Frank Herbert - The Eyes of Heisenberg

Lizbeth shivered. Harvey felt the tension of her through their hands. He said, “Is our son safe?”

“Safe,” Glisson said. “Our plans insure that safety.”

“How?” Lizbeth asked.

“You will understand soon,” Glisson said. “An ancient and reliable way of safe concealment. Be assured: viables are valuable weapons. We do not risk our valuable weapons.”

Lizbeth signaled, “ The cut — ask now.”

Harvey wet his lips with his tongue, said, “There are… when a Central surgeon’s called in, usually it means the embryo could be cut to Optiman. Did they… is our son…”

Glisson’s nostrils flared. The face took on a look of hauteur that said such ignorance insulted a Cyborg. The clipped voice said, “We would require a complete tape record, including the enzymic data even to guess. The tape is gone. Only the surgeon knows the result of the operation for certain. We have yet to question him.”

Lizbeth said: “Svengaard or the computer nurse might’ve said something that -”

“Svengaard is a dolt,” Glisson said. “The computer nurse is dead.”

“They killed her?” Lizbeth whispered.

“How she died isn’t important,” Glisson said. “She served her purpose.”

With his hand, Harvey signaled, “ The Cyborgs had something to do with her death!”

“I saw,” she answered.

Harvey said, “Are you… will we be allowed to talk to Potter?”

“Potter will be offered full Cyborg status,” Glisson said. “Talking will be his decision… afterward.”

“We want to know about our son!” Lizbeth flared.

Harvey signaled frantically, “ Apologize!”

“Madam,” Glisson said, “let me remind you the so-called Optiman cut is not a state to which we aspire. Remember your vows.”

She squeezed Harvey’s hand to silence his signals, said, “I’m sorry. It was such a shock to learn… the possibility…”

“Your emotional excesses are taken into account as a mitigating circumstance,” Glisson said. “It is well, therefore, that I warn you of a thing to happen. You will hear things about your son which you must not let excite you.”

“What things?” Lizbeth whispered.

“An outside force of unknown origin sometimes interferes with the anticipated course of a genetic operation,” Glisson said. “There is reason to believe this happened with your son.”

“What do you mean?” Harvey asked.

“Mean!” Glisson sneered. “You ask questions to which there are no answers.”

“What does this… thing do?” Lizbeth supplied.

Glisson looked at her. “It behaves somewhat in the fashion of a charged particle, penetrates the genetic core and alters the structure. If this has happened to your son, you may consider it beneficial because it apparently prevents the Optiman cut.”

The Durants digested this.

Presently, Harvey said, “Do you require more of us? May we go now?”

“You will remain here,” Glisson said.

They stared.

“You will wait for further orders,” Glisson said.

“But we’ll be missed,” Lizbeth said. “Our apartment, they’ll -”

“We’ve raised dopplegangers to play your roles long enough for you to escape Seatac,” Glisson said. “You can never go back. You should’ve known this.”

Harvey’s lips moved, then, “Escape? What’s… why are…”

“There is violence,” Glisson said. “Even now. The death-wish cults will have their day.” The Cyborg raised its gaze toward the ceiling. “War… blood… killing. It will be as it was before when the skies flamed and the earth ran molten.”

Harvey cleared his throat. Wars… before. Glisson gave the impression that wars had been recent, perhaps only yesterday. And for this Cyborg that might be true. It was said that Glisson’s grandsire had fought in the Optiman-Cyborg war. No one of the Underground Folk knew how many identities Glisson had lived.

“Where’ll we go?” Harvey asked. He signaled Lizbeth not to interrupt.

“A place has been prepared,” Glisson said.

The Cyborg arose, unplugged its linkage with the computer panel, said, “You will wait here. Do not attempt to leave. Your needs will be provided for.”

Glisson left by the lock port and it sealed with a heavy thump.

“They’re as bad as the Optimen,” Lizbeth signaled.

“The day will come when we’re free of both them and the Opts,” Harvey said.

“It’ll never happen,” she said.

“Don’t say that!” he ordered.

“ If only we knew a friendly surgeon,” she said. “ We could take our son and run.”

“That’s foolishness! How could we service the vat without machinery for -”

“I’ve that machinery right inside me,” she said. “ I was… born with it.”

Harvey stared at her, shocked speechless.

“ I don’t want the Cyborgs or the Opts controlling our son’s life,” she said, “ regulating his mind with hypnotic gas, making duplicates of him for their own purposes, pushing him and leading him and -”

“Don’t work yourself into a state,” he said.

“You heard him,” she said. “ Dopplegangers! They can regulate anything — our very being! They can condition us to… to… do anything! For all we know, we’ve been conditioned to be here right now!”

“Liz, you’re being unreasonable.”

“Unreasonable? Look at me! They can take a piece of my skin and grow an identical copy. Me! Identical! How do you know I’m me? How do you know I’m the original me? How do I know?”

He gripped her free arm and for a moment had no words. Presently, he forced himself to relax, shook his head. “ You’re you, Liz. You’re not flesh grown from a cell. You’re… all the things we’ve shared… and been… and done together. They couldn’t duplicate memories… not that with a doppleganger.”

She pressed her cheek against the rough fabric of his jacket, wanting the comfort of it, the tactile sensation that told her body he was here and he was real.

“They’ll make dopplegangers of our son,” she said “ That’s what they’re planning. You know it.”

“Then we’ll have many sons.”

“For what reason?” She looked up, at him, her lashes damp with unshed tears. “ You heard what Glisson said. Something from outside adjusted our embryo. What was it?”

“How can I know?”

“Somebody must know.”

“I know you,” he said. “ You want to think its God.”

“What else could it be?”

“Anything — chance, accident, some higher order manipulator. Maybe someone’s discovered something they’re not sharing.”

“One of us? They wouldn’t!”

“Nature, then,” he said. “ Nature asserting itself in the interest of Man.”

“Sometimes you sound like a cultist!”

“It isn’t the Cyborgs,” he said. “ We know that.”

’Glisson said it was beneficient.”

“But it’s genetic shaping. That’s blasphemy to them. Physical alteration of the bioframe, that’s their way.”

“Like Glisson,” she said. “ That robot with flesh.” Again, she pressed her cheek against him. “ That’s what I fear — they’ll do that to our son… our sons.”

“The courier service outnumbers the Cyborgs a hundred to one,” he said. “ As long as we stick together, we’ll win.”