Your Eyelids Are Growing Heavy (23 page)

Gus was puzzled. “I don't understand. You'd already been given the command—but you didn't follow it?”

Megan didn't understand either. “The initial shipments went off without a hitch. They certainly didn't end up in some warehouse complex in Los Angeles.”

Snooks went back to Algren. “Who owns the warehouses in Los Angeles?”

“Dillon Laboratories.”

“And Dillon wanted all the shipments of Lipan to be directed to Los Angeles?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I think they planned on burning the warehouses to get rid of the Lipan.”

“Why would they do that?”

“Dillon has a similar product in development. They wanted to keep Lipan off the market until their own product was ready for release.”

Ahhhhhh. “That makes sense,” Megan said. “Lipan has no generic form. Glickman has a monopoly right now.”

Gus was shocked. “You mean this other company would actually destroy … why, that's criminal!”

“Surprise, surprise,” Megan said sardonically.

“But it didn't happen,” Snooks pointed out. “Something must have gone wrong.” She turned back to Algren. “Did you give Megan Phillips the signal to reroute the Lipan shipments to Los Angeles?”

“No, I couldn't.”

“Why not?”

“She was out of town when the shipments began.”

“Good god,” Megan said softly, stunned by the close call. “That's right—I was in Boston. The computer was programmed to handle any screw-ups. I left it all to the machine.”

“And you can't hypnotize a computer,” Snooks nodded. “Well.”

Gus thought of something. “So why is he still calling her up and reinforcing the suggestion?”

“Right,” Snooks said, and asked Algren.

“International shipments are scheduled to begin August thirtieth. Dillon has had to write off the American market, but they're still going to try for control of the European market.”

“So it's not over,” Megan muttered. “He knows a hell of a lot about our shipping schedule. Dillon must have a man planted inside Glickman. Ask him, Snooks.”

She did, and Algren named a name, James Daugherty.

“Know him?” Gus asked.

Megan nodded. “One of the product managers. A youngish, fresh-faced man that nobody would ever suspect of being an industrial spy.”

Snooks said, “All right, let's see what we can do about it.” She told Algren he was going to rest for a while, that he would hear nothing that was said until she spoke the word
outfielder
. Then she stood up and twisted her torso a little, trying to get rid of a crick in her back.

“What are you going to do?” Gus asked.

“It's a bit of a problem. I could give
him
a posthypnotic suggestion—to forget the recall trigger. But that wouldn't solve anything. This man Sperling was there during that weekend, in the Sewickley apartment. He'd know the trigger too, and if Algren couldn't give Megan the signal he'd just do it himself. Megan, you might respond to the command given by a different voice, you might not. There's no way to tell until it happens.”

“Mm, yeah,” Gus said. “I'd forgotten about Sperling.”

“So what's left?” Megan asked.

Snooks pulled up a chair and sat facing Megan. “What's left is an experiment I've never tried before. I don't know if
any
one's tried it before. It won't work unless you cooperate.”

“Me? Sure.”

“Wait until you hear what it is first. I want you to let Algren hypnotize you.”

“What?”
Megan and Gus both yelled.

Snooks thought it was a good thing she'd told Algren he wouldn't hear anything. “He can remove the posthypnotic commands, Megan. He's the one who gave them to you. He can let you remember the weekend, and he can disassociate the recall trigger from any controlled reaction. At least I think he can—there's no reason the process should be irreversible.”

Gus was outraged. “You expect her to entrust her unconscious mind to that man after what he's done?”

“She won't be trusting him, she'll be trusting
me
. He will say only what I tell him to say.”

“I don't know if I can, Snooks,” Megan said doubtfully. “I trust you, of course—but I just don't know if I can bring myself to cooperate with
him.”

“Just think of him as my instrument—god, that sounds pompous. It's his voice that we need, Megan. I have to speak to you with his voice. It's worth a try, isn't it?”

