The Demolished Man

by Alfred Bester

  (Conviction)

  T’sung:

  That’s true. Nevertheless I’m reluctant to authorize the Mass Cathexis Measure. You will recall that the MCM has invariably destroyed the human energy canal in past attempts. You’re too valuable to be destroyed, Powell.

  Powell:

  I must be permitted to run the risk, Reich is one of the rare Universe-shakers…a child as yet, but about to mature. And all reality… Espers, Normals, Life, the earth, the solar system, the universe itself…all reality hangs precarlously on his awakening. He cannot be permitted to awake to the wrong reality. I call the question.

  Franion:

  You’re asking us to vote your death.

  Powell:

  It’s my death against the eventual death of everything we know. I call the question.

  @kins:

  Let Reich awaken as he will. We have the time and the warning to attack him at another crossroad.

  Powell:

  Question! I call the question!

  (Request granted)

  Meeting adjourned

  Clock face

  Hour hand at 9

  Minute hand at 01

  Second hand at Demolition

  Powell arrived home an hour later. He had made his will, paid his bills, signed his papers, arranged everything. There had been dismay at the Guild. There was dismay when he came home. Mary Noyes read what he had done the instant he entered.

  “Linc—”

  “No fuss. It’s got to be done.”

  “But—”

  “There’s a chance it won’t kill me. Oh… One reminder. Lab wants a brain autopsy as soon as I’m dead…if I die. I’ve signed all the papers, but I wish you’d help in case there’s trouble. They’d like to have the body before rigor. If they can’t get the corpse they’ll settle for the head. See to it, will you?”

  “Linc!”

  “Sorry. Now you’d better pack and take the baby up to Kingston Hospital. She won’t be safe here.”

  “She isn’t a baby any more. She—”

  Mary turned and ran upstairs, trailing the familiar sensory impact: Snow / mint / tulips / taffeta…and now mixed with terror and tears. Powell sighed, then smiled as a highly poised teen-ager appeared at the head of the stairs and came down with grand insouciance. She was wearing a dress and an expression of rehearsed surprise. She paused halfway down to let him take in the dress and the manner.

  “Why! It’s Mr. Powell, is it not?”

  “It is. Good morning, Barbara.”

  “And what brings you to our little domain this morning?” She came down the rest of the stairs with her fingertips brushing the bannister and tripped on the bottom step. “Oh Pip!” she squawked.

  Powell caught her. “Pop,” he said.

  “Bim.”

  “Bam.”

  She looked up at him. “You stand right here. I’m going to come down those stairs again and I bet I do it perfect.”

  “I’ll bet you don’t.”

  She turned, trotted up and posed again at the top step. “Dear Mr. Powell, what a scatter-brain you must think me…” She began the grand descent. “You must re-evaluate your opinion of me. I am no longer the mere child I was yesterday. I am ages and ages older. You must regard me as an adult from now on.” She negotiated the bottom step and regarded him intently. “Re-evaluate? Is that right?”

  “Revaluate is sometimes preferred, dear.”

  “I thought it had an extra sound.” Suddenly she laughed, pushed him into a chair, and plumped down on his lap. Powell groaned.

  “Gently, Barbara. You’re ages older and pounds heavier.”

  “Listen,” she said. “What ever made me think you was… Were? Were my father?”

  “What’s the matter with me as a father?”

  “Let’s be frank. Real frank.”

  “Sure.”

  “Do you feel like a father toward me? Because I don’t feel like a daughter toward you.”

  “Oh? How do you feel?”

  “I asked first, so you go first.”

  “My feelings toward you are those of a loving and dutiful son.”

  “No. Be serious.”

  “I have resolved to be a trustworthy son to all women until Vulcan assumes its rightful place is the Community of Planets.”

  She flushed angrily and got up from his lap. “I wanted you to be serious, because I need advice. But if you—”

  “I’m sorry, Barbara. What is it?”

  She knelt alongside him and took his hand. “I’m all mixed up about you.”

  She looked into his eyes with the alarming directness of the young. “You know.”

  After a pause, he nodded. “Yes. I know.”

  “And you’re all mixed up about me, too. I know.”

  “Yes, Barbara. That’s true. I am.”

  “Is it wrong?”

