time now. I checked that Tomoyasu was in his room and left at once.

  Tomoyasu was most affable. He never stopped smiling all the time I held forth on the various possibilities that had come into existence from the actual use of individual predictions. In the end he was agreeable to handling things by acting as intermediary between us and the head of the Statistics Bureau. I myself betrayed no misgivings, but strongly emphasized how favored we were by fortune. The conversation gradually came round to the murder incident; and as I had anticipated, the smile disappeared, and Tomoyasu's usual expression, as if equipped with a dehydrating device, returned. I gave no inkling of my apprehension concerning the police, concentrating my attack chiefly on how the prediction machine could be useful in crime prevention. After more than an hour of strenuous effort I was successful in winning him over.

  But, of course, that did not mean we had convinced him to negotiate directly with the Bureau. That did not lie within his jurisdiction. I simply convinced him to report the matter to the Bureau head. Then I had to spend another hour repeating the same fervent speech to him. Unlike Tomoyasu, he remained expressionless from beginning to end. And expressionless, he made us wait while he disappeared somewhere.

  Presently there was a telephone call from Tanomogi, saying that apparently we had been raided by the police; I was most uneasy. But Tomoyasu had quite recovered his former affability. Having passed the responsibility to the Bureau head, he was relieved, I suppose. He held forth with the greatest zeal, but stupidly, on the possibilities of the prediction machine, and I could not bring myself to answer.

  Another hour went by. I was on the point of giving up. I had begun to think I had been quite forgotten when, at length, the Bureau head returned.

  “It’s all right, I guess,” he said in a businesslike voice. “We managed to reach an agreement. I won’t put it in writing, but if you need to, refer questions to me. The point is that action has been taken.”

  His tone was so disinterested that I did not at once realize this was an answer I should be happy about. After I had left, I soon recovered my senses and rushed to a public telephone. I could perceive the tension in Tanomogi’s voice even through the receiver. I was put through to the computing room at Central Welfare Hospital (the room where the electronic computer used for examinations and diagnoses was located). They were prepared to begin as soon as the body was delivered. I immediately dispatched Aiba to the police station and ordered him to transfer the corpse to the hospital, and then rang off. I suddenly stopped perspiring and experienced a pain as if my whole body had broken into pieces and was flying off in all different directions. It was the excitement. After my perseverance in this hopeless business, now that I had grown accustomed to it, as if perseverance were the norm, the real work had at last begun. I suppose this is what one calls euphoria.

  12

  Preparations were complete. The cooling device groaned, and chilled air entered the room, eddying up pleasantly around our legs. We were already connected by special telephone with the computing room at Central Welfare; and the Institute researchers, divided into three groups, each one equipped with a portable walkie-talkie, were already standing by to leave. (Tanomogi was really efficiency itself.)

  At length everyone had gone. Motionless, I stood waiting before the television set and the three walkie-talkie receivers in the computing room, silent except for the monotonous murmur of the forecaster. I was now a cog in the machine. All of the reports sent in were to be fed directly to it. They would be automatically classified and memorized, and so my role was simply to respond to the machine’s signals, assisting as I was instructed. I was nonetheless proud of my part. For it was I myself and no one else who would give the machine its capacities. You are an enlarged extension of me, I said to it with satisfaction, a part of me magnified.

  3:50. Exactly twenty-five minutes since Tanomogi and the others had left. The first contact came from Tsuda, in charge of the criminal group. There was no need to repeat his report. Tanomogi’s surmise had been so perfectly exact it was eerie. First, eyewitnesses confirmed that the girl had returned home just before midnight, and there were bruises
on the back of the man’s head that he could not have inflicted on himself.

  There seemed to have been a kind of dispute, true, but from the results of the examination of the murdered man’s corpse, and for other reasons, there were certain equivocal points in the girl’s confession as it stood. Evidence of an accomplice was definitely there, but the girl may have been intimidated into silence, for she had not tried to change her confession. They said at the station that in their opinion the solution was simply a matter of time. It was difficult to catch the absolutely casual criminal, one with no previous police record. Indeed, the contrary was true: The more calculating one was, the easier it was to betray oneself. (At first I was confused. It was difficult to judge on the spur of the moment whether or not Tanomogi and I should have reported what we had seen last evening. But given what the police had said, there was little chance that suspicion would fall on us who were absolutely innocent bystanders. And then, I was personally confident that we would uncover the real criminal. So for the time being I decided to wait and say nothing.)

  Then, at once, came a detailed report on Kondo Chikako from Kimura, who was in charge of the girl’s group. From her age, domicile, and profession to her personal history, character, appearance, height, and weight, it included all distinguishing features, at least concrete elements to feed into the machine. But that’s enough for the introduction. It was clear just how insufficient for catching a person such superficial data ultimately were. The analysis of the body would begin presently, and it would be necessary to start all over again with a completely different method. Moreover, if need be, the police could give us this sort of information any time, and if we wanted to stay clear of them we could easily gather it on our own.

  The analysis at length began sometime after eight. Actually, it seemed that more preparation would have been desirable, but as they feared at the hospital that they would not be able to revive the corpse, we all decided to push on despite the difficulties. In the meantime, three or four additional reports came in from the heads of the groups concerned with the criminal and with the girl; but as the answers to all questions would soon be cleared up by the analysis of the body, I decided to omit them too. An hour before the analysis was to begin, I had talked for some time by television with Dr. Yamamoto, who was in charge. He said that with the electronic computer in the hospital they could reproduce approximate biological reactions and analyze them, but that they could not go so far as to decipher the reflexes of the brain. That was reasonable. The brain was a world that even our own machine, which could program itself, had not yet experienced. Anyway, I got him to assemble the responses of the brain cells to various stimuli; I would try to have them decoded and memorized by the machine. Perhaps it would be necessary to have it digest at the same time, as a sample, the brain waves of a living man. Certainly a detailed map would be necessary; in the case of the dead body we would divide the brain into at least eighty or more areas and not settle for the rough brain waves recorded heretofore. (Even though, in the case of a living body, one could not obtain ripple marks as clear as in a dead body, it was possible to get approximate ones; and if a simple sample would do for filing purposes, Dr. Yamamoto gladly promised to give us one.)