All In The Mind Read online

authorities ever check on yourdisappearance, they'll find that a separate account has been opened inyour name in the City. All you have to do is go in and withdraw it anytime you want to." He chuckled, then grew serious.

  "Don't get any ideas," he warned. "We've been spending most of the timeduring the past couple of months getting you in shape for your intendedfunction and I'm going to bring more and more problems in to you." Heexplained further, "I've opened an engineering consultant service in thecity and this paint formula alone will bring us all the business we'llneed." He pretended to be busy at one of the computers being installedbut Mel could see that he was glancing out of the corners of his eyes atthe oscilloscope for indication of a brain reaction. Mel had learnedseveral weeks ago that he could control the output of his brain and hadbeen careful to conceal the fact from Neil.

  His partner said, disappointment in his voice. "Doesn't my attitudebother you anymore?"

  Mel's mechanical voice rolled out. "When you destroyed my body, youdestroyed all emotions. If that's the way you want to do things, that'sthe way it'll be."

  "But the ethics...."

  "I know what would happen to me if you turned me over to the scientists.I'd be a freak and treated as such. I owe nothing to the world."

  "Swell," enthused Neil, this time his face twisted into a grimace ofpleasure. "I've got a lot of plans that you'll fit into."

  Experiments had been made with muscular control and they discovered thatMel could govern an electrically powered table, controlled by short waveradio. Another "eye" that could swing in a 360 degree circle had beenmounted on it and broadcast its information to Mel's optical circuit. Amechanical arm had also been installed on it and Mel spent long nighthours when the lab was quiet perfecting his control over it. Beforelong, he was as much--if not more--proficient with it as he had beenwith his own arms. He began laying his plans.

  The first thing he needed was a weapon. Getting his control cart out ofthe cubicle was easy since Jenkins, the only assistant allowed in theentire laboratory, had left his key ring lying on a table one morning.It had been but the work of a moment to wheel over, pick them up andthen conceal them. Jenkins had spent a frantic hour in search butfinally went into the machine shop to make up a new set. He had firstcautioned Mel against letting Neil know, almost fawning in his gratitudewhen Mel promised.

  He searched the entire lab the first two nights but discovered that Neilhad taken the revolver he had kept in a drawer of his old desk. It wouldtake too long to try and machine another one, although their machineshop had proven its capability of turning out anything. A knife hediscarded as too clumsy for his means of control. He then carefullyconsidered steel darts shot from a tube by compressed air or carbondioxide but reluctantly abandoned that idea also. Since he had amachine's limitations as well as advantages, he'd have to begin thinkingless like a human. So, the first thing to base a weapon on would be thematerial most plentiful in the lab. That was--electricity.

  * * * * *

  Once determined on the line of his endeavors, he briefly marvelled againon the still unexplored potentialities of his brain. The weapon would bemounted on his own cart and electricity could either be broadcast orself-contained. For mobility, he decided on a power pack. The weaponitself evolved so easily that he wondered why no one had thought of itbefore now. Special type condensers built a battery charge up to over amillion volts for a split second. This charge, invisible until it hit anobject more solid than air, was contained in a very narrow beam bystrong screens of opposite polarity. The entire sequence of operationwas almost instantaneous, and the bolt was more in the nature of anelectrical projectile than a continuous beam.

  He decided that the unit, resembling a flashlight, could be mounted in aconcealed spot under his "eye" so that it could be fired at whatever hemight be looking at.

  Now that he had a means of defending himself, Mel felt more at ease butat a loss for his next step. Merely eliminating both Jenkins and Neilwould gain his revenge but what then? He could always notify theauthorities but mentally flinched at exposing himself to the world as afreak and being at the mercy of the morbid curiosity of millions.

  He had hardly begun to lay his plans before disaster struck. Neil camein early one morning and had Mel begin working on a problem concerning anew type of steel that would combine structural strength with thelightweight qualities of aluminum. Mel energized his calculators thatwere, electrically, practically part of his brain. He briefly wonderedwhy Neil appeared so restless, wandering around the room with his handsbehind his back, studying everything. Then the problem became sointriguing that he completely forgot that anyone was in the room.

  His first inkling that anything was wrong was when Neil straightened upfrom the cart with a twisted smile on his face and exclaimed:

  "Ha!"

  Mel's first, startled conjecture was that the other had discovered thespecial weapon. He tried to rotate the lens so that the weapon wouldpoint at Neil but could see, by other stationary lenses in the room,that the one on the cart remained motionless. The same was true of themechanical arm. In fact, the entire cart was dead.

  "I pulled the main power fuse," said Neil, a slight smile on his face."I suppose you thought you were getting away with it completely." Notpositive as to how much his partner knew, Mel, decided on silence as hisdefense. The smile disappeared from the other's face and he continued,slowly:

  "Something must be wrong with your reasoning. I knew something was upwhen the power company's statement showed an unusually high increase inpower consumption. From there on it was easy to read the meters at nightmyself, and then the next morning. What were you up to anyway?" Melstill maintained his silence.

  "Okay if that's the way you want it," said Neil more harshly. He walkedto the end of the tank and Mel felt his brain telegraphing warnings tosevered nerve connections not yet again in use. Neil reached out to avalve Mel recognized as controlling the minute amount of chemicals thatserved to nourish the cells in his brain. Relays were connected to itthat also regulated the injection of oxygen proportionately into thefluid. He turned it slightly then began watching the oscilloscopeclosely. In a matter of seconds, Mel felt his usually sharp senses beginto dull. The oscilloscope blurred until, by great effort, he brought itinto focus again. He saw that the height of the wavy line denoting thestrength of his brain's output was abnormally low.

  "Feeling all right?" asked Neil in mock anxiety. He turned the valveback to its correct setting and almost instantly Mel felt better."That's just a sample of what can happen if you force me to it," warnedthe other. "A little more of a turn and that super brain of yours wouldbe garbage. Only I wouldn't do that, of course. There are a few moreexperiments I want to make before your brain dies." Knowing the viciousnature of his partner, Mel decided to talk before the other goadedhimself into some unplanned action.

  "Don't forget the fable about the goose that laid the golden eggs," hisvoice rolled out. "There's still a lot I could do for you, you know--or_not_ do." He saw with relief that the anger receded from the other'sface to be replaced by a look of cunning.

  "I almost forgot," said Neil. "I've another surprise for you." He wentto a circuit near the master calculator that he himself had installedonly several days ago. All the master components were open, a rheostatappearing to be the primary control. Mel had decided at the time it hadto do with voltage regulation of the calculator since there had beentrouble with it.

  Neil placed his hand on it, then turned his head in the generaldirection of the tank and said, "Just in case you get ideas of notco-operating, I can use this for persuasion." He cracked the vernierjust a trifle and agony knifed through Mel's brain. It receded, leavinga slight ache.

  "Not much voltage," Neil was saying with satisfaction, "but, judgingfrom the way your brain wave jumped, I don't imagine it felt very good,did it?"

  "You win," was Mel's only comment, not wanting another jolt. Neverbefore had he felt so helpless and completely at the mercy of another.He realized more
and more that he had less defense than a new-born baby,which could at least kick and wave its hands. He could do nothing excepttry to retain his sanity and wait for his day to come....

  "Good," approved his partner, his manner indicating that it was the mostnatural thing in the world that Mel should give in. "Just in case youforget, I think I'll keep the cart disconnected so that you can't doanything to harm yourself at night." His manner abruptly turnedbusiness-like. "Now then, that paint formula story got around and we'vegot a lot of business to handle. Most of it's routine for you but we'lldrag it out and sock them plenty. A couple of items we'll