Counter Clock World by Philip k Dick

Author:Philip k Dick [Dick, Philip k]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-12-05T22:42:26.563000+00:00

15

God's knowledge also surpassing all motions of time, rernaineth in the simplicity of His presence. --Boethius

When he returned to his conapt, half an hour later, he found it mercifully deserted; Giacometti and the robot Carl Junior had at last departed. Full-length cigarets filled every ashtray; he wandered about, stuffing them into packages, then gave up in numb despair and got into bed. At least the air in the room smelled clean and fresh; the desmoking of so many cigarets had accomplished that.

The next he knew, someone was rapping on the door. He rose from the bed groggily, found himself fully dressed, stumbled to the door. No one there; it had taken him too long. But there, at the door, a brilliant blue, carefully wrapped package. The spurious thesis of Lance Arbuthnot.

Jesus, he said to himself in pain; his head ached and he felt ill in every part of his body. Nine o'clock, the clock told him, from its place on the kitchen wall. Morning. The Library was already open.

Shakily, he seated himself in the living room, unwrapped the parcel. Hundreds of typescript pages, with painstaking pen annotations; an utterly convincing job... it impressed him, this handiwork of the Uditi. Wherever he dipped into it he found it making a sort of sense; it had its own outré logic--such anyhow as was required by the situation. Clearly it would pass Library inspection.

Without having ingested any sogum or put on his morning pat of whiskers, he phoned the Library and asked for Douglas Appleford.

The features of a pompous, dim little functionary formed. "This is Mr. Appleford." He eyed Sebastian.

"My name," Sebastian said, "is Lance Arbuthnot. Miss McFadden talked to you about me."

"Oh yes." Appleford nodded distastefully. "I've been expecting you to call. The meteor-deaths man."

Holding the typescript manuscript up before the screen Sebastian said, "May I bring my thesis over sometime this morning?"

"I could squeeze you in--briefly--around ten o'clock."

"I'll see you then," Sebastian said, and rang off. I now possess access up through all the sections with the exception of the topfloor A Section, he realized. The Uditi are experienced operators... it made a difference, having them on his side.

The vidphone rang; he answered it and found himself confronted by His Mightiness Ray Roberts. "Goodbye, Mr. Hermes," Roberts said sententiously. "In view of the importance of your activity vis-a-vis the Library, I believe I should consult directly with you. To be certain there is no misunderstanding. You received the manuscript of Arbuthnot's thesis."

"Yes," Sebastian said. "And it looks good."

"You will be in the Library, as far as they are concerned, only a matter of minutes; Douglas Appleford will receive the manuscript, thank you, and file it away. Ten minutes in all, perhaps. That will not be enough, of course; what you must do is become lost in the confusing maze of offices and reading rooms and stacks for a good part of the day. To do that you will need a pretext."

"I can tell them--" Sebastian began, but His Mightiness mterrupted him.

"Listen, Mr.

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