John looked scornful. "Don"t be funny. Oh, well, it doesn"t matter. The point is that if you recite any line, I can carry on from there for as long as you like. I read some of the plays for English Lit cla.s.ses at college and some for myself and I can bring any of it back. I"ve tried. It flows! I suppose I can bring back any part of any book or article or newspaper I"ve ever read, or any TV show I"ve ever watched-word for word or scene for scene."
Susan said, "What will you do with all that?"
John said, "I don"t have that consciously in my head at all times. Surely you don"t-wait, let"s order-"
Five minutes later, he said, "Surely you don"t-My G.o.d, I haven"t forgotten where we left off. Isn"t it amazing?-Surely you don"t think I"m swimming in a mental sea of Shakespearean sentences at all times. The recall takes an effort, not much of one, but an effort."
"How does it work?"
"I don"t know. How do you lift your arm? What orders do you give your muscles? You just will the arm to lift upward and it does so. It"s no trouble to do so, but your arm doesn"t lift until until you want it to. Well, I remember anything I"ve ever read or seen when I want to but not when I don"t want to. I don"t know how to do it, but I do it." you want it to. Well, I remember anything I"ve ever read or seen when I want to but not when I don"t want to. I don"t know how to do it, but I do it."
The first course arrived and John tackled it happily.
Susan picked at her stuffed mushrooms. "It sounds exciting."
"Exciting? I"ve got the biggest, most wonderful toy in the world. My own brain. Listen, I can spell any word correctly and I"m pretty sure I won"t ever make any grammatical mistake."
"Because you remember all the dictionaries and grammars you ever read?"
John looked at her sharply. "Don"t be sarcastic, Sue."
"I wasn"t being-"
He waved her silent. "I never used dictionaries as light reading. But I do remember words and sentences in my reading and they were correctly spelled and correctly pa.r.s.ed."
"Don"t be so sure. You"ve seen any word misspelled in every possible way and every possible example of twisted grammar, too."
"Those were exceptions. By far the largest number of times I"ve encountered literary English, I"ve encountered it used correctly. It outweighs accidents, errors, and ignorance. What"s more, I"m sure I"m improving even as I sit here, growing more intelligent steadily."
"And you"re not worried. What if-"
"What if I become too too intelligent? Tell me how on Earth you think becoming too intelligent can be harmful." intelligent? Tell me how on Earth you think becoming too intelligent can be harmful."
"I was going to say," said Susan, coldly, "that what you"re experiencing is not intelligence. It"s only total recall."
"How do you mean "only"? If I recall perfectly, if I use the English language correctly, if I know endless quant.i.ties of material, isn"t that going to make me seem more intelligent? How else need one define intelligence? You aren"t growing just a little jealous, are you, Sue?"
"No," more coldly still. "I can always get an injection of my own if I feel desperate about it."
John put down his fork. "You can"t mean that."
"I don"t, but what if I did?"
"Because you can"t take advantage of your special knowledge to deprive me of my position."
"What position?"
The main course arrived and for a few moments, John was busy. Then he said, in a whisper, "My position as the first of the future. h.o.m.o superior! h.o.m.o superior! There"ll never be too many of us. You heard what Kupfer said. Some are too dumb to make it. Some are too smart to change much. I"m the one!" There"ll never be too many of us. You heard what Kupfer said. Some are too dumb to make it. Some are too smart to change much. I"m the one!"
"Dead average." One corner of Susan"s mouth lifted. average." One corner of Susan"s mouth lifted.
"Once I was. There"ll be others like me eventually. Not many, but there"ll be others. It"s just that I want to make my mark before the others come along. It"s for the firm, you know. Us!"
He remained lost in thought thereafter, testing his brain delicately.
Susan ate in an unhappy silence.
7.
John spent several days organizing his memories. It was like the preparation of an orderly reference book. One by one, he recalled all his experiences in the six years he had spent at Quantum Pharmaceuticals and all he had heard and all the papers and memos he had read.
There was no difficulty in discarding the irrelevant and unimportant and storing them in a "hold till further notice" compartment where they did not interfere with his a.n.a.lysis. Other items were put in order so that they established a natural progression.
Against that skeletal organization, he resurrected the scuttleb.u.t.t he had heard; the gossip, malicious or otherwise; casual phrases and interjections at conferences which he had not been conscious of hearing at the time. Those items which did not fit anywhere against the background he had built up in his head were worthless, empty of factual content. Those which did fit clicked firmly into place and could be seen as true by that mere fact.
