“Hashimoto has put you up to this, hasn’t he. Tsumura was affected because he used the collector without sufficient training. Why is everyone so keen to use it, anyway?”
“You just don’t trust me, do you.”
“It’s not a question of trust.”
Nobue said nothing for a moment, then changed the subject. “I read the article about the press conference the other day. Then I had the idea of going around disguised as Paprika.”
Atsuko looked at Nobue as if something had just struck her. “What for?”
“To clear suspicion from you, of course. The media suspicion that you are Paprika.”
This mere slip of a girl wanted to parade herself as Paprika. Atsuko restrained her laughter at the very thought of that. “So in fact, the real identity of Paprika was none other than you all along,” she said. “And you really think they’re going to fall for that?”
“Did you know I’m being followed? Ever since that press conference? They obviously think I could be Paprika. But maybe you’re saying I’m not even good enough to do that …” Nobue stared hard at Atsuko, patently unaware of her own lack of logic.
Atsuko simply returned the stare. Perhaps Nobue really was being followed by some newspaper reporter who suspected all the Institute’s female staff of being Paprika. But that was barely credible; Nobue was more likely suffering from some kind of persecution complex. She didn’t seem her usual self. Both her words and her tone of voice were different today. Atsuko felt a shudder. Had someone been tampering with Nobue’s reflector? In that case, the danger was drawing closer. Atsuko realized she would urgently need to check the memory and software programs of her own reflector and collector.
Not wishing to convey her suspicions but knowing that Nobue had to be distracted, Atsuko immediately ordered her to photocopy and bind a large pile of research papers. That would surely keep her busy for three or four hours …
Atsuko bought some coffee and sandwiches in the Institute shop and took them to the Senior Staff Room. Tokita had already finished his lunch and was drinking tea with a face that looked like a damp floor rag. “Tea here tastes like gnat’s piss!”
Atsuko paid no attention. “There’s something wrong with my assistant,” she said in the hope of getting some advice from him.
“Her too?” Even the normally docile Tokita was surprised. “Tsumura was subjected to subliminal projections that caused his trauma to be released at the imperceptible rate of one-twentieth of a second every three minutes of real time. Truly ingenious.”
“Who could have programmed the device? Was it Himuro?”
“Well, whoever it was, the program came from Himuro’s partition. But what would Himuro gain by doing that? No, someone else must have made him do it. Don’t worry. I’ll wring it out of him.”
“No, I’d rather you waited. We don’t know what the enemy would do if they found out.”
“Well, I can get it out of him any time you like.” Tokita seemed inordinately keen to “get it out of” his almost equally obese junior. “He’ll soon spit it out.”
“Not yet, though. Please.”
“Oh, that reminds me. You know that DC Mini thing? I cracked it late last night.”
Tokita casually announced his breathtaking achievement with the same nonchalance as if he’d just scribbled off a short essay. D stood for Daedalus, C for Collector. Tokita took something out of his pocket and placed it on a corner of Atsuko’s desk. It was a conical object about a centimeter high, with a base about seven or eight millimeters in diameter.
“This is the DC Mini? What about the cables?”
“No need for cables. Same as the Daedalus.”
“Ah!” Atsuko sighed in admiration. “You’ve done it at last!”
“Yeah. It transmits the content of different people’s dreams to each other’s brains, so it doesn’t need fiber bundles anymore. After all, if we’re going to use biochemical elements, we might as well let them communicate by synaptic transmission, using the natural transmission width at bioenergy level.”
“Er, sorry to ask a stupid question, but does it use bioelectric current?”
“It does that. It applies nonlinear undulation using the conductive surge of bioelectric current. You see, bioelectric current allows us to produce a new type of communication based on synaptic transmission, by varying the BTU output.”
“So at what distance will it still be effective without cables?”
“Ah well, that’s something I don’t know yet. I think certainly up to a hundred meters, even with obstacles. But then again, I think anaphylaxis might occur with repeated use.”
