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1

The problem with John Heath, as far as John Heath was concerned, was that he struck a dead average He was sure of it What orse, he felt that Susan suspected it

It meant he would never make a true mark in the world, never climb to the top of Quantu the junior executives - never make the Quantum Leap

Nor would he do it anywhere else, if he changed jobs

He sighed inwardly In just twoto be married and for her sake he yearned to be upwardly mobile After all, he loved her madly and wanted to shine in her eyes

But then, that was dead average for a young man about to be ly And why not? He was reasonably good-looking and intelligent and a steady, affectionate fellow besides If he didn&039;t blind her with his brilliance, he at least didn&039;t upset her with an erraticism he didn&039;t possess

She patted the pillow she had placed behind his head when he sat down in the arrip before she let go

She said, "I&039;ot to be an efficient wife"

John sipped at his drink "I&039;m the one who&039;ll have to be on her than o into one pocket once we&039;reone set of books"

"You&039;ll have to keep it," said John despondently "I&039;m bound to make mistakes if I try"

"Only because you&039;re sure you will When are your friends co?"

"Nine, I think Maybe nine-thirty And they&039;re not exactly friends They&039;re Quantum people from the research labs"

"You&039;re sure they won&039;t expect to be fed?"

"They said after dinner I&039;m positive about that It&039;s business"

She looked at him quizzically "You didn&039;t say that before"

"Say what before?"

"That it was business Are you sure?"

John felt confused Any effort to remember precisely always left him confused "They said so - I think"

Susan&039;s look was that of good-natured exasperation, rather like the one she would have given a friendly puppy who is coht," she said, &039;&039;as often as you say &039;1 think&039; you wouldn&039;t be so perennially uncertain Don&039;t you see it can&039;t be business If it were business, wouldn&039;t they see you at business?"

"It&039;s confidential," said John "They don&039;t want to see me at work Not even at my apartested that I thought you ought to be around, anyway They&039;re going to have to deal with the firht?"

"It depends," said Susan, "on what the confidential is all about Did they give you any hints?"

"No, but it couldn&039;t hurt to listen It could be so at the firm"

"Why you?" asked Susan

John looked hurt, "Why not me?"

"It just strikes me that someone at your job level doesn&039;t require all that confidentiality and that - "

She broke off when the intercom buzzed She dashed off to answer and came back to say, "They&039;re on the way up"

2

Two of them were at the door One was Boris Kupfer, whoe and restless, with a clear view of bluish stubble on his chin

The other was David Anderson, smaller and more composed His quick eyes

"Susan," said John, uncertainly, still holding the door open "These are the two colleagues of mine that I told you about Boris - " He hit a blank in his memory banks and stopped

"Boris Kupfer," said the larger e in his pocket,:&039;and David Anderson here It&039;s very kind of you, Miss - "

"Susan Collins"

"It&039;s very kind of you to make your place of residence available to Mr Heath and to us for a private conference We apologize for trespassing on your time and your privacy in this manner - and if you could leave us to ourselves for a while, ill be further grateful"

Susan stared at hio to the movies, or just into the next room?"

"If you could visit a friend - "

"No," said Susan, firmly

"You can dispose of your time as you please, of course A movie, if you wish"

"When I said &039;No,&039; "said Susan, "II want to knohat this is about"

Kupfer seemed nonplussed He stared at Anderson for a moment, then said, "It&039;s confidential, as Mr Heath explained to you, I hope"

John, looking uneasy, said, "I explained that Susan understands - "

"Susan," said Susan, "doesn&039;t understand and wasn&039;t given to understand that she was to absent herself fros This ismarried in teeks - exactly teeks from today We are the firm of Johnny and Sue and you&039;ll have to deal with the firm"

Anderson&039;s voice sounded for the first tih it had been waxed "Boris, the young woht As Mr Heath&039;s soon-to-be wife, she will have a great interest in e have co to exclude her She has so firm an interest in our proposal that if she were to wish to leave, I would urge her ly to remain"

