Free Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick by Philip K. Dick Page A

coming in with you, not for you.”
    “With me?” Rethrick stared at him. Slowly a film settled over his face, an ugly hard film. “I don't understand what you mean.”
    “You and I are going to run Rethrick Construction together. That'll be the way, from now on. And no one will be burning my memory out, for their own safety.”
    “That's what you want?”
    “Yes.”
    “And if we don't cut you in?”
    “Then the schematics and films go to the SP. It's as simple as that. But I don't want to. I don't want to destroy the Company. I want to get into the Company! I want to be safe. You don't know what it's like, being out there, with no place to go. An individual has no place to turn to, anymore. No one to help him. He's caught between two ruthless forces, a pawn between political and economic powers. And I'm tired of being a pawn.”
    For a long time Rethrick said nothing. He stared down at the floor, his face dull and blank. At last he looked up. “I know it's that way. That's something I've known for a long time. Longer than you have. I'm a lot older than you. I've seen it come, grow that way, year after year. That's why Rethrick Construction exists. Someday, it'll be all different. Someday, when we have the scoop and the mirror finished. When the weapons are finished.”
    Jennings said nothing.
    “I know very well how it is! I'm an old man. I've been working a long time. When they told me someone had got out of the Plant with schematics, I thought the end had come. We already knew you had damaged the mirror. We knew there was a connection, but we had parts figured wrong.
    “We thought, of course, that Security had planted you with us, to find out what we were doing. Then, when you realized you couldn't carry out your information, you damaged the mirror. With the mirror damaged, SP could go ahead and—”
    He stopped, rubbing his cheek.
    “Go on,” Jennings said.
    “So you did this alone … Blackmail. To get into the Company. You don't know what the Company is for, Jennings! How dare you try to come in! We've been working and building for a long time. You'd wreck us, to save your hide. You'd destroy us, just to save yourself.”
    “I'm not wrecking you. I can be a lot of help.”
    “I run the Company alone. It's my Company. I made it, put it together. It's mine.”
    Jennings laughed. “And what happens when you die? Or is the revolution going to come in your own lifetime?”
    Rethrick's head jerked up.
    “You'll die, and there won't be anyone to go on. You know I'm a good mechanic. You said so yourself. You're a fool, Rethrick. You want to manage it all yourself. Do everything, decide everything. But you'll die, someday. And then what will happen?”
    There was silence.
    “You better let me in—for the Company's good, as well as my own. I can do a lot for you. When you're gone the Company will survive in my hands. And maybe the revolution will work.”
    “You should be glad you're alive at all! If we hadn't allowed you to take your trinkets out with you—”
    “What else could you do? How could you let men service your mirror, see their own futures, and not let them lift a finger to help themselves. It's easy to see why you were forced to insert the alternate-payment clause. You had no choice.”
    “You don't even know what we are doing. Why we exist.”
    “I have a good idea. After all, I worked for you two years.”
    Time passed. Rethrick moistened his lips again and again, rubbing his cheek. Perspiration stood out on his forehead. At last he looked up.
    “No,” he said. “It's no deal. No one will ever run the Company but me. If I die, it dies with me. It's my property.”
    Jennings became instantly alert. “Then the papers go to the Police.”
    Rethrick said nothing, but a peculiar expression moved across his face, an expression that gave Jennings a sudden chill.
    “Kelly,” Jennings said. “Do you have the papers with you?”
    Kelly stirred, standing up. She put out her cigarette, her face