“You mean some kind of hypersensitivity, the opposite of immunity? In other words, the effective range will increase the more you use it? Priceless. And how do you fit it on the patient’s head?”
“You just stick it on.”
“What do you mean?”
“You just press it on, so the point sticks into the skin. Well, you don’t have to go as far as that. Just bury it in their hair.”
“What if they’re bald?”
“Stick it on with tape.”
“And you call it the DC Mini. Brilliant. Are you going to announce it at the Board Meeting?” A meeting was scheduled for one o’clock that afternoon.
“What? Don’t you want me to?” Tokita looked unhappy.
“Well, no, actually. Best keep it under wraps for the time being.”
Atsuko was about to explain the reason for that when the part-time director Owada walked in. Owada was Chairman of the National Association of Surgeons and Director of the Owada General Hospital. Without even a peremptory glance at his own desk, which he hardly ever used, he went straight to confront Atsuko. “How does Doctor Shima plan to deal with this Paprika business, I wonder?” he asked.
“By keeping it hidden from the media, of course.”
“Of course. Otherwise we’d certainly be up a creek.” Six years earlier, Owada had asked Paprika to treat the Minister of Agriculture for neurosis. Of all the directors, he was the one most firmly on Shima’s side. “But Inui says if we’re to keep it hidden from the media, you’ll have to resign your post as director.”
“It’s a bit late for that now, isn’t it?” Tokita weighed in with some indignation. “All the directors were lining up to book Paprika for their friends when the treatment was illegal.”
“And that’s why you have to take a stand,” Owada continued, ignoring Tokita. “Say you’ll publicly reveal you were Paprika if you’re asked to resign. The only one who won’t be wetting himself is Inui. Since he never had anything to do with Paprika in the first place.”
Atsuko shook her head. “I don’t want to do that.”
“Just think of the scandal!” Tokita seemed to revel in the idea. He thrust out his lower lip and grinned like a child.
Morio Osanai, trusty sidekick to the Vice President, entered with his pale forehead gleaming. “Ah, Doctor Owada. There you are. Doctor Inui wonders if you could meet him in the Vice President’s Office.”
“Right away.”
“Don’t let yourself be won over,” Atsuko said as Owada made his way out.
Osanai had already stepped out into the corridor. He turned and smiled with a glint in his eye.
Just before one o’clock, the two other part-time directors arrived and joined the rest of the Board in the Meeting Room. The meeting was chaired by the President and Institute Administrator, Torataro Shima. Next to him sat the Secretary-General Katsuragi; everyone else just sat where they liked. As it happened, Owada, Tokita, and Atsuko all took seats on one side and their three opponents on the other, with the unintended result that the two opposing factions sat glaring at each other across the table. Directly opposite Tokita was Seijiro Inui, Vice President of the Foundation and Chairman of the National Psychopathological Association. He was thin and sported a graying beard. His appearance betrayed a certain fastidiousness; like Abraham Lincoln, he seemed to possess an instinct for justice bordering on the
fanatical.
“Well now, you’ll note I didn’t write a detailed agenda for this Meeting,” started Secretary-General Katsuragi, who was also a Managing Director.
Whereupon the stern tones of Inui’s voice, reminiscent of some dull metal being struck, sounded out across the room. “You mean you couldn’t write it.”
Aiwa Bank Chairman Hotta, sitting to Inui’s right, smiled fawningly at the Vice President.
“Well, in any case,” President Shima said with a smile of his own, “I think you’ll all know why it wasn’t possible to write an agenda. And anyway, since nearly all of you asked for this Board Meeting to be held, you all knew what would be discussed and so there was no need to write it down.”
“But we need to report the agenda to the Ministry, don’t we. We’ll have to work out what to write later on. Heh heh.” Katsuragi laughed feebly.
“It’s not a laughing matter,” said Inui, his stern expression unrelenting. “We should be ashamed of ourselves for discussing things so secretively.”
