One by David Karp

Author:David Karp
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Valancourt Books
Published: 2017-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

13

Because he was in need of fresh air, Lark left the building for the walk to the conference room. The air was cold and the brilliant sparkle of the Sunday afternoon was disappearing very quickly. It gave him an unhappy sense of confinement to walk between the buildings, their sheer walls rising on all sides of him, broken only by the cross bridges of the intrabuilding shuttles. He wished that the designers had not chosen such a pattern but something a little more open, perhaps a group of low buildings scattered over all the acreage available to the Department. The construction of the buildings suggested that they existed for the mechanical efficiency of the Department and not for the personal efficiency of the staff. Perhaps he ought to do an investigative monograph on the implicit heresy of the architects who designed the buildings. The question, of course, was whether the buildings existed for the sake of the workers who were to occupy them or for the convenience of the functions they were to perform. Lark smiled and stowed the thoughts away in his mind for later inspection. Now his chief problem was Burden.

It was moving along well. Burden had effected a transference. The psychiatric division had predicted the transference, had suggested means by which it could be established quickly. They had been right. Burden liked him, respected him, perhaps even needed him. Lark thought that perhaps they might go into Burden’s sexual fantasies at the next session in which Burden would be drugged.

When Lark arrived at the conference room he found Conger sitting at the long table, fussing, as usual, with his short-stemmed pipe; Julian Richard was drawing pointless doodles on a pad of paper; Doctor Emmerich was chatting with his assistant, a youngish man with a sturdy, earnest face whom Lark did not know. Doctor Wright, plucking absent-mindedly at his mustache, was seated in a discreet, distant corner of the table apart from the others. He had been called to the conference because Lark felt the political analyst was a stimulant to the discussion.

The psychiatric division had hinted broadly that it would like to place a representative on the conference board but Lark had avoided decision by suggesting a separate psychiatric consultation. There was no point in overloading the conference board on Burden. Lark preferred small groups. They worked better. He had witnessed the painful effects of mass conferences in earlier years. Where departmental and divisional convictions ran high, a synthesis in open conference often exhausted more time than it was worth. Perhaps one day he would be reproached or perhaps even examined for the arrogation of authority. For the moment, he was careful to acknowledge the assistance of each of the divisions of the Department and to take no steps without consulting the necessary divisions. But the over-all plan was still in his own hands, where he intended it should remain.

“Well, gentlemen, I think we can begin,” Lark said, taking his seat at the head of the table.

“Sir,”

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