Megan thought a moment. “Yes, it's worth a try,” she decided. “All right, I'll do the best I can.”

“Good. But first I'd better change the tape.” She tended to the recorder and went back to Algren. “Outfielder,” she said. “I want you to open your eyes.”

He opened his eyes.

“Now sit up.”

He sat up.

Snooks motioned Megan to come over to where Algren could see her. “Do you know this woman?”

“It's Megan Phillips.”

“You are going to hypnotize her. When she is in a trance, you will help her to remember the weekend she spent in Sewickley. Do you understand?”

“I will help her remember.”

“Just the weekend?” Gus asked.

“One thing at a time, Gus. Megan, sit here opposite him. Try to relax—don't resist. Remember, I won't let him do anything to hurt you.”

Algren's technique was different from Snooks's, Gus was interested to see. Whereas she told her subjects to relax one part of the body at a time, he went in for creating a sleepy, floaty atmosphere. But good old Megan—she didn't play favorites! Algren had her in a trance shortly, responding immediately to test commands such as
Raise your right arm
. All during the process Snooks kept looking over at Gus, and finally he figured out why: she was checking to make sure he wasn't being hypnotized too.

But then Algren did use one of Snooks's techniques, that of starting at some neutral past time and leading up gradually to the weekend. Gus had to suppress an unseemly desire to giggle at what he was seeing: a hypnotized hypnotist unhypnotizing a hypnotized subject.

When Algren finally told Megan she was to remember the weekend, an instant change came over her. Her whole body tensed, she clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, her breathing became labored.

“She's scared to death,” Gus gasped.

“That's not fear, that's anger,” Snooks said. She told Algren to reassure Megan that she no longer had any need to be angry.

“You are no longer angry,” Algren said. “It's over now. You are calm, you can relax. It's over now.”

Megan began to relax. The tenseness ebbed out of her body, and her breathing returned to normal. Algren kept repeating the soothing phrases, and soon Megan was calm again.

Then came the tricky part. Snooks instructed Algren to countermand all posthypnotic instructions—his instructions to change the shipping arrangements for Lipan, to respond to both the recall trigger and the reinforcing lines of poetry.

Algren started by repeating an address in New York. “Do you recognize the address?”

“Yes,” Megan said. “It's a warehouse where I'm to route the second shipment of Lipan.”

New York? Not Los Angeles?
Oh, sure
, Gus thought. If everything had gone according to plan, the Los Angeles warehouses would have been burned by now. That was where Megan was to send the domestic shipments; the New York address must be for the overseas consignment.

“When will you reroute the Lipan shipments?” Algren asked Megan.

“When I receive a message over the phone.”

“What is that message?”

“Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.”

“Hamlet,”
Gus said promptly.

“Clever,” Snooks murmured in appreciation of Algren's technique. “Getting her to recall the trigger phrase herself.”

“You will not redirect the Lipan shipments to the New York warehouse. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“When you receive the message over the phone, it will mean nothing to you. ‘Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind' is just a line of poetry, nothing else. Listen carefully. ‘Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.' What does that mean to you?”

“It's a line of poetry,” Megan said.

“Anything else?”

“No, just poetry.”

Literary bunch of crooks
, Snooks thought. And Algren was a damned good hypnotist. What a waste.

Algren repeated the process with the full-fathom-five lines, and then went back over the whole thing once again. When he'd finished, Snooks instructed him to do it a third time.

All that was left to do was to test it. Snooks said to Algren, “Instruct her that she will remember everything that's happened during this session.”

Algren did as he was told.

“Now bring her back.”

“I am going to count backward from five,” he told Megan. “Before I reach the number one, you will be fully awake. You will remember everything that's happened. I'm going to start counting now. Five, four, three—”

“Yes, yes,” said Megan. She looked disoriented for a few seconds, but quickly turned her attention to Algren.

Then she went for him.