“But back in the days when everyone was clamoring for Paprika, none of us thought it remotely shameful, did we,” said Owada. “On the contrary, we were all very much in favor of it. We all wanted to know how effective the PT devices could be for actual treatment.”
“That’s in the past, it’s nothing to do with it,” Koji Ishinaka interjected grumpily. He was the Chairman of Ishinaka Real Estate, a company that had donated a huge sum of money to fund the Institute. It was thanks to Ishinaka that the Institute could own such impressive facilities and its senior executives could all live in high-class apartments. “Precisely because Doctor Chiba has now been shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Paprika episode is being tossed about as our skeleton in the closet.”
“Are you saying you want us to reveal Paprika’s identity?” Shima said with a puzzled look. “Even though it would tarnish Doctor Chiba’s reputation as one of our directors? Not to mention that of the Institute itself?”
“Well, if you put it that way,” Ishinaka said peevishly. “That would of course be undesirable.”
“Mr. President,” said Inui, turning to face Shima. “This secretiveness will inevitably spread to other things; you’ll just find yourself having to hide more and more unpalatable facts. Look at the incident with Tsumura. If there really is any danger in using the PT devices, it will reflect badly on you if you fail to disclose it now, while you still can.”
“There is no danger in using the PT devices,” Atsuko threw in hurriedly, before Tokita could say anything more damaging. “And I think we’ll soon know what caused Tsumura’s condition.”
“On the issue of Paprika,” Hotta said with some hesitation. “Well, Doctor Chiba was not a director at the time, so it was merely an illegal act committed by a member of staff …” Hotta halted in mid-sentence, as if to say “Think the rest out for yourselves.”
“Are you asking me to resign?” Atsuko challenged Hotta with a steady glare.
“Well, I mean, just until this fuss about Paprika has died down a bit.” Hotta was unsettled all right. “Temporarily, I mean. Just temporarily. As long as Doctor Chiba is not a director, the Institute could not be harmed even if the true identity of Paprika were revealed. And after all, you’re just coming up to the end of your three-year term, aren’t you …”
“And what about all the benefits brought to this Institute by Paprika, then?” asked Tokita, unable to hold back any longer. “What about the generous endowments received from politicians and financiers who were cured by Paprika, for starters? If it weren’t for them, we would never have made such progress with the PT devices! For behind such advances in science, you will always find adventures and experiments that go against the sentiment of the masses!”
“That old chestnut again, is it?” asked Inui, turning on Tokita with a look of rage in his eyes. “You always say that, don’t you. But that and Doctor Chiba’s unconditional faith in the safety of PT devices show that you have absolutely no self-awareness regarding the volatile nature of science and technology. You see yourselves as brave pioneers riding on the leading edge of discovery! Where’s your sense of social responsibility? You should be ashamed to call yourselves scientists!”
13
“Now now, Doctor Inui,” said President Shima, doing his best to force a smile. He was already fed up with Inui’s fanatical view of scientific ethics. “I shall have to take some of the blame for that. It was after all me who encouraged our two friends to challenge ever greater developments in their research.”
“What exactly does Doctor Inui mean by ‘the volatile nature of science and technology’?” Owada suddenly demanded with some annoyance. “Is he suggesting that our two friends have ridden roughshod, as it were, on the wave of technological development? What they’ve done is to apply cutting-edge technology to the treatment of schizophrenia for the very first time. That’s precisely why they’ve been shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.”
“And that is precisely the problem,” countered Inui. His expression was transformed at the merest mention of the Nobel Prize. The sides of his mouth became distorted and his nostrils broadened to quite grotesque effect. How he must have detested that prize! “As I said before, even schizophrenics are human, and technology that enters directly into their psyche to treat them – yes, technology that could even be applied to normal subjects – should have been discussed in the minutest detail beforehand, from the angle of medical ethics. But that notwithstanding, Tokita tell us he’s already developing the next generation of equipment based on the alleged therapeutic effect of these PT devices – even though not a single patient has been completely cured by them! We don’t even know what after-effects they may have. And he’s been spending colossal amounts in the process, I may add.”
