Read Zelazny, Roger - Novel 07 Online

Authors: Bridge of Ashes

Zelazny, Roger - Novel 07 (10 page)

BOOK: Zelazny, Roger - Novel 07
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"Heilbroner was a shrewd man,"
Dennis said, "but you cannot project a curve like that forever. The system
breaks down before—"

 
          
 
"Technology is proving capable of finding
answers to the problems it has created."

 
          
 
"But not enough and not fast enough. The
world keeps growing, complicating, overproducing the wrong things. The standard
of living is too high when people exist for the sake of industry instead of the
other way around. Thoreau—"

 
          
 
"Thoreau and Rousseau and that whole
crowd would like to see us all living in the woods again."

 
          
 
"Rousseau has generally been
misunderstood, and Thoreau never said that. What they were all getting at, I
think, was something like a science of the optimum, an understanding of just
how large, how complex, how mechanized, how populous a society should be so as
to provide the best life for its people—a science to determine these things and
a will to be guided by them. They did not want to go back to the woods, but to
find the most suitable middle ground between the basic and the complex. That is
what the Children really want."

 
          
 
Dick was silent a moment, then said,
"That sounds very noble, and it seems that you are sincere. I am certainly
not against idealism. We need ideals. But I feel Heilbroner was correct. We
write the history of the future a long time in advance. I hope, and believe,
that it will go your way one day. But we have to lose a lot of momentum first,
rechannel a lot of energies. Something like that takes generations. It cannot
be accomplished overnight. Least of all, it cannot be accomplished by random
acts of violence against what has already been built up."

 
          
 
"We haven't got that kind of time,"
Dennis said. "And I believe Heilbroner can be made wrong about the way we
write the history of the future, if we are sufficiently determined to learn
from the errors of the past."

 
          
 
"And if we do not, I still do not see
chaos waiting around the next corner."

 
          
 
"Then I hope yours is the right comer,
but I doubt it."

 
          
 
Dick rose.

 
          
 
"I have to go inside now. Ill see you
around."

 
          
 
Dennis nodded.

 
          
 
"Be seeing you."

 
          
 
He hurried away from the small form on the
bench without looking back. Entering the house, he passed through the living
room without speaking to Vicki and Lydia, who were seated on the sofa. In the
kitchen, he poured himself a stiff drink, downed it, poured another, turned,
walked slowly back to the front room.

 
          
 
"I still do not believe it," he
said, lowering himself into an armchair. "A few weeks ago he was a
vegetable. Now ... Lydia, you told me he was in contact with the guy, not that
he had assumed his entire personality."

 
          
 
"This is a new development," Lydia
explained. "It occurred after we spoke with you, before you
returned."

 
          
 
"He is not even acting out the man's
predicament. He is responding to new stimuli as if he were Irishman."

 
          
 
"Yes."

 
          
 
"How long is this going to last?"

 
          
 
"There is no way of telling."

 
          
 
"Is it a good sign or a bad one?"

 
          
 
"Good, I would say. No matter what
happens now, there should be some residue, some remnant of the synaptic
processes that have been taking place."

 
          
 
"But is he going to grow up thinking he
is Leish-man?"

 
          
 
"Not if we intervene—which we will, if
the effect continues too long. The important thing now is that there is
something there, some activity within his skull. His brain needs the workout it
is getting. It has been idle too long."

 
          
 
"But those aren't kid thoughts going
through it They are adult thoughts. Mightn't the premature exposure warp him
for whatever is to come later?"

 
          
 
Vicki chuckled, and Dick seemed to notice her
for the first time,

 
          
 
"You seem to be forgetting that a
bombardment of adult thoughts is what caused his problem in the first place.
Now, at least, he has learned to filter them and focus on one mind at a time.
So what if he is doing it exclusively with Leishman? I have spoken with him at
length since this occurred. This Leishman is not all that bad a chap. In fact,
I rather like him. He is an idealist and—"

 
          
 
"—a murderer," Dick finished.
"Yeah, a great guy our son picked. Lydia, is this going to hurt him later
on?"

 
          
 
"Did it hurt you?" she asked.
"Or you, Victoria? You were both exposed to adult thoughts at an early
age. Were either of you permanently damaged by the experience?"

 
          
 
" 'Exposed,' not totally absorbed,"
Dick said. "There is a big difference."

