Dean Koontz - Night Chills

Klinger poured himself another shot of whiskey. As he lifted the glass to his lips, a look of fear flitted across his face. It lasted no more than a second or two. Pretending to be thinking about the field test, he stared at the liquor in his glass and then at the bottle on the desk and then at Salsbury’s glass.

Laughing, Salsbury said, “Don’t worry, Ernst. I wouldn’t slip the drug into my own Jack Daniels. Besides, you’re not a potential subject. You’re my partner.”

Klinger nodded. Nevertheless, he put his glass down without tasting the whiskey. “Where would you run a field test like this?”

“Black River, Maine. It’s a small town near the Canadian border.”

“Why there?”

Salsbury went to the nearest programming console and typed out an order to the computer. As he typed he said, “Two months ago I drew a list of the basic requirements for the ideal test site.”

All of the screens began to present the same information:

KEY/LOCK FIELD TEST DATA, AS FOLLOWS:

1A. SITE SHOULD BE SMALL TOWN, YET PROVIDE SUFFICIENT NUMBER OF SUBJECTS FOR STATISTICAL ACCURACY

1B. BLACK RIVER, MAINE — POPULATION 402 LUMBER CAMP — POPULATION 188

ADDITIONAL POPULATION WITHIN 5 MILES — NONE

“Lumber camp?” Klinger asked.

“It’s a company town for Big Union Supply. Nearly everyone in Black River works for Big Union or services the people who do. The company maintains a full-scale camp — barracks, mess hail, recreation facilities, the whole works — near their planned forests for unmarried loggers who don’t want to go to the expense of renting a room or an apartment in the village.”

2A. SITE SHOULD BE GEOGRAPHICALLY ISOLATED BY CURRENT SOCIAL STANDARDS

2B. FIRST NEAREST TOWN TO BLACK RIVER—30 MILES

SECOND NEAREST TOWN TO BLACK RIVER—62 MILES

LAND ROUTES TO BLACK RIVER—1 STATE HIGHWAY, 2—LANE

— 1 RAILROAD LINE, ONLY INDUSTRIAL TRAFFIC

RIVER ROUTES TO BLACK RIVER — RIVER NAVIGABLE, NO REGULAR TRAFFIC

AIRFIELD FACILITIES AT BLACK RIVER — NONE

3A. SITE SHOULD BE WITHIN RECEPTION RANGE OF ONE OR MORE TELEVISION STATIONS

3B. STATIONS RECEIVED IN BLACK RIVER—1 AMERICAN

1 CANADIAN

“There’s an interesting bit of additional data that goes with that one,” Salsbury said. “The American station is owned by a subsidiary of Futurex. It plays a lot of old movies at night and on weekends. We’ll be able to get copies of the station’s program schedules well in advance. We can prepare subliminally augmented prints of the movies they’re going to show and switch those for the original prints in the station’s film library.”

“That’s a bit of luck.”

“Saves us some time. Otherwise, Futurex would have had to acquire one of the stations, and that could take years.”

“But how can you be certain the people in Black River will watch these movies you’ve doctored?”

“They’re going to be inundated with subliminals in a variety of media that will command them to watch. For instance, the Dawson Foundation for Christian Ethics will run dozens of public service commercials on both the Canadian and American stations, two days in advance of the movies. Each of these commercials will harbor very strong subliminal commands directing the people in town and in the lumber camp to tune in at the right time on the right channel. We’ll also do direct mail advertising for several of Leonard’s companies — as a means of getting even more subceptive messages to them. Everyone in town will receive ads in the mail and some free gifts like soap samples, shampoo samples, and free rolls of photographic film. The advertisements and the samples will be packaged in wrappers rich in subliminal commands to watch.a certain television station at a certain hour on a certain day. Even if the subject throws the piece of mail away without opening it, he’ll be affected, because the envelopes will also be printed over with subliminal messages. The major magazines and newspapers entering Black River during the period of programming will carry ads full of subceptive commands that direct the people to watch the movies.” He was getting a bit breathless in his recital. “A motion picture theater could not ordinarily prosper in a town the size of Black River. But Big Union runs one as a service to the town. During the summer, every day but Sunday, there’s a matinee show for children. The prints of the films shown at those matinees will be our prints, with subliminals urging the children to watch the television movies that will contain the key-lock program. All radio stations reaching the area will carry’ special thirty-second spot ads, hundreds of them, with subaudial subliminal directives. These account for only half our methods. By the time all of this washes through the community, everyone will be in front of a television set at the right time.”

“What about the people who don’t have television sets?” Klinger asked.

“There’s not much to do in a place as isolated as Black River,” Salsbury said. “The recreation hall in the camp has ten sets. Virtually everyone in town owns a set. Those who don’t will be directed, by the first wave of preliminary subliminals, to watch the movies at a friend’s house. Or with a relative or neighbor.”

For the first time, Klinger looked at Salsbury with respect. “Incredible.”

“Thank you.”

“What about the drug? How will that be introduced?”

Salsbury finished his whiskey. He felt wonderful. “There are only two sources of food and beverage within the site. The lumber camp men get what they want from the mess hall. In town everyone buys from Edison’s General Store. Edison has no competition. He even supplies the town’s only diner. Now, both the mess hall and the general store receive their goods from the same food wholesaler in Augusta.”

“Ahhh,” the general said. He smiled.

“It’s a perfect commando operation for Holbrook and Rossner. They can break into the wholesaler’s warehouse at night and quickly contaminate several different items set aside for shipment to Black River.” He pointed to the cathode-ray tubes where the list of requirements for an ideal site was being reprinted. “Number four.”

Klinger looked at the screen to his left.

4A. SITE SHOULD HAVE RESERVOIR THAT SERVES NO LESS THAN

90 PERCENT OF TOTAL POPULATION

4B. BLACK RIVER RESERVOIR SERVES—100 PERCENT OF TOWN RESIDENTS

— 100 PERCENT OF LUMBER

CAMP RESIDENTS

“Ordinarily, in a backwoods village like this,” Salsbury said, “each house would have its own fresh-water well. But the mill needs a reservoir for industrial purposes, so the town benefits.”

“How did you choose Black River? Where did you learn all of this stuff?”

Salsbury depressed a tab on the programming keyboard and cleared the screen. “In 1960, Leonard bankrolled a company named Statistical Profiles Incorporated. It does all the marketing research for his other companies — and for companies he doesn’t own. It pays for a trunk line to the Census Bureau data banks. \Ve used Statistical Profiles to run a search for the ideal test site. Of course, they didn’t know why we were interested in a town that met these particular requirements.”

Frowning, the general said, “How many people at Statistical Profiles were involved in the search?”

“Two,” Salsbury said. “I know what you’re thinking. Don’t worry. They’re both scheduled to die in accidents well before we begin the field test.”

“I suppose we’ll send Rossner and Holbrook to contaminate the reservoir.”

“Then we get rid of them.”

The general raised his bushy eyebrows. “Kill them?”

“Or order them to commit suicide.”

“Why not just tell them to forget everything they’ve done, to wipe it from their minds?”