"Well, then, my friends," said Susan, "ill you have to drink? Once I bring you those drinks, we can begin"

Both were seated rather stiffly and had sipped cautiously at their drinks, and then Kupfer said, "Heath, I don&039;t suppose you know much about the chemical details of the company&039;s work - the cerebro-chemicals, for instance"

"Not a bit," said John, uneasily

"No reason you should," said Anderson, silkily

"It&039;s like this," said Kupfer, casting an uneasy glance at Susan - "No reason to go into technical details," said Anderson, almost at the lower level of audibility

Kupfer colored slightly "Without technical details, Quantum Pharmaceuticals deals with cerebro-chemicals which are, as the name iher functioning of the brain"

"It must be very complicated work," said Susan, with composure

"It is," said Kupfer "The mammalian brain has hundreds of characteristic molecular varieties found nowhere else, which serve to ht term the intellectual life The work is under the closest corporate security, which is why Anderson wants no technical details I can say this, though We can go no further with aniainst a brick wall if we can&039;t try the human response"

"Then why don&039;t you?" said Susan "What stops you?"

"Public reaction if so!"

"Use volunteers, then"

"That won&039;t help Quantum Pharmaceuticals couldn&039;t take the adverse publicity if soly " Are you torking on your own, then?"

Anderson raised his hand to stop Kupfer "Young woman, " he said, "let me explain briefly in order to put an end to wasteful verbal fencing If we succeed, ill be enormously rewarded If we fail, Quantum Pharmaceuticals will disown us and ill pay what penalty there is to be paid, such as the ending of our careers If you ask us, e are willing to take this risk, the answer is, we do not think a risk exists We are reasonably sure ill succeed; entirely sure ill do no harm The corporation feels it cannot take the chance; but we feel we can Now, Kupfer, proceed!"

Kupfer said, "We have a memory chemical It works with every anily It should work on hus, too"

John said, "That sounds exciting"

"It is exciting," said Kupfer "Me a way for the brain to store information more efficiently All our studies show that the brain stores almost unlimited numbers of items perfectly and permanently The difficulty lies in recall How ue and couldn&039;t get it? Howyou knew you knew, and then did co about so it correctly, David?"

"You are," said Anderson "Recall is inhibited, we think, because thea too-perfect recording system A mammal storesand if all of it was on tap at all tih for appropriate reaction Recall is inhibited, therefore, to insure that itee in manipulable numbers, and with those items most desired not blurred by the accompaniment of numerous other items of no interest

"There is a definite chemical in the brain that functions as a recall inhibitor, and we have a chemical that neutralizes the inhibitor We call it a disinhibitor, and as far as we have been able to ascertain the matter, it has no deleterious side effects"

Susan laughed "I see what&039;s coentlemen You just said that recall is inhibited to allow mammals to react more efficiently, and now you say that the disinhibitor has no deleterious side effects Surely the disinhibitor will make the mammals react less efficiently; perhaps find the to propose that you try it on Johnny and see if you reduce him to catatonic immobility or not"

Anderson rose, his thin lips quivering He took a few rapid strides to the far end of the roo "In the first place, Miss Collins, it&039;s a e We told you that the experi ability Naturally, we didn&039;t eliminate the inhibitor entirely; we merely suppressed it in part Secondly, we have reason to think the huer than the brain of any animal we have tested and we all know its incoht

"It is a brain designed for perfect recall, but the blind forces of evolution have notchened for and inherited from the lower animals"

"Are you sure?" asked John

"You can&039;t be sure," said Susan, flatly

Kupfer said, "We are sure, but we need the proof to convince others That&039;s e have to try a hu"

"John, in fact," said Susan "Yes"

"Which brings us," said Susan, "to the key question Why John?"

