None of them came in more than two days a week but use of these offices was rotated among them so all were ordinarily occupied and workers, going upstairs to the stock depot, could see paraNormals in various stages of relaxation. Usually the paraNormal kept his feet on a desk rest and, eyes closed, contemplated incoming entertainment. On rarer occasions he would be leaning over a doc.u.ment on the desk as his mind received the proper decision from Central.
This particular morning Connor was feeling bitterly envious as he went by the offices. He had already seen seven smugly-similar faces when he came by Room Eight. Suddenly the face of its occupant contorted in agony, then the man got up and paced about as if in a trap. Deciding he had seen more than was good for him, Connor hurried on. But the man in Nine was acting out the same curious drama. He quickly retraced his steps, pa.s.sing one scene of consternation after another, and went back down to the work floor, wondering what it all meant.
Soon everybody knew something extraordinary was afoot as all the paraNormals swarmed noisily onto the runway overlooking the floor. They were shouting wordless sounds at each other, floundering about as they did so. Then, with equal suddenness, everything was calm again and, faces more relaxed, they went back into their offices.
That evening Connor heard the same story everywhere--for ten minutes all paraNormals had gone berserk. On the monorail he noticed that, though still more relaxed than their unwelcome fellows, they no longer exuded that grating _absolute_ sense of security. No doubt about it--for a few minutes something had gone wrong, completely wrong, with the Central System. "I don"t like it," Rhoda said. "Let"s see Dr. Newbridge tomorrow."
"I"ll bet it"s a good sign."
Newbridge, though, was also worried when they got to see him. "They"re losing some of their self-confidence," he said, "and that means they"re going to start noticing us. Figure it out, Newman, about one-third the population of Earth--n.o.body can get exact figures--is outside the System. The paraNormals will want to reduce our numbers if more breakdowns take place. I"ll have to go into hiding soon."
"But why you of all people?" Connor protested.
"Because I and a few thousand others like me represent not only an alternative way of life--all Suspendeds do that--but we possess more intensive knowledge for rehabilitating society after Central"s collapse.
That collapse may come much sooner than we"ve been expecting. When it does we"re going to have enormous hordes of paras milling around, helplessly waiting to learn how to think for themselves again. Well, when we finally reach the telepath stage next time we"ll have to manage it better." He took out an envelope. "If anything happens to me, this contains the names of some people you"re to contact."
"Why don"t you come to our place now?" asked Rhoda. "We"ll still be able to hold it for a few more months."
"Can"t go yet, too many things to clear up. But maybe later." He rose and extended his hand to them. "Anyway it"s a kind--and brave--offer."
"Sounds overly melodramatic to me," Connor said when they were outside.
"Who"d want to harm a psychiatric worker with no knowledge except what"s in his head and his personal library?"
But he stopped harping on the point when they reached the monorail station. Three Suspendeds, obviously better educated than most, were being led away by a large group of paraNormals. The paraNormals had their smug expressions back but there was a strange gleam of determination in their eyes. "Sometimes life itself gets overly melodramatic," Rhoda said nervously.
The possible fate of these arrested men haunted him all the way home as did the hostile stares of the people in the monorail car. At home, though, there was the momentary consolation of a pair of letters from the boys. There was little information in them but they did at least convey in every line love for their parents.
But even this consolation did not last long. Why, Connor muttered to himself, did they have to wait for letters when telephone and radio systems could have eased their loneliness so much more effectively?
Because the paras did not need such systems and their needs were the only ones that mattered! His fingers itched to achieve something more substantial than the work, now childishly routine, that he was doing at the factory. Just from studying Max he knew he could devise such workable communication systems. But all that was idle daydreaming--it wouldn"t be in his lifetime.
The next morning Rhoda insisted they go back into the city to try once more to persuade Newbridge to leave. When they arrived at the Harker Building it seemed strangely quiet. The few people who were about kept avoiding each others" glances and they found themselves alone in the elevator to the 96th level. But Miss Richards, the doctor"s nurse-secretary, was standing in the corridor as they got out. She was trembling and found it difficult to talk. "Don"t--don"t go in," she stuttered. "No help now."