“Eh? Colossal amounts?” Tokita seemed utterly mortified; he certainly hadn’t expected an attack on that level. “I haven’t used any colossal amounts!”
“Surely you saw the financial statements at the last Board Meeting?” said Shima, eyeing Inui suspiciously. “All those amounts were checked by our auditors and duly approved by the Ministry.”
“Yes, but unbeknownst to us, LSIs and other things were subsequently purchased from Tokyo Electronics Giken. Yamabe tells me the cost was astronomical.” Yamabe, an auditor in cahoots with Inui, also acted as a consultant for the Medical Appliances Union.
“I didn’t use that many LSIs, did I?” Tokita muttered with head hung low, as if he wasn’t quite sure. “Did the cost go up suddenly? If so, let’s not buy them from Giken anymore.”
“Er, I’m not sure we can pull out now,” said Secretary-General Katsuragi with a pained smile and a scratch of the head. “We have a good relationship with them …”
“I read the article about the recent press conference. What are these new devices you mention?” demanded Ishinaka. Unlike Inui, he and Hotta were completely in favor of developing the technology further. “Spare me the scientific jargon, but could you just tell me what purpose they’ll serve?”
“We’re not at the stage where we can discuss anything yet,” Tokita replied curtly, irked that Atsuko had forbidden him to mention it. “And even if we could, the Vice President would only claim it was the work of the Devil or something.”
“I’m sorry, but we’re the directors and you have to tell us everything,” said Hotta with an exaggerated expression of disapproval. “Doctor Shima. You must know. Details of research conducted by a research institute must surely be reported to its President?”
“Unfortunately not, in this case. Doctor Tokita produces better results if we just let him get on with it, as it were. Well, I hear he’s trying to develop what he calls a ‘Daedalus’ by removing the cables from the gorgon. But in any case, you must know that a genius like Doctor Tokita will make amazing discoveries and inventions quite fortuitously, and that’s not something you can tie down.”
The gullible Shima was starting to expose his uncritic
al pride in Tokita. Inui pulled a sour face. “Whatever the case, I trust you won’t forget our guiding principles as scientists. These devices must be designed with functions to prevent abuse by society.”
That last phrase gave Atsuko a nasty start. Had Tokita designed the DC Mini with a function to prevent unauthorized access, a protective code? That seemed unlikely, given that Tokita was completely incapable of such meticulous aforethought. And judging by the way he stiffened momentarily at the very mention of it, Atsuko was sure he hadn’t. She knew the errors he was likely to make even better than he did.
“By the way, Doctor Chiba isn’t the only one whose term ends soon, is she,” chirped Hotta, lightening his tone deliberately. “Of course, reelection isn’t prohibited, but that’s not the point. Doctor Inui’s grievances with the Institute’s management are quite clear from his statements here today. So how about asking Doctor Shima to stand down for a while and letting Doctor Inui take over as, you know, President of the Foundation? After all, it would help prevent undue bias in the Institute’s work …” This was a carefully planned statement designed to take the enemy by surprise.
Atsuko had feared this very turn of events. “Only the Minister of Education is authorized to appoint the President,” she said a little too sharply.
“Well, yes, but the President can also be coopted from the directors before that,” Ishinaka said darkly. “In that case, the decision would only have to be vetted by the Minister.”
“Or else I could resign,” laughed Shima, well-meaning as ever.
“Is this the first time you’ve broached the issue with the President?” Atsuko asked with a stare fixed on Hotta. “If so, don’t you think your approach is a little discourteous?”
“Ah. I suppose it was unduly hasty of me. Awfully sorry. As you say, I should have prepared the ground properly first. I was merely stating my impression in reaction to what Doctor Inui has said. I haven’t even broached the issue with Doctor Inui himself, how very rude of me.” It was a stereotypical display of mock concern. “So I wonder if we could consider the coopting issue before the next Board Meeting?”
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