The Prayer Machine

by Christopher Hodder-Williams

  ‘If you mean the phenomena here at Norton, certainly.’

  Schuber got up and went to the filing cabinet. ‘This file contains everything of any significance said by my present batch of patients. Not one of these notes contains any reference to so-called “Earthless Quakes”.’

  ‘Do they mention G Block?’

  ‘No. Mr Prentice, do you know what goes on in there?’

  Neil said, ‘Wouldn’t it be more to the point to work out whether the patients do?’

  ‘If they did, they’d say so.’

  ‘Psychotic people tell everything? In the event, they expressed their knowledge far more lucidly in their actions.’

  Schuber said sharply, ‘You know what their actions were?’

  ‘They attacked G Block.’

  ‘So you knew they would?’

  ‘I thought they might. And as the police are now equipped with Geiger Counters it’s obvious they did … You mentioned your senior psychiatrist — Dr Braknell. What’s his view about these tests you’re about to carry out on me?’

  ‘His view is — quite correctly — that you and I do not agree on their purpose. Though he baulks at the expense of using closed-circuit television, he assumes that my main purpose in administering TNA to you is because you’re a highly disturbed personality.’

  ‘And what’s he think I want it for?’

  ‘Some kind of ESP. And his comment on that is that if your real intention is to somehow make contact with my patients via such a means it only shows that you can’t lay off them.’

  ‘Who used the term ESP?’

  ‘You’re sensitive about that?’

  ‘I’m concerned about accuracy.’

  ‘The term was not used by me. But even if you were a member of the Flat Earth Society I still wouldn’t make judgements. Clear?’

  ‘Very.’

  ‘Dr Braknell has other views which are not the same as mine. He doesn’t approve of hallucination inducement, for a start.’

  ‘We don’t call it hallucination.’

  ‘I know. We do.’

  ‘Who else will be involved in the experiment?’

  ‘Are you allergic to nuns?’

  ‘Should I be?’

  She shrugged. ‘Sister Ann Marie will be present. So will a protégé of Dr Braknell’s called Richardson.’

  ‘To keep an eye on us?’

  ‘To represent Dr Braknell. I myself am not participating. Instead I shall be watching and listening on closed-circuit TV.’

  ‘Any particular reason?’

  ‘Yes. Dr Braknell feels that as the people you are … helping … are my patients I shouldn’t have a direct hand in it.’

  ‘It sounds to me as if Dr Braknell can’t make up his mind whether to believe it all or not.’

  She said curtly, ‘Let us restrict ourselves to the task in hand.’

  ‘Okay. Then is it relevant to ask you why your patients take such exception to what is being done in G Block?’

  ‘You are talking in riddles, Mr Prentice. What you haven’t said is whether or not you really know what goes on in there.’

  ‘In short, genetic engineering.’

  She showed no reaction. ‘Quite. And do you take exception to it?’

  ‘Can you doubt it?’

  ‘On what grounds?’

  ‘On the grounds that they must be doing something pretty diabolical in there if a leak of information leads to an investigation by Special Branch. And if they’re using radio-active isotopes it makes unpleasant thoughts leap to mind. Don’t you think?’

  ‘But why do you object to genetic engineering generally?’

  ‘We aren’t talking about it in general terms. We’re talking about what is done here.’

  ‘Then you must have a shrewd idea of what is done here.’

  ‘I think I can guess why your Dr Braknell has consented to this evening’s experiments at all.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘He’s hoping to find out how shrewd my idea happens to be. In other words, he wants to make me talk. It would be hard to think of a more immoral reason for using a drug like TNA.’

  ‘Let us stick firmly to the question, Mr Prentice. On what grounds do you object to the genetic engineering which you say is being done here?’

  ‘On the grounds of its long-term effect.’

  ‘Which, of course, no one can know?’

  Neil said guardedly, ‘Not by any normal means.’

  She looked at him obliquely as if she were going to ask him something, then changed her mind. Instead she went on, ‘You have a right to know how we conduct this trance-inducing treatment.’