"Well," said Kupfer, slowly, "we need someone for whom chances of success are most nearly certain, and in whom it would be most demonstrable We don&039;t want soerously large doses of the disinhibitor; nor do ant soht that the effect will not be sufficiently noticeable We need soe Fortunately, we have the full physical and psychological profiles of all the employees at Quantum and in this and, in fact, all other ways, Mr Heath is ideal"

"Dead average?" said Susan

John looked stricken at the use of the phrase he had thought his own innerraceful, secret "Co John&039;s outcry, Kupfer answered Susan, "Yes"

"And he won&039;t be, if he submits to treatment?"

Anderson&039;s lips stretched into another one of his cheerless s to think about if you&039;re going to be married soon - the firm of Johnny and Sue, I think you called it As it is, I don&039;t think the firh Heath is a good and reliable ee If he takes the disinhibitor, however, he will beco speed Consider what that will mean to the firm"

"What does the firrimly

Anderson said, "I don&039;t see how you can lose anything It will be a sensible dose which can be administered at the laboratories tomorrow - Sunday We will have the floor to ourselves; ill keep hi could go wrong If I could tell you of our painstaking experi exploration of all possible side effects - "

"On ani an inch

But John said, tightly, "I&039;ll make the decision, Sue I&039;ve had it up to here with that dead-average bit It&039;s worth soe dead end"

"Johnny," said Susan, "don&039;t ju of the firm, Sue I want to contribute my share"

Anderson said, "Good, but sleep on it We will leave two copies of an agreen Please don&039;t show it to anybody whether you sign or not We will be here toain to take you to the laboratory"

They sreement with a troubled frown, then looked up "You don&039;t think I should be doing this, do you, Sue?"

"It worries et away froe - "

Susan said, "What&039;s wrong with that? I&039;ve met so many nuts and cranks in uy like you, Johnny Listen, I&039;e With your looks? Your figure?"

Susan looked down upon herself with a touch of coeous girl," she said

3

The injection took place at 8 AM Sunday, no more than twelve hours after the proposition had been advanced A thoroughly computerized body sensor was attached to John in a dozen places, while Susan watched with keen-eyed apprehension

Kupfer said, "Please, Heath, relax All is going well, but tension speeds the heart rate, raises the blood pressure, and skews our results"

"How can I relax?" muttered John

Susan put in sharply, "Skews the results to the point where you don&039;t knohat&039;s going on?"

"No, no," said Anderson "Boris said all is going well and it is It is just that our animals were always sedated before the injection, and we did not feel sedation would have been appropriate in this case So if we can&039;t have sedation, we must expect tension Just breathe slowly and do your best to minimize it"

It was late afternoon before he was finally disconnected "How do you feel?" asked Anderson

"Nervous," said John "Otherwise, all right"

"No headache?"

"No But I want to visit the bathroom I can&039;t exactly relax with a bedpan"

"Of course"

John e "I don&039;t notice any particular memory improveradual The disinhibitor must leak across the blood-brain barrier, you know," said Anderson

4

It was nearly ht when Susan broke what had turned out to be an oppressively silent evening in which neither had much responded to the television

She said, "You&039;ll have to stay here overnight I don&039;t want you alone e don&039;t really knohat&039;s going to happen"

"I don&039;t feel a thing," said John, gloomily "I&039;m still me"

"I&039;ll settle for that, Johnny," said Susan "Do you feel any pains or discomforts or oddnesses at all?"

"I don&039;t think so"

"I e hadn&039;t done it"

"For the firot to take some chances for the firm"

5

John slept poorly, and woke drearily, but on time And he arrived at work on time, too, to start the neeek

By 11 AM however, his morose air had attracted the unfavorable attention of his immediate superior, Michael Ross Ross was burly and black-browed and fit the stereotype of the stevedore without being one John got along with hih he did not like him

Ross said, in his bass-baritone, "What&039;s happened to your cheery disposition, Heath - your jokes - your lilting laughter?" Ross cultivated a certain preciosity of speech as though he were anxious to negate the stevedore ie

"Don&039;t exactly feel tip-top," said John, not looking up

"Hangover?"