  Powell heaved up from the chair and began pacing unhappily. “No, Barbara, it isn’t wrong. It’s…mistimed.”

  “I want you to tell me about it.”

  “Tell you…? Yes, I suppose I’d better. I… I’ll put it this way, Barbara. The two of us are four people. There’s two of you, and two of me.”

  “Why?”

  “You’ve been sick, dear. So we had to turn you into a baby and let you grow up again. That’s why you’re two people. The grown-up Barbara inside, and the baby outside.”

  “And you?”

  “I’m two grown-up people. One of them is me… Powell… The other is a member of the governing Council of the Esper Guild.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It doesn’t need explaining. It’s the part of me that’s got me mixed up… God knows, maybe it’s the baby part. I don’t know.”

  She considered earnestly, then said slowly. “When I don’t feel like a daughter to you…which me feels like that?”

  “I don’t know, Barbara.”

  “You do know. Why won’t you say?” She came to him and put her arms around his neck…a grown-up woman with the manner of a child. “If it isn’t wrong, why won’t you say? If I love you—”

  “Who said anything about love!”

  “It’s what we’re talking about, isn’t it? lsn’t it? I love you and you love me. Isn’t that it?”

  “All right,” Powell thought desperately. “Here it is. What are you going to do? Admit the truth?”

  “Yes!” From the stairs. Mary was descending with a travelling case in her hand. “Admit the truth.”

  “She isn’t a peeper.”

  “Forget that. She’s a woman and she’s in love with you. You’re in love with her. Please, Linc, give yourselves a chance.”

  “A chance for what? An affair if I get out of this Reich mess alive? That’s all it could be. You know the Guild won’t let us marry normals.”

  “She’ll settle for that. She’ll be grateful to settle for that. Ask me. I know.”

  “And if I don’t come out alive? She’ll have nothing… Nothing but half a memory of half a love.”

  “No, Barbara,” he said. “That isn’t it at all.”

  “It is,” she insisted. “It is!”

  “No. It’s the baby part of you talking. The baby thinks she’s in love with me. The woman is not.”

  “She’ll grow up into the woman.”

  “And she’ll forget all about me.”

  “You’ll make her remember.”

  “Why should I, Barbara?”

  “Because you feel that way about me, too. I know you do.”

  Powell laughed. “Baby! Baby! Baby! What makes you think I’m in love with you that way? I’m not. I’ve never been.”

  “You are!”

  “Open your eyes, Barbara. Look at me. Look at Mary. You’re ages older, aren’t you? Can’t you understand? Do I have to explain the obvious?”

  “For God’s sake, Linc!”

  “Sorry, Mary. Got to use you.”

  “I’m getting ready to say goodbye… Maybe for good… Do I have to endure this? Isn
’t it bad enough for me already?”

  “Shhhhh. Gently, dear…”

  Barbara stared at Mary, then at Powell. She shook her head slowly. “You’re lying.”

  “Am I? Look at me.” He put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her face. Dishonest Abe came to his assistance. His expression was kind, tolerant, amused, patronizing. “Look at me, Barbara.”

  “No!” she cried. “Your face is lying. It’s… It’s hateful! I—” She burst into tears and sobbed: “Oh go away. Why don’t you go away?”

  “We’re going away, Barbara.” Mary said. She came forward, took the girl’s arm and led her to the door.

  “There’s a Jumper waiting, Mary.”

  “There’s me waiting, Linc. For you. Always. And the Chervils & @kins & Jordans &&&&&&&—”

  “I know. I know. I love you all. Kisses. XXXXXX. Blessings…”

  Image of four-leaf clover, rabbits’ feet, horseshoes…

  Bawdy response of Powell emerging from slok covered with diamonds.

  Faint laughter.

  Farewell.

  He stood in the doorway whistling a crooked, plaintive tune, watching the Jumper disappear into the steel-blue sky boring north toward Kingston Hospital. He was exhausted. A little proud of himself for having made the sacrifice. Intensely ashamed of himself for feeling proud. Clearly melancholic. Should he take a grain of Potassium Niacate and kick himself up into the manic curve? What the hell was the use? Look at that great foul city of seventeen and one half million souls and not one soul for him. Look at—

  The first impulse came. A thin trickle of latent energy. He felt it distinctly and glanced at his watch. Ten-twenty. So soon? So quickly? Good. He’d better get ready.

