Page:Fantastic Volume 08 Number 01.djvu/38

 big step forward, weren't you? If I'd succeeded as you intended, then you'd set up other similar tasks for the rest of your screaming people. You thought you'd found a way of committing the so-called perfect crime.

"Somehow you learned of Hexler's emeralds. Perhaps through some relative who might have been a patient of yours, You made it your business to gain access to his home, to 'case the joint' and familiarize yourself with the physical layout and with his personal habits. Then you sent me there, to kill him and to steal the stones. But something went wrong.

"It took you a while to figure out what had happened. Today, when I showed up here at noon, you realized what must have occurred. So while you kept me occupied and we talked, you got the key to my apartment. While I was in that womb of yours, you gave the key to Bucky Dugan. He was one of your patients, one of your screaming people—had been, ever since he cracked up after the quiz-show mess. You went into that charming little morgue of yours, where you keep your wonderful cures in hypnotic trance, and you fed Bucky Dugan full of subliminal suggestion, then sent him out to kill. And again, something went wrong, because I showed up in time to forestall him. She isn't dead, Wagram."

He stood up then. His eyes never left the muzzle of the gun, but he stood up anyway. "The police—she'll talk—"

"It doesn't matter. I'm going to talk, too."

Wagram shook his head.

"No. You're wrong. You won't talk." He took a step forward. "You won't talk, and you won't shoot me, either. Because you can't, you know."

My finger tightened on the trigger. "I wouldn't risk it if I were you," I muttered.

"There's no risk involved." He was just a grotesque, bald-headed little fat man and there was nothing imposing, nothing menacing, about his appearance.

But all at once I wasn't seeing him any more. I was hearing him. I was listening to his voice, as it changed—as it became the Voice.

"Yes. You were right, Steve. I do use hypnotic controls. I have used them to suppress your latent memories. I have used them to install commands. And you obeyed. Remember last night, Steve? You obeyed me then. Just as you obey me now. Because you 38