  ‘I think I know all I need know about TNA-1.’

  ‘Are you always so cussed?’

  ‘It depends on who I’m with, Dr Schuber.’

  She blushed crimson but persevered, ‘Why call it TNA-1?’

  ‘Because that’s its name.’

  ‘There is no TNA-2. The “one” is redundant, surely?’

  Neil said, ‘That depends where you get your facts from.’

  ‘I was going to ask you that. Where do you get them from?’

  ‘All I can tell you is that Special Branch are wasting their time trying to find out.’ He smiled oddly. ‘I’m afraid they’re a little out of their depth.’

  ‘The way you put that gives me the creeps.’

  ‘A psychiatrist with the creeps? What do you know, Dr Schuber, about the origins of TNA?’

  ‘With you I feel I’m doing some kind of test paper.’

  ‘Do it, then.’

  ‘I … wish you wouldn’t stare at me like that.’

  ‘Sorry, but you’re rather good-looking.’

  ‘That wasn’t why you were doing it.’

  ‘I’ll tell you about TNA myself. Then you can correct me where I’m wrong. It was first used in the manufacture of electrolytic condensers. That’s to say, when a small voltage was applied to one of its plates, the TNA formed a tiny film which acted as a dialectric. Nothing new in that — except the substance was found to do something rather similar to groups of brain cells when injected in minute quantities. In other words, it could isolate one part of the brain from another — or all the others. Its use was immediately seen in the treatment of schizophrenia, because one section of the brain could be worked on at a time. Unfortunately there’s a snag. The section of brain affected must not be in a state of high activity at the moment when the TNA film disappears. If it is, then the affected part of the brain will not re-unite with the rest of the cortex in the same way as before. Therefore permanent psychosis can result. Does that cover it?’

  ‘I … see. And what led you to research this in such detail?’

  ‘Because there’s something I have to find out.’

  ‘From your own brain?’

  ‘Via my own brain. And you? What’s your motive for agreeing to use it?’

  ‘That you are very sick.’

  ‘Though lucid.’

  ‘Lucid in a highly freakish way, Mr Prentice. There are plenty of patients like that.’

  ‘And there are plenty of doctors who interpret schizophrenia in the pedestrian way that you do. They simply write out the labels and stick them on.’

  ‘You mean that, deep down, the label frightens you?’

  He said, ‘If the label isn’t properly made out, the package isn’t going to reach its destination. I don’t want to end up as Lost Property.’

  ‘You have a colourful way of putting things.’ She picked up a pad and scribbled something on it. ‘What is your definition of psychosis, then? I want the exact wording.’

  ‘All right. Psychosis is a stage between one sort of existence and another. Like the sound barrier. You have to go through it …’

  ‘… and arrive where?’

  Neil said, ‘In the case of the sound barrier, no one knew how an aircraft would behave until it was through it.’

  ‘So in the case of psychosis, you have no preconceived ideas about what might lie th
e other side? — if anything?’

  His voice was low, intense, rather disturbing. ‘I have an inkling, I think.’

  ‘Can you summarize it?’

  ‘Yes. Today’s prediction is tomorrow’s history.’

  ‘Surely, only if the prediction is right?’

  He smiled. ‘I’m not going to be drawn. You wouldn’t believe it anyway.’

  ‘Try me.’

  ‘If today’s prediction is wrong, the future will go wrong also, if it happens to be based on the prediction.’

  Dr Schuber said, ‘I could drill a few holes through that argument.’

  ‘That’s because you don’t believe in inter-schizoid thinking. But I’ll give you a clue —’

  ‘That’s pretty indulgent of you.’

  He ignored this. ‘Predictions, these days, have a habit of being put on file — I mean in a computer. They are therefore preserved and acted upon. Once you have built up a computer profile it gets enmeshed in the process of research and is very difficult to erase.’

  ‘But surely, if a scientist — and I take it we are talking about scientists —?’

  ‘We’re talking about G Block.’