But Snooks had anticipated her. She interposed her big body between Megan and Algren. “Don't,” she said sharply. “You've already had one whack at him tonight. He's just the hired help anyway, Megan. Save your anger for Sperling.”

Megan turned away, said nothing.

Snooks cleared her throat. “Full fathom five thy father lies.”

“Can that, Snooks. It's over now.”

Snooks and Gus exchanged a grin. Gus said, “Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.”

“Gus, I tell you it's over,” Megan said. “I remember it all. I remember that horrible plastic apartment in Sewickley. I remember Sperling, and the other man, Ferris, the driver. Ferris went out for food. They made me eat things I hate, they wouldn't let me wash. They made me wait when I needed to use the bathroom. Sometimes they kept me standing in one spot for hours.” She shuddered.
“Horrible
people.” Gus went over and patted her shoulder.

Snooks gave a big sigh. “We still have
him
to take care of. Since I don't have facilities here for holding prisoners, I think we'd best send him home.” She turned to Algren. “Where did you park your car?”

“It's in the garage. For repairs.”

“How did you plan on getting home?”

“Taxi.”

Gus went to the phone and called a cab.

Snooks told Algren he would wake up in the cab on the way home, and he wouldn't remember what had happened during the evening. He'd remember leaving his office and walking to the elevator, where he'd wait for the car alone. He'd remember riding down in the elevator, alone. Then he'd remember getting into the cab. Nothing in between—not the bar called Out in Left Field or Snooks's office.

“Cab's here,” Gus said from the window.

“There is a taxi waiting for you out front,” Snooks told Algren. “You will give the driver your home address. Go now.”

Without a word Algren rose and left the office. Snooks and Megan joined Gus at the window, where the three of them watched Algren get into the cab and ride off.

“It's over?” Gus said. “It's really over?”

“Our part is,” Snooks said. “Megan's mind is her own again.”

Megan put her hands on the psychiatrist's shoulders. “How can I even begin to thank you?”

“Name your next drug after me.”

Gus walked over to the tape recorder and removed the cartridge. “So now what do we do with this? Take it to the police?”

“No,” Megan said, reaching for it. “To a man named Ziegler.”

CHAPTER 15

The two men listened to the tape in horrified fascination. One was Sid Ziegler, dressed in suit and tie even though the hour was getting on toward 4
A.M.
The other man was less formally attired; he was one of Glickman's attorneys, a man named Payton, summoned at Megan's insistence.

Megan had put her career on the line when she called Mr. Ziegler. She'd had to tell him she had evidence Dillon Laboratories was trying to sabotage Glickman's release of Lipan on the European market. When he heard that, he'd agreed to meet her immediately in spite of the hour. All five of them were in Mr. Ziegler's office; Megan and Snooks and Gus had taken turns telling the story, editing out all the events of Thursday evening. They capped it by playing the tape.

When the tape came to an end, there was a silence. Then Ziegler remarked, “I always knew Lloyd Sperling had a devious mind. But to think up something like this.…” He shook his head in wonder.

Payton said, “You know that tape can't be used as evidence in court.”

“I know,” Ziegler said. “We have to keep the tape from the police anyway.”

Of the five, only Gus was surprised. “Why?”

“For one thing,” Megan said dryly, “I'd prefer not to go to jail for kidnapping and assault.”

Snooks added, “And I'd like to hold on to my license a little longer, if you don't mind.”

That was something Gus hadn't allowed himself to think about yet. Automatically he looked to the legal expert in the room.

“They're right,” Payton said. “Algren could bring charges against all three of you and make them stick.”

“In spite of what he did to Megan?”

“Two separate cases, Bilinski. You could charge him with kidnapping and mental assault—but once you tried to introduce that tape, he'd have you. The tape would be the basis of his suit against you, and he'd win. And without the tape, you have no case against him.”

“Jeez.” Disgustedly. “So what do we do?”

Ziegler said, “Let's consider our options. Since we're agreed we don't turn the tape over to the police …?” He paused, looked politely to Gus.