  He turned into the house and darted up the stairs to his dressing room. The impulses came pattering…like the preliminary raindrops before a storm. His psyche began to throb and vibrate as he reached out and absorbed those tiny streams of latent energy. He changed his clothes, dressed for all weather, and—

  And what? The pattering had become a drizzle, washing over him, filling his consciousness with ague…with grinding emotional flashes…with—Yes, nutrient capsules. Hold on to that. Nutrient. Nutrient. Nutrient! He tumbled down the stairs into the kitchen. Found the plastic bulb, cracked it and swallowed a dozen capsules.

  The energy came in torrents now. From each Esper in the city, a trickle of latent power that merged and merged into a stream, a river, a swirling sea of Mass Cathexis directed toward Powell, tuned to Powell. He opened all blocks and absorbed it all. His nervous system superheterodyned and screamed and a turbine in his mind whirled faster and faster with a mounting intolerable whine.

  He was out of the house, wandering through the streets, blind, deaf, senseless, immersed in that boiling mass of latent energy…like a ship with sails caught in the nexus of a typhoon, fighting to convert a whirlpool of wind into the motive power that would lead to safety… S. Powell fought to absorb that fearful torrent, to Capitalize that latent energy, to Cathectize and direct it toward the Demolition of Reich before it was too late, too late, too late, too late, too late…

  16

  ABOLISH THE LABYRINTH.

  DESTROY THE MAZE.

  DELETE THE PUZZLE.

  (x² ø Y³d! Space/d! Time)

  DISBAND.

  (OPERATIONS, EXPRESSIONS, FACTORS, FRACTIONS, POWERS, EXPONENTS, RADICALS, IDENTITIES, EQUATIONS, PROGRESSIONS, VARIATIONS, PERMUTATIONS, DETERMINANTS, AND SOLUTIONS)

  EFFACE.

  (ELECTRON, PROTON, NEUTRON, MESON AND PHOTON)

  ERASE.

  (CAYLEY, HENSON, LILLIENTHAL, CHANUTE, LANGLEY, WRIGHT, TURNBUL AND S&ERSON)

  EXPUNGE.

  (NEBULAE, CLUSTERS, STREAMS, BINARIES, GIANTS, MAIN SEQUENCE, AND WHITE DWARFS)

  DISPERSE.

  (PISCES, AMPHIBIAN, BIRDS, MAMMALS, AND MAN)

  ABOLISH.

  DESTROY.

  DELETE.

  DISBAND.

  ERASE ALL EQUATIONS.

  INFINITY EQUALS ZERO.

  THERE IS NO—

  “—there is no what?” Reich shouted. “There is no what?” He struggled upward, fighting the bedclothes and the restraining hands. “There is no what?”

  “No more nightmares,” Duffy Wyg& said.

  “Who’s that?”

  “Me. Duffy.”

  Reich opened his eyes. He was in a frilly bedroom in a frilly bed with old-fashioned linen and blankets. Duffy Wyg&, starched and fresh, had her hands against his shoulders. Once again she tried to thrust him back against the pillows.

  “I’m asleep,” Reich said. “I want to wake up.”

  “You say the nicest things. Lie down and the dream will continue.”

  Reich fell back. “I was awake,” he said somberly. “I was wide awake for the first time in my life. I heard… I don’t know what I heard. Infinity and zero. Important things. Reality. Then I fell asleep and I’m here.”

  “Correction,” Duffy smiled. “Just for the record. You awoke.”

  “I’m asleep!” Reich shouted. He sat up. “Have you got a shot? Anything…opium, hemp, somnar, lethettes… I’ve got to wake up, Duffy. I’ve got to get back to reality.”

  Duffy bent over him and kissed him hard on the mouth. “How about this? Real?”

  “You don’t understand. It’s all been delusions…hallucinations…everything. I’ve got to readjust, reorientate, reorganize… Before it’s too late, Duffy. Before it’s too late, too late, too late…”

  Duffy threw up her hands. “What the hell’s happened to medicine!” she exclaimed. “First that damned doctor scares you into a faint. Then he swears you’re patched up…and now look at you. Psychotic!” She knelt on the bed and shook a finger against Reich’s nose. “One more word out of you and I call Kingston.”