 
          
 
Lydia nodded.

 
          
 
"All right," she said. "Of
course there is the possibility of long-term influence. I am convinced,
however, that therapy can correct it if it does occur. But I would rather wait
until there is more to work with before I tackle the problem of identity."

 
          
 
"How dependent is Dennis on Leishman? I
mean, supposing the man were to drop dead right now? What would happen to
Dennis? Would he go on thinking he is Leishman, or would he fall apart again?"

 
          
 
"That is one of those questions which
simply cannot be answered from the facts that we have. There is still a
connection. He is apparently aware of everything that happens to the man. Yet
he also acts independently in terms of the other's identity. I do not know
where the line is drawn."

 
          
 
"I think we had better find out. You will
need to know that when it comes time to straighten him out."

 
          
 
"I will deal with the problem when it
comes due."

 
          
 
"Something suggests itself," Dick
said. "What is Dennis' range, anyway? He is keeping tabs on Leishman at
over a hundred miles, now that he has been returned, but he followed him for
over five hundred miles. What might his upper limit be?"

 
          
 
Lydia shook her head.

 
          
 
"Again, not enough data."

 
          
 
"Exactly," Dick said. "I would
like to find out, though. Once he has his mind in shape and has reached
maturity, he might well be the greatest telepath the race has yet
produced."

 
          
 
"He probably is," Vicki said.
"That is what caused his problem."

 
          
 
"Supposing I take him to Europe with me
next month? He will have had plenty of time to play with his new synapses. We
will pull him out of range of Leishman and see whether he is still dependent on
the guy or whether he has absorbed enough to keep functioning as he is."

 
          
 
"I would advise against it," Lydia
said. "Supposing he simply retreats into catatonia?"

 
          
 
"Then we bring him back and let him be
Leishman again for a while."

 
          
 
"But we do not know that he would pick up
on Leishman again. He might simply remain withdrawn."

 
          
 
"Then your theory is wrong, and the
sooner we know it the better."

 
          
 
"I can see you have already
decided."

 
          
 
"Yes. Even given the worst, the situation
would simply revert to one you have already assured us holds hope. What is the
difference, really?"

 
          
 
Lydia lowered her head

 
          
 
"I cannot honestly say."

 
          
 
Dick finished his drink.

 
          
 
"So there," he said. "We'll do
it."

 
          
 
"Very well. But either I accompany
him—with the understanding that I bring him home immediately if there are any
problems—or I leave the case."

 
          
 
"Lydia, you can't!" Vicki said.

 
          
 
"It is the only way."

 
          
 
"All right," Dick said, "I
agree. It is something I have to find out, though."

 
          
 
"Lydia," Vicki said. "Could
this really hurt Dennis* chances?"

 
          
 
"I think so."

 
          
 
"Then I forbid it Dick, you are not going
to ruin what is left of my son just to determine his TP range. If you insist on
this, I'm leaving. I will get a court order if necessary to prevent your moving
him. ,,

 
          
 
Dick reddened.

 
          
 
"Vicki. I—"

 
          
 
"You heard me. What will it be?"

 
          
 
"I think you are being silly."

 
          
 
"I do not really care what you think.
What are you going to do?"

 
          
 
"You give me no choice. I won't take him.
I thought it was a good idea. I still do. Lydia, what about next spring? I am
going over again then. Would that be more propitious?"

 
          
 
"Possibly. Probably, even. There would
have been more time for him to adjust to functioning."

 
          
 
"Okay, let's talk about it again then.
Vicki, I am sorry. I did not realize ..."

 
          
 
"I know. But now you do."

 
          
 
"Now I do."

 
          
 
Dick took his glass back to the kitchen and
rinsed it.

 
          
 
"I think I am going to change and take a
walk," he called out.

 
          
 
Vicki rose, headed for the courtyard.

 
          
 
Lydia crossed the room and stared out the
window, fingering her pendant as she watched the mountains and the clouds.

 
          
 
Dick was in the East that autumn, when
Roderick Irishman's case was heard. Therefore, it was from Winchell's calls
following his weekly examinations of Dennis that he learned of the boy's
alternate elation and depression as the trial progressed. The news media were
unaware of Dennis' connection with the case, and only two other medical
consultants knew of his condition.

BOOK: Zelazny, Roger - Novel 07
6.34Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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