It was MacDowell who managed to pull himself together first. "Yeah," he said ironically. "It certainly sounds like what the missus and I want."
"Oh, you ought to have a swibble of your own," the repairman urged. "Consider – if you have your own swibble, it'll adjust you automatically. It'll keep you on the right track without strain or fuss. You'll always know you're not going wrong – remember the swibble slogan: Why be half loyal? With your own swibble, your outlook will be corrected by painless degrees… but if you wait, if you just hope you're on the right track, why, one of these days you may walk into a friend's living room and his swibble may just simply crack you open and drink you down. Of course," he reflected, "a passing swibble may still get you in time to straighten you out. But usually it's too late. Usually -" He smiled. "Usually people go beyond redemption, once they get started."
"And your job," Pesbroke muttered, "is to keep the swibbles working?"
"They do get out of adjustment, left to themselves."
"Isn't it a kind of paradox?" Pesbroke pursued. "The swibbles keep us in adjustment, and we keep them in adjustment… it's a closed circle."
The repairman was intrigued. "Yes, that's an interesting way of putting it. But we must keep control over the swibbles, of course. So they don't die." He shivered. "Or worse."
"Die?" Hurley said, still not understanding. "But if they're built -" Wrinkling his brows he said, "Either they're machines or they're alive. Which is it?"
Patiently, the repairman explained elementary physics. "Swibble-culture is an organic phenotype evolved in a protein medium under controlled conditions. The directing neurological tissue that forms the basis of the swibble is alive, certainly, in the sense that it grows, thinks, feeds, excretes waste. Yes, it's definitely alive. But the swibble, as a functioning whole, is a manufactured item. The organic tissue is inserted in the master tank and then sealed. I certainly don't repair that; I give it nutriments to restore a proper balance of diet, and I try to deal with parasitic organisms that find their way into it. I try to keep it adjusted and healthy. The balance of the organism, is, of course, totally mechanical."
"The swibble has direct access to human minds?" Anderson asked, fascinated.
"Naturally. It's an artificially evolved telepathic metazoan. And with it, Wright solved the basic problem of modern times: the existence of diverse, warring ideological factions, the presence of disloyalty and dissent. In the words of General Steiner's famous aphorism: War is an extension of the disagreement from the voting booth to the battlefield. And the preamble of the World Service Charter: war, if it is to be eliminated, must be eliminated from the minds of men, for it is in the minds of men that disagreement begins. Up until 1963, we had no way to get into the minds of men. Up until 1963, the problem was unsolvable."
"Thank God," Fay said clearly.
The repairman failed to hear her; he was carried away by his own enthusiasm. "By means of the swibble, we've managed to transform the basic sociological problem of loyalty into a routine technical matter: to the mere matter of maintenance and repair. Our only concern is keep the swibbles functioning correctly; the rest is up to them."
"In other words," Courtland said faintly, "you repairmen are the only controlling influence over the swibbles. You represent the total human agency standing above these machines."
The repairman reflected. "I suppose so," he admitted modestly. "Yes, that's correct."
"Except for you, they pretty damn well manage the human race."
The bony chest swelled with complacent, confident pride. "I suppose you could say that."
"Look," Courtland said thickly. He grabbed hold of the man's arm. "How the hell can you be sure? Are you really in control?" A crazy hope was rising up inside him: as long as men had power over the swibbles there was a chance to roll things back. The swibbles could be disassembled, taken apart piece by piece. As long as swibbles had to submit to human servicing it wasn't quite hopeless.
"What, sir?" the repairman inquired. "Of course we're in control. Don't you worry." Firmly, he disengaged Courtland's fingers. "Now, where is your swibble?" He glanced around the room. "I'll have to hurry; there isn't much time left."
"I haven't got a swibble," Courtland said.
For a moment it didn't register. Then a strange, intricate expression crossed the repairman's face. "No swibble? But you told me -"
"Something went wrong," Courtland said hoarsely. "There aren't any swibbles. It's too early – they haven't been invented. Understand? You came too soon!"
The young man's eyes popped. Clutching his equipment, he stumbled back two steps, blinked, opened his mouth and tried to speak. "Too – soon?" The comprehension arrived. Suddenly he looked older, much older. "I wondered. All the undamaged buildings… the archaic furnishings. The transmission machinery must have misphased!" Rage flashed over him. "That instantaneous service – I knew dispatch should have stuck to the old mechanical system. I told them to make better tests. Lord, there's going to be hell to pay; if we ever get this mix-up straightened out I'll be surprised."
Bending down furiously, he hastily dropped his equipment back in the case. In a single motion he slammed and locked it, straightened up, bowed briefly at Courtland.
"Good evening," he said frigidly. And vanished.
The circle of watchers had nothing to watch. The swibble repairman had gone back to where he came from.
After a time Pesbroke turned and signaled to the man in the kitchen. "Might as well shut off the tape recorder," he muttered bleakly. "There's nothing more to record."
"Good Lord," Hurley said, shaken. "A world run by machines."
Fay shivered. "I couldn't believe that little fellow had so much power; I thought he was just a minor official."
"He's completely in charge," Courtland said harshly.
There was silence.
One of the two children yawned sleepily. Fay turned abruptly to them and herded them efficiently into the bedroom. "Time for you two to be in bed," she commanded, with false gaiety.
Protesting sullenly, the two boys disappeared, and the door closed. Gradually, the living room broke into motion. The tape-recorder man began rewinding his reel. The legal stenographer shakily collected her notes and put away her pencils. Hurley lit up a cigar and stood puffing moodily, his face dark and somber.
"I suppose," Courtland said finally, "that we've all accepted it; we assume it's not a fake."
"Well," Pesbroke pointed out, "he vanished. That ought to be proof enough. And all the junk he took out of his kit -"
"It's only nine years," Parkinson, the electrician, said thoughtfully. "Wright must be alive already. Let's look him up and stick a shiv into him."
"Army engineer," MacDowell agreed. "R.J. Wright. It ought to be possible to locate him. Maybe we can keep it from happening."
"How long would you guess people like him can keep the swibbles under control?" Anderson asked.
Courtland shrugged wearily. "No telling. Maybe years… maybe a century. But sooner or later something's going to come up, something they didn't expect. And then it'll be predatory machinery preying on all of us."
Fay shuddered violently. "It sounds awful; I'm certainly glad it won't be for a while."