The further the structure grew, and the more coherent, the more significant new items became and the easier it was to fit them in.
Ross stopped by John"s desk on Thursday. He said, "I want to see you in my office at the nonce, Heath, if your legs will deign to carry you in that direction."
John rose uneasily. "Is it necessary?" I"m busy."
"Yes, you look busy." Ross looked over the clear desk which, at the moment, held nothing but a studio photo of a smiling Susan. "You"ve been this busy all week. But you"ve asked me whether seeing me in my office is necessary. For me, no; but for you, vital. There"s the door to my office. There"s the door to the h.e.l.l out of here. Choose one or the other and do it fast."
John nodded and, without undue hurry, followed Ross into his office.
Ross seated himself behind his desk but did not invite John to sit. He maintained a hard stare for a moment, then said, "What the h.e.l.l"s got into you this week, Heath? Don"t you know what your job is?"
"To the extent that I have done it, it would seem that I do," said John. "The report on microcosmic is on your desk and complete and seven days ahead of deadline. I doubt that you can have complaints about it."
"You doubt, do you? Do I have permission to have complaints if I choose to after communing with my soul? Or am I condemned to applying to you for permission?"
"I apparently have not made myself plain, Mr. Ross. I doubt that you have rational rational complaints about it. To have those of the other variety is entirely up to you." complaints about it. To have those of the other variety is entirely up to you."
Ross rose now. "Listen, punk, if I decide to fire you, you won"t get the news by word of mouth. It won"t be anything I say that will give you the glad tidings. You will go out through the door in a violent tumble and mine will be the propulsive force behind that tumble. Just keep that in your small brain and your tongue in your big mouth. Whether you"ve done your work or not is not at question right now. Whether you"ve done everyone else"s is. Who and what gives you the right to manage everyone in this place?"
John said nothing.
Ross roared, "Well?"
John said, "Your order was "Keep your tongue in your big mouth." "
Ross turned a dangerous red. "You will answer questions, however."
John said, "I am not aware that I have been managing anyone."
"There"s not a person in the place you haven"t corrected at least once. You have gone over Willoughby"s head in connection with the correspondence on the TMP"s; you have been into general files using Bronstein"s computer access; and G.o.d knows what else I haven"t yet been told about and all in the last two days. You are disrupting the work of this department and it must cease this moment. There must be dead calm, and instantaneously, or it will be tornado weather for you, my man."
John said, "If I have interfered in the narrow sense, it has been for the good of the company. In the case of Willoughby, his treatment of the TMP matter was putting Quantum Pharmaceuticals in violation of government regulations, something I have pointed out to you in one of several memos I have sent you which you apparently have not had occasion to read. As for Bronstein, he was simply ignoring general directions and costing the company fifty thousand in unnecessary tests, something I was easily able to establish by locating the necessary correspondence-merely to corroborate my clear memory of the situation."
Ross was swelling visibly through the talk. "Heath," he said, "you are usurping my role. You will, therefore, gather your personal effects and be off the premises before lunch, never to return. If you do, I will take extreme pleasure in helping you out again with my foot. Your official notice of dismissal will be in your hands, or down your throat, before your effects will be collected, work as quickly as you may."
John said, "Don"t try to bully me, Ross. You"ve cost the company a quarter of a million dollars through incompetence and you know it."
There was a short pause as Ross deflated. He said, cautiously, "What are you talking about?"
"Quantum Pharmaceuticals went down to the wire on the Nutley bid and missed out because a certain piece of information that was in your hands stayed in your hands and never got to the Board of Directors. You either forgot or you didn"t bother and in either case you are not the man for your job. You are either incompetent or have sold out."
"You"re insane."
"No one need believe me. The information is in the computer, if one knows where to look and I know where to look. What"s more, the knowledge is on file and will be on the desks of the interested parties two minutes after I leave these premises."
"If this were so," said Ross, speaking with difficulty, "you could not possibly know. This is a stupid attempt at blackmail by threat of slander."
"You know it"s not slander. If you doubt that I have the information, let me tell you that there is one memorandum that is not in the records but can be reconstructed without too much difficulty from what is there. You would have to explain its absence and it will be presumed you have destroyed it. You know I"m not bluffing."
"It"s still blackmail."
"Why? I"m making no demands and no threats. I"m merely explaining my actions of the past two days. Of course, if I"m forced to resign, I"ll have to explain why I resigned, won"t I?"
Ross said nothing.