  “What? Who?”

  “Kingston, as in hospital. Where they send people like you.”

  “No. Who did you say scared me into a faint?”

  “A doctor friend.”

  “In the square in front of police headquarters?”

  “X marks the spot.”

  “Sure?”

  “I was with him, looking for you. Your valet told me about the explosion and I was worried. We got to the rescue just in time.”

  “Did you see his face?”

  “See it? I’ve kissed it.”

  “What’s it look like?”

  “It’s a face. Two eyes. Two lips. Two ears. One nose. Three chins. Listen, Ben, if this is some more of the awaken-asleep-reality-infinity lyrics…it ain’t commercial.”

  “And you brought me here?”

  “Sure. How could I pass up the opportunity? It’s the only way I can get you into my bed.”

  Reich grinned. He relaxed and said: “Duffy, you may now kiss me.”

  “Mr. Reich, you have already been kissed. Or was that when you were still awake?”

  “Forget that. Nightmares. Plain nightmares.” Reich burst into laughter. “Why the hell should I worry about having nightmares? I have the rest of the world in my hands. I’ll take the dreams too. Didn’t you once ask to be dragged through the gutter, Duffy?”

  “That was a childish whim. I thought I could meet a better class of people.”

  “You name the gutter and you can have it, Duffy. Gold gutters… Jewelled gutters. You want a gutter from here to Mars? You’ll have it. You want me to turn the System into a gutter? I’ll do it. Christ! I can turn the Galaxy into a gutter if you want it.” He jabbed his chest with his thumb. “Want to look at God? Here I am. Go ahead and look.”

  “Dear man. So modest and so hung-over.”

  “Drunk? Sure, I’m drunk.” Reich thrust his legs out of the bed and stood up, reeling slightly. Duffy came to him at once and he put his arm around her waist for support. “Why shouldn’t I be drunk? I’ve licked D’Courtney. I’ve licked Powell. I’m forty years old. I’ve got sixty years of owning the whole world ahead of me. Yes. Duffy…the whole damned world!” He beg
an walking around the room with Duffy. It was like a stroll through her ebullient erotic mind. A peeper decorator had reproduced Duffy’s psyche perfectly in the decor.

  “How’d you like to start a dynasty with me, Duffy?”

  “I wouldn’t know about starting dynasties.”

  “You start with Ben Reich. First you marry him. Then—”

  “That’s enough. When do I start?”

  “Then you have children. Boys. Dozens of boys…”

  “Girls. And only three.”

  “And you watch Ben Reich take over D’Courtney and merge it with Monarch. You watch the enemies go down…like this!” In full stride, Reich kicked the leg of a busty vanity table. It toppled and crashed a score of crystal bottles to the floor.

  “After Monarch and D’Courtney become Reich, Incorporated, you watch me eat up the rest…the small ones…the fleas. Case and Umbrel on Venus. Eaten!” Reich brought his fist down on a torso-shaped side table and smashed it. “United Transaction on Mars. Mashed and eaten!” He crushed a delicate chair. “The GCI Combine on Ganymede, Callisto, and Io… Titan Chemical & Atomics… And then the smaller lice: the backbiters, the haters, the Guild of Peepers, the moralists, the patriots… Eaten! Eaten! Eaten!” He pounded his palm against a marble nude until it toppled from its pedestal and shattered.

  “Clever-up, dog,” Duffy hung on his neck. “Why waste all that dear violence? Punch me around a little.”

  He lifted her in his arms and shook her until she squealed. “And parts of the world will taste sweet…like you, Duffy; and parts will stink to high heaven…but I’ll gobble them all.” He laughed and crushed her against him. “I don’t know much about the God business, but I know what I like. We’ll tear it all down, Duffy, and we’ll build it all up to suit us… You and me and the dynasty.”

  He carried her to the window, tore away the drapes and kicked open the sashes with a mighty jangle of smashed glass. Outside, the city was in velvet darkness. Only the skyways and streets twinkled with lights, and the scarlet eyes of an occasional Jumper popped up over the jet skyline. The rain had stopped and a slender moon hung pale in the sky. The night wind came whispering in, cutting through the cloy of the spilled perfume.