Free Our Friends From Frolix 8 by Philip K Dick Page A

would have on the average citizen, if Cordon did a thing of this sort.’
    ‘They’d know that all the love and gift-giving and mutual help and empathy and cooperation among Old Men, New Men and Unusuals — they’d know it was so much bombastic bilge. And I’d be rid of Irma. Don’t forget that part, Director; don’t forget that part.’
    ‘I’m not forgetting that part,’ Barnes said, ‘but I still don’t see how it can be done.’
    ‘At Cordon’s execution,’ Gram said, ‘all top officials of the government will be present, including wives – my wife. Cordon will be brought out by a dozen or so armed police guards. The TV cameras will be getting it all; don’t forget that. Then all of a sudden, by just one of those flukes that happens, Cordon grabs a hand weapon from an occifer, aims it at me, but misses me and snuffs Irma, who will of course be sitting beside me.’
    ‘Jesus God,’ Director Barnes said heavily; he felt enormous weight gather over him, bowing him down. ‘Are we supposed to alter Cordon’s brain so he’s compelled to do it? Or do we just ask him to, if he’d mind—’
    ‘Cordon will already be snuffed,’ Gram said. ‘The day before at the latest.’
    ‘Then how—’
    Gram said, ‘His brain will be replaced by a synthetic neuro-control turret which will direct him to do what we want him – or it, rather – to do. That’s easy enough. We’ll get Amos Ild to install it.’
    ‘The New Man who’s building the Great Ear?’ Barnes asked. ‘You intend to ask
him
to help you do this?’
    ‘It’s like this,’ Gram said. ‘If he doesn’t, I’ll cut off all funds for the development of the Great Ear. And we’ll get some other New Man capable of scooping out Cordon’s brain—’ He halted – Alice Noyes had shuddered. ‘Sorry. Remove his brain, then, if you prefer it put that way. In any case, it’s the same thing. What do you say, Barnes? Isn’t this brilliant?’ He paused. There was silence. ‘Answer me.’
    ‘It would help,’ Barnes said carefully, ‘to discredit the Under Man movement. But the risk is too great. The risk outweighs the possible gain; you have to look at it that way… with all due respects.’
    ‘What risk?’
    ‘First of all, you’ll have to bring a top-level New Man into this, which makes you dependent on them, which you absolutely don’t want to be. And those laboratory synthetic brains they’re making in their research centers – they’re not dependable. It might go berk and shoot everyone, including you. I wouldn’t want to be out there when that thing emergeswith a gun and starts through its programming; I want to be a million miles away, for the sake of my own hide.’
    ‘You don’t like the idea, then,’ Gram said.
    ‘My statement could be so construed,’ Barnes said, pulsing inside with indignation. Which Gram, of course, picked up.
    ‘What do you think, Noyes?’ Gram asked the police-woman.
    ‘I think,’ Noyes said, ‘that it’s the most fantastically brilliant plan I’ve ever encountered.’
    ‘See?’ Gram said to Barnes.
    Curious, Barnes said to her, ‘When did you arrive at that conclusion? A moment ago when the Council Chairman talked about—’
    ‘It was merely his choice of words, that to-do with scooping,’ Noyes said. ‘But now I see it in perspective.’
    ‘It’s the finest idea that has ever come to me in all the years I’ve spent in the Civil Service and this top office,’ Gram said proudly.
    ‘Maybe so,’ Barnes said wearily. ‘Maybe it is.’ Which, he thought, is a commentary on you.
    Picking up Barnes’ thoughts, Gram scowled.
    ‘Just a fleeting, dubious thought,’ Barnes said. ‘A doubt which I’m sure will presently be gone.’ He had momentarily forgotten about Gram’s telepathic ability. But even if he had remembered, he nonetheless would have thought the thought.
    ‘True,’ Gram said, nodding as he picked up this, too. ‘Do you want to resign, Barnes?’ he asked. ‘And