John said, coolly, "Is my resignation being requested?"
"Get out of here!"
"With my job? Or without it?"
Ross said, "You have your job." His face was a study in hatred.
8.
Susan had arranged a dinner at her apartment and had gone to considerable trouble for it. Never, in her own opinion, had she looked more enticing and never did she think it more important to move John, at least for a bit, away from his total concentration on his own mind.
She said, with an attempt at heartiness, " After all, we are celebrating the last nine days of single blessedness."
"We are celebrating more than that," said John with a grim smile. "It"s only four days since I got the the disinhibitor and already I"ve been able to put Ross in his place. He"ll never bother me again."
"We each seem to have our own notion of sentiment," said Susan. "Tell me the details of your your tender remembrance." tender remembrance."
John told the tale crisply, repeating the conversation verbatim and without hesitation.
Susan listened stonily, without in any way rising to the gathering triumph in John"s voice. "How did did you know all that about Ross?" you know all that about Ross?"
John said, "There are no secrets, Sue. Things just seem seem secret because people don"t remember. If you can recall every remark, every comment, every stray word made to you or in your hearing and consider them all in combination, you find that everyone gives himself away in everything. You can pick out meanings that will, in these days of computerization, send you straight to the necessary records. It can be done. I can do it. I have done it in the case of Ross. I can do it in the case of anybody with whom I a.s.sociate." secret because people don"t remember. If you can recall every remark, every comment, every stray word made to you or in your hearing and consider them all in combination, you find that everyone gives himself away in everything. You can pick out meanings that will, in these days of computerization, send you straight to the necessary records. It can be done. I can do it. I have done it in the case of Ross. I can do it in the case of anybody with whom I a.s.sociate."
"You can also get them furious."
"I got Ross furious. You can bet on that."
"Was that wise?"
"What can he do to me? I"ve got him cold."
"He has enough clout in the upper echelons-"
"Not for long. I have a conference set for 2 P.M. tomorrow with old man Prescott and his stinking cigar and I"ll cut Ross off at the pa.s.s."
"Don"t you think you"re moving too quickly?"
"Moving too quickly? I haven"t even begun. Prescott"s just a stepping-stone. Quantum Pharmaceutical"s just a stepping-stone."
"It"s still too quick, Johnny, you need someone to direct you. You need-"
"I need nothing. nothing. With what I have," he tapped his temple, "there"s no one and nothing that can stop me." With what I have," he tapped his temple, "there"s no one and nothing that can stop me."
Susan said, "Well, look, let"s not discuss that. We have different plans to make."
"Plans?"
"Our own. We"re getting married in just under nine days. Surely"-with heavy irony-"you haven"t returned to the sad old days when you forgot things."
"I remember the wedding," said John, testily, "but at the moment I"ve got to reorganize Quantum. In fact, I"ve been thinking seriously of postponing the wedding till I have things well in hand."
"Oh? And when might that be?"
"That"s hard to tell. Not long at the rate I"m taking hold. A month or two, I suppose. Unless," and he descended into sarcasm, "you think that"s moving too quickly."
Susan was breathing hard. "Were you planning to consult with me on the matter?"
John raised his eyebrows. "Would it have been necessary? Where"s the argument? Surely you see what"s happening. We can"t interrupt it and lose momentum. Listen, did you know I"m a mathematical wiz? I can multiply and divide as fast as a computer because at some time in my life I have come across almost every simple bit of arithmetic and I can recall recall the answers. I read a table of square roots and I can-" the answers. I read a table of square roots and I can-"
Susan cried, "My G.o.d, Johnny, you are are a kid with a new toy. You"ve lost your perspective. Instant recall is good for nothing but playing tricks with. It doesn"t give one bit more intelligence; not an ounce; not a speck more of judgment; not a whiff more of common sense. You"re about as safe to have around as a little boy with a loaded grenade. You need looking after by someone with brains." a kid with a new toy. You"ve lost your perspective. Instant recall is good for nothing but playing tricks with. It doesn"t give one bit more intelligence; not an ounce; not a speck more of judgment; not a whiff more of common sense. You"re about as safe to have around as a little boy with a loaded grenade. You need looking after by someone with brains."
John scowled. "Do I? It seems to me that I"m getting what I want."
"Are you? Isn"t it true that I"m what you want also?"
"What?"
"Go ahead, Johnny. You want me. Reach out and take me. Exercise that remarkable recall you have. Remember who I am, what I am, the things we can do, the warmth, the affection, the sentiment."