He pushed past her, took one glance at the fire-charred consulting room where a few blackened splinters of bone remained and turned away, leading the two women to the elevator. At first Miss Richards did not want to go but he forced her to come along. "You have to get away from here--can"t do any good for him now."
She sucked in air desperately, blinked back her tears and nodded. "There was another ten-minute breakdown this morning. A lot of paraNormals panicked and a vigilante pack came here to fire-blast the Doctor. They said I"d be next if things got any worse."
Connor pinched his forehead to hold back his own anguish, then pulled out a sheet of paper. "Dr. Newbridge was afraid of something like this.
He gave me a list of names."
"I know, Mr. Newman, I know them by heart."
"Shouldn"t we try to contact one of them?"
As they came out into the street, she stopped and thought a moment.
"Crane would be the easiest to reach. He"s an unt.i.tled psychiatrist and one of the alternate leaders for the underground."
"Underground?"
"Oh, they tried to be prepared for every eventual--"
"It"s impossible!" Rhoda broke in. She had been looking up and down the great avenue as they talked. "There isn"t one person in the street, not one!"
An abandoned robot cab stood at the curb and he threw open the door.
"Come on, get in! Something"s happening. Miss Richards, set it for this Crane"s address."
The cab started to shoot uptown, turning a corner into another deserted boulevard. As it skirted the great Park, he pointed at Central Tower.
There seemed to be a slight crack in the smooth surface half way up but, as a moment"s mist engulfed the tower, it looked flawless again. Then all the mist was gone and the crack was back, a little larger than before.
Connor leaned forward and set the cab for top speed as they rounded into the straight-away of another uptown street. Occasionally they caught glimpses of frightened faces, clumped in lobby entrances, and once two bodies came flying out of a window far ahead. "They"re killing our people everywhere," moaned the nurse.
As they approached the crushed forms, Connor slowed down a little.
"They"re dressed too well--what"s left of them. They"re paraNormals!"
A minute later they were at the large apartment block where Crane lived.
They entered the building through a lobby jammed with more silent people. All were Suspendeds.
At first Crane did not want to let the trio in but when he recognized Newbridge"s nurse he unlocked the heavily-bolted door. He was a ma.s.sively-built man with dark eyes set deeply beneath a jutting brow and the eyes did not blink as Miss Richards told him what had happened.
"We"ll miss him," he said, then turned abruptly on Connor. "Have you any skills?"
"Robotics," he answered.
The great head nodded as Connor told of his experience at work and on Max. "Good, we"re going to need people like you for rebuilding." He pulled a radio sender and receiver from a cabinet and held an earphone close to his temple, continuing to nod. Then he put it down again. "I know what you"re going to say--illegal, won"t work and all that. Well, a few of us have been waiting for the chance to build our own communication web and now we can do it."
"I just want to know why you keep mentioning _our_ rebuilding. They"re more likely to destroy all of us in their present mood."
"_Us?_" He took them to the window and pointed toward the harbor where thousands of black specks were tumbling into the water. "They"re destroying themselves! Some jumping from buildings but most pouring toward the sea, a kind of oceanic urge to escape completely from themselves, to bury themselves in something infinitely bigger than their separate hollow beings. Before they were more like contented robots. Now they"re more like suicidal lemmings because they can"t exist without this common brain to which they"ve given so little and from which they"ve taken so much."
Connor squared his shoulders. "We"ll have our work cut out for us. Dr.
Newbridge saw it all coming, you did too."
"Not quite," Crane sighed. "We a.s.sumed that at the time of complete breakdown the System would open up, throwing all the Subscribers out of it, leaving them disconnected from each other and waiting for our help.
But it worked out in just the opposite manner!"
"You mean that the System is staying closed as it breaks down? Like a telephone exchange in which all the lines remained connected and every call went to all telephones."
"Exactly," Crane replied.
"I don"t understand this technical talk," Rhoda protested, watching in hypnotized horror as the speck swarm swelled ever larger in the sea.
"I"ll put it this way," Crane explained. "Their only hope was to have time to develop the desire for release from the System as it died. But they are dying _inside_ it. You see, Mrs. Newman, every thought in every paraNormal"s head, every notion, every image, no matter how stupidly trivial, is now pouring into every other paraNormal"s head. They"re over-communicating to the point where there"s nothing left to communicate but death itself!"
THE END