"No, sir," said John, coldly

"Well, cheer up, then You&039;ll win no friends, scattering stinkweeds over the fields as you garoan Ross&039;s subliterary affectations earisome at the best of times and this wasn&039;t the best of times

And to ar and knew that James Arnold Prescott - the head of the sales division - could not be far behind

Nor was he He looked about, and said, "Mike, when and what did we sell Rahway last spring or thereabouts? There&039;s some damned question about it and I think the details have been miscomputerized"

The question was not addressed to him, but John said quietly, "Forty-two vials of PCAP That was on April 14, JP, invoice nuranted on payment within thirty days Payment, in full, received on May 5"

Apparently everyone in the room had heard that At least, everyone looked up

Prescott said, "How the hell do you happen to know all that?"

John stared at Prescott for a moment, a vast surprise on his face "I just happened to remember, JP"

"You did, eh? Repeat it"

John did, faltering a bit, and Prescott wrote it down on one of the papers on John&039;s desk, wheezing slightly as the bend at his waist co difficult John tried to duck the s to do so

Prescott said, "Ross, check this out on your co to it at all" He turned to John with an aggrieved look "I don&039;t like practical jokers What would you have done if I had accepted these figures of yours and walked off with the They&039;re correct," said John, conscious of himself as the full center of attention

Ross handed Prescott the readout Prescott looked at it and said, "This is from the computer?"

"Yes, JP"

Prescott stared at it, then said, with a jerk of his head toward John, " And what&039;s he? Another coures were correct"

John tried a weak sar a lingering reminder of his presence

Ross said, "What the hell was that little bit of legerdemain, Heath? You found out what he wanted to know and looked it up in advance to get soathering confidence "I just happened to res"

"And took the trouble to keep it from your loyal companions all these years? There&039;s no one here who had any idea you hid a good memory behind that unre it, Mr Ross, is there? Nohen I have, it doesn&039;t seeoodwill, does it?"

And it hadn&039;t Ross glowered at him and turned away

6

John&039;s exciteht made it difficult for him to talk coherently, but Susan listened patiently and tried to act as a stabilizing force

"You ht just have happened to remember, you know," she said "By itself it doesn&039;t prove anything, Johnny"

"Are you crazy?" He lowered his voice at Susan&039;s gesture and quick glance about He repeated in a semiwhisper, " Are you crazy? You don&039;t suppose it&039;s the only thing I re I ever heard It&039;s just a question of recall For instance, quote some line out of Shakespeare"

"To be or not to be"

John looked scornful "Don&039;t be funny Oh, well, it doesn&039;t matter The point is that if you recite any line, I can carry on fro as you like I read soe and so any of it back I&039;ve tried It flows! I suppose I can bring back any part of any book or article or newspaper I&039;ve ever read, or any TV show I&039;ve ever watched - word for word or scene for scene"

Susan said, "What will you do with all that?"

John said, "I don&039;t have that consciously in my head at all times Surely you don&039;t - wait, let&039;s order - "

Five minutes later, he said, "Surely you don&039;t - My God, I haven&039;t forgotten where we left off Isn&039;t it a in a mental sea of Shakespearean sentences at all times The recall takes an effort, not much of one, but an effort"

"How does it work?"

"I don&039;t kno do you lift your arive your muscles? You just will the arm to lift upward and it does so It&039;s no trouble to do so, but your arm doesn&039;t lift until you want it to Well, I re I&039;ve ever read or seen when I want to but not when I don&039;t want to I don&039;t kno to do it, but I do it"

The first course arrived and John tackled it happily

Susan picked at her stuffed ? I&039;ve got the biggest, most wonderful toy in the world My own brain Listen, I can spell any word correctly and I&039;rammatical mistake"

"Because you rerammars you ever read?"

