citizen, and possibly, if there had been more like him,
our present society would have been better for it.
--"Our history has been one of weeding out all personalities
that did not fit easily into our drugged society. Today there
are so few left that I have handled only one hundred and
thirty-six in my entire career. . . ."
Major Grey saw that Helen Walden was tensing in her
chair. He realized suddenly that she sensed better than he the
effect he was having on the other men.
"We should not forget that each time we erase one of
these personalities," he pressed on relentlessly, "society loses
irrevocably a certain capacity for change. If we eliminate
all personalities who do not fit, we may find ourselves without
any minds capable of meeting future change. Our direct an-
cestors were largely the inmates of mental hospitals. . . we
are fortunate they were not erased. Conrad Manz," he asked
abruptly, "what is your opinion on the case of Bill Walden?"
Helen Walden started, but Conrad Manz shrugged his mus-
cular shoulders. "Oh, hospitalize the three-headed monster!"
Major Grey snapped his eyes directly past Colonel Hart
and fastened them on the Medicorps captain. "Your opinion,
Captain?"
But Helen Walden was too quick. Before he could rap the
table for order, she had her thin words hanging in the echo-
ing room. "Having been Mr. Walden's wife for fifteen years,
my sentiments naturally incline me to ask for hospitalization.
That is why I may safely say, if Major Grey will pardon me,
that the logic of the drugs does not entirely fail us in this
situation."
Helen waited while all present got the idea that Major
Grey had accused them of being illogical. "Bill's aberration
has led to our daughter's illness. And think how quickly it
contaminated Clara Manz! I cannot ask that society any
longer expose itself, even to the extent of keeping Bill in
the isolation of the hospital, for my purely sentimental rea-
sons.
"As for Major Grey's closing remarks, I cannot see how it is
fair to bring my husband to trial as a threat to society, if
some future change is expected, in which a man of his behav-
iour would benefit society. Surely such a change could only be
one that would ruin our present world, or Bill would hardly
fit it. I would not want to save Bill or anyone else for such
a future."
She did not have to say anything further. Both of the other
Medicorps officers were now fully roused to their duty. Colo-
nel Hart, of course, "humphed" at the opinions of a woman
and cast his with Major Grey. But the fate of Bill Walden
was sealed.
Major Grey sat, weary 'and uneasy, as the creeping little
doubts began. In the end, he would be left with the one big
stone-heavy doubt. . . could he have gone through with thistf -
he had not been drugged, and how would the logic of the trial
look without drugs?
He became aware of the restiveness in the room. They were
waiting for him, now that the decision was irrevocable. With-
out the drugs, he reflected, they might be feelingwhat was
the ancient word, guilt? No, that was what the criminal felt.
Remorse? That would be what they should be feeling. Major
Grey wished Helen Walden could be forced to witness the
erasure. People did not realize what it was like.
What was it Bill had said? "You should see how foolish
these communication codes look when you are undrugged.
This stupid hide-and-seek of shifting. . . ."
Well, wasn't that a charge to be inspected seriously, if you
were taking it seriously enough to kill the man for it? As soon
as this case was completed, he would have .to return to his
city and blot himself out so that his own hyperalter, Ralph
Singer, a painter of bad pictures and a useless fool, could
waste five more days. To that man he lost half his possible
living days. What earthly good was Singer?
Major Grey roused himself and motioned the orderly to in-
ject Conrad Manz, so that Bill Walden would be forced back
into shift.
"As soon as I have advised the patient' of our decision,
you will all be dismissed. Naturally, I anticipated this decision
and have arranged for immediate erasure. After the erasure,
Mr. Manz, you will be instructed to appear regularly for
suspended animation."
For some reason, the first thing Bill Walden did when he
became conscious of his surroundings was to look out the
great window for the flock of birds. But they were gone.
Bill looked at Major Grey and said, "What are you going
to do?"
The officer ran his hand back through his whitening hair,
but he looked at Bill without wavering. "You will be erased."
Bill began to shake his head. "There is something wrong,"
he said.
"Bill . . ." the major began.
"There is something wrong," Bill repeated hopelessly.
"Why must we be split so there is always something missing
na-each of us? Why must we be stupefied with drugs that
keep us from knowing what we should feel? I was trying to
live a better life. I did not want to hurt anyone."
"But you did hurt others," Major Grey said bluntly. "You
would do so again if allowed to function in your own way in
this society. Yet it would be insufferable to you to be hospi-
talized. You would be shut off forever from searching for
another Clara Manz. Andthere is no one else for you, is
there?"
Bill looked up, his eyes cringing 'as though they stared at
death. "No one else?" he asked vacantly. "No one?"
The two orderlies lifted him up by his arms, almost carry-
ing him into the operating room. His feet dragged helplessly.
He made no resistance as they lifted him on to the operating
table and strapped him down.
Beside him was the great panel of the mnemonic eraser
with its thousand unblinking eyes. The helmet-like prober
cabled to this calculator was fastened about his skull, and he
could no longer see the professor who was lecturing in the
amphitheatre above. But along his body he could see the
group of medical students. They were looking at him with
great interest, too young not to let the human drama interfere
with their technical education.
The professor, however, droned in a purely objective voice.
"The mnemonic eraser can selectively shunt from the brain
any identifiable category of memory, and erase the synaptic
patterns associated with its translation into action. Circulating
memory is disregarded. The machine only locates and shunts
out those energies present as permanent memory. These are
there in part as permanently echoing frequencies in closed
cytoplasmic systems. These systems are in contact with the rest
of the nervous system only during the phenomenon of remem-
brance. Remembrance occurs when, at all the synapses in a
given network 'y', the permanently echoing frequencies are
duplicated as transient circulating frequencies.
"The objective in a total operation of the sort before us
is to distinguish all the stored permanent frequencies, typical
of the personality you wish to extinguish, from the frequen-
cies typical of the other personality present in the brain."
Major Grey's face, very tired, but still wearing a mask of
adamant reassurance, came into Bill's vision. "There will be a
few moments of drug-induced terror, Bill. That is necessary
for the operation. I hope knowing it beforehand will help you