  ‘All right … If a geneticist finds, during his research, that he has entered incorrect information in a computer file, there is nothing to stop him altering it, is there?’

  ‘There are pressures on him to toe a particular line. Truth sometimes lets the side down. And anyway, mistakes aren’t as clearcut as you make out. Judgement is involved. That judgement is open to pressure and abuse.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘Why Hiroshima?’

  ‘Yes … I often think that had there not been Hiroshima a lot of people would be lost for a convincing answer.’

  ‘Then if you don’t like it you’ll have to go back in history, doctor, and reverse the decisions of those involved. The truth is that the scientists concerned were highly irrational. They were obsessed.’

  ‘Are all scientists irrational and obsessed?’

  ‘I hope not.’

  ‘Then why should the scientists in G Block be irrational? Or, to put it a shade more cruelly, what makes you think you are more rational than they are?’

  ‘Because I have sufficient humility not to mutilate the future members of the human race.’

  ‘Point taken. But what about the present members of the human race?’

  ‘You mean the great British public? — Or do you include people who are dubbed schizophrenic because they can’t communicate to people who only understand common sense?’

  She said, ‘Is common sense so contemptible?’

  ‘Can you rephrase the question? I’m not talking about contempt for anyone.’

  She said, ‘The common-sense thing to do would have been for my patients to steer well clear of G Block.’

  ‘Would it? Don’t you think the raid on G Block was some kind of a protest?’

  ‘Have you met a schizophrenic — I mean, a really deep case?’

  ‘You’re trying to tell me that the people who raided G Block had no tangible motive.’

  ‘And you think they did?’

  ‘I think that they have … access … to a type of information that isn’t available to the so-called “normal”.’

  ‘I see. And where do you claim this information comes from?’

  ‘Could we discuss that after the TNA treatment?’

  ‘All right; you won’t commit yourself. But you must know that there are laboratories all over the world doing similar work to the one here?’

  ‘I don’t agree that their work is “similar”. I think some kind of a “breakthrough” has occurred here.’

  ‘And you think the breakthrough is dangerous. Why?’

  ‘Intuition. Will you buy that?’

  ‘If that’s all you’re offering, Mr Prentice. The problem is that you seem to have intuitions about all sorts of disconnected things that only connect up in your own mind.’

  ‘No single element ever exists in its own right. If you’re afraid of one thing, doctor, then you have to be afraid of all the other things that go with it. The problem about Norton is that there is more schizophrenia in the air than there are people to contract it.’

  ‘That is the weirdest statement I think I’ve ever heard. What do we need — an overflow pipe for floating schizophrenia?’

  He said, ‘That may be just what we’re going to get.’

  Schuber managed to contrive a brisk manner. ‘You’ll be having a sort of pre-med before the administration of the Accessor drug, fake the second door and relax on the couch.’

  Neil paused. ‘Have you tried this drug on sane people before?’

  ‘Mr Prentice. According to your written papers the term “insane” is a misnomer. Since you draw no practical distinction between normal people and abnormal people your question is meaningless in your own terms. If you are asking the question in the context of my own diagnoses, the answer is that your own medical history leaves the point a little blurred. We have used this treatment on schizophrenics.’

  ‘And did it change them?’

  ‘If you mean for the worse, we did have one disputed case. But as I’d already predicted a relapse it was not conclusive. If you’re asking whether the process we use here is a dangerous one I should remind you that you have praised our work in relation to your own theories and you have stressed there’s a big question mark attached.’

  ‘The question being: do people always come back?’

  ‘Precisely.’

  Neil watched her squarely. ‘Well, do they?’

  ‘Ask that when you’ve told me more. Presumably it depends on where they belong. Where do you belong, Mr Prentice?’

  ‘Perhaps that’s one of the things I came here to find out.’

  ‘Then you’d better have the courage of your own convictions.’

  *

  The nun was attractively French. She said, ‘He’s in the trance state now. You can start asking your questions. But remember what I said: you must leave the escape doors open. You understand? If he feels subconsciously that there’s no way back you could fall into the danger of inducing permanent schizophrenia.’

  Richardson said coldly, ‘I am fully aware of the dangers.’

  The nun said good-humouredly, ‘I’m glad. Then we both are. That’s a double safeguard.’

  From Richardson’s expression it was evident he didn’t like that much, either. Tensely, he said, ‘Respiration?’

  ‘Normal. Pen-reader running.’

  ‘Pulse?’

  ‘Slow. Reading 61. Pen-reader recording.’

  ‘Start tape. Start video. Emergency oxygen on standby.’

  A metallic voice on intercom confirmed that video was running. As an extra precaution against loss of data, the nun started a local tape recorder right where they were, in the small Number Three operating theatre.

  Richardson puffed at the pump and used the stethoscope to check the armband tourniquet. ‘Blood pressure okay. We’ll proceed.’

  Neil Prentice lay apparently unconscious on the operating table. Richardson sat immediately next to him and in line with the television camera. Sister Ann Marie stood just behind the surgical trolley and close to the tape recorder. Some quirk of modesty dictated that she should be out of shot from the colour camera whereas Richardson had adopted a sort of TV personality as if being viewed by millions. He adjusted the mike for height, checked that the red pilot light was showing on the camera, and got out his written notes. He said, ‘Processing begins’ and lowered his voice to a soft, hypnotic lilt. ‘Neil? Can you hear me?’

  ‘Yes. I hear you.’

  ‘Who am I?’

  ‘You’re a voice.’

  The speech was clear but drowsy. Richardson glanced up quickly at the nun. She nodded back. He said, ‘Where are you, Neil?’

  ‘I’m at the entrance of a tunnel.’

  ‘Has it a door?’

  ‘Yes. A big steel thing. Like the door of a safe.’


  ‘What sort of lock?’

  ‘Combination.’

  ‘Do you know the combination?’

  ‘I think it’s written on the ticket.’

  ‘What ticket?’

  ‘The one they gave me at the reservation office.’

  ‘Can you read it out?’

  There came a pause. Eventually he said, ‘Greystones.’

  The nun whispered, ‘He must have seen the signboard from his car. It’s a house a few hundred metres down the road.’

  Richardson acknowledged and continued, ‘Neil, is there something you can prop that door open with when you’ve opened it?’

  ‘No, there’s just a hollow nothing.’

  ‘You’re not allowed inside unless you’re sure you can get out.’

  ‘Whose rule is that?’

  The nun whispered, ‘Tell him it’s a rule of the company who issued the ticket.’

  Richardson frowned in annoyance — ostensibly at the interruption but in reality because he hadn’t thought of it himself. ‘Neil, I’m afraid it’s one of the company rules. They issue the tickets on that condition.’

  There came several very deep breaths. Richardson glanced at the recording pens. All okay. Then Neil said suddenly, ‘I think there’s a loose piece of girder. Part of the tunnel shoring. I think … I think I can rip it away.’ Though there was hardly any perceptible movement Neil seemed to be struggling with himself. ‘Yes! Got it!’

  ‘Good. Now open the door and prop it open with the girder.’

  There came another — much longer — pause. Richardson watched the spool unwinding on the tape recorder. From outside came the distant rumble of thunder.

  Neil said, ‘There’s a hollow booming noise coming down the tunnel.’

  Dr Schuber’s voice came up on the talkback. ‘He’s too close to reality. That was the sound of thunder. Give him another fifty cc of TNA.’

  Richardson said, ‘It’s a risk.’

  ‘It’s well within the safe dose.’

  ‘There’s no such thing as a safe dose.’

  ‘Mr Richardson, unless this session is to be totally wasted a full trance state is needed. Trust me, please. Otherwise this will be a complete waste of time.’

  Richardson clearly didn’t like it, but he nodded to Sister Ann Marie. The nun took a new syringe from a packet of disposables and drew the exact quantity from a fresh ampule.