John looked at her sharply "Don&039;t be sarcastic, Sue"

"I wasn&039;t being - "

He waved her silent "I never used dictionaries as light reading But I do re and they were correctly spelled and correctly parsed"

"Don&039;t be so sure You&039;ve seen any word misspelled in every possible way and every possible exarammar, too"

"Those were exceptions By far the largest nulish, I&039;ve encountered it used correctly It outweighs accidents, errors, and ignorance What&039;s rowing ent steadily"

"And you&039;re not worried What if - "

"What if I beco too intelligent can be har to say," said Susan, coldly, "that what you&039;re experiencing is not intelligence It&039;s only total recall"

"How do you lish language correctly, if I know endless quantities of ent? How else need one define intelligence? You aren&039;t growing just a little jealous, are you, Sue?"

"No," et an injection of my own if I feel desperate about it"

John put down his fork "You can&039;t mean that"

"I don&039;t, but what if I did?"

"Because you can&039;t take advantage of your special knowledge to deprive me of my position"

"What position?"

The main course arrived and for a few moments, John was busy Then he said, in a whisper, "My position as the first of the future Homo superior! There&039;ll never be too many of us You heard what Kupfer said Soe e" One corner of Susan&039;s mouth lifted

"Once I was There&039;ll be others like me eventually Not many, but there&039;ll be others It&039;s just that I want toIt&039;s for the firht thereafter, testing his brain delicately

Susan ate in an unhappy silence

7

John spent several days organizing his memories It was like the preparation of an orderly reference book One by one, he recalled all his experiences in the six years he had spent at Quantum Pharmaceuticals and all he had heard and all the papers and memos he had read

There was no difficulty in discarding the irrelevant and uni them in a "hold till further notice" compartment where they did not interfere with his analysis Other iteression

Against that skeletal organization, he resurrected the scuttlebutt he had heard; the gossip, malicious or otherwise; casual phrases and interjections at conferences which he had not been conscious of hearing at the tiround he had built up in his head orthless, empty of factual content Those which did fit clicked firmly into place and could be seen as true by that rew, and the nificant new items became and the easier it was to fit them in

Ross stopped by John&039;s desk on Thursday He said, "I want to see you in n to carry you in that direction"

John rose uneasily "Is it necessary?&039; I&039;m busy"

"Yes, you look busy" Ross looked over the clear desk which, at theSusan "You&039;ve been this busy all week But you&039;ve askedme in my office is necessary For me, no; but for you, vital There&039;s the door to my office There&039;s the door to the hell out of here Choose one or the other and do it fast"

John nodded and, without undue hurry, followed Ross into his office

Ross seated himself behind his desk but did not invite John to sit He maintained a hard stare for a ot into you this week, Heath? Don&039;t you knohat your job is?"

"To the extent that I have done it, it would seem that I do," said John "The report on microcosmic is on your desk and complete and seven days ahead of deadline I doubt that you can have complaints about it"

"You doubt, do you? Do I have per withto you for permission?"

"I apparently have not made myself plain, Mr Ross I doubt that you have rational complaints about it To have those of the other variety is entirely up to you"

Ross rose now "Listen, punk, if I decide to fire you, you won&039;t get the news by word of ive you the glad tidings You will go out through the door in a violent tumble and mine will be the propulsive force behind that tuue in your big mouth Whether you&039;ve done your work or not is not at question right now Whether you&039;ve done everyone else&039;s is Who and what gives you the right to

Ross roared, "Well?"

John said, "Your order was &039;Keep your tongue in your big erous red "You will answer questions, however"

John said, "I a anyone"

"There&039;s not a person in the place you haven&039;t corrected at least once You have gone over Willoughby&039;s head in connection with the correspondence on the TMP&039;s; you have been into general files using Bronstein&039;s computer access; and God knohat else I haven&039;t yet been told about and all in the last two days You are disrupting the work of this department and it must cease this moment There must be dead calm, and instantaneously, or it will be tornado weather for you, my man"

John said, "If I have interfered in the narrow sense, it has been for the good of the cohby, his treat Quantuulations, so I have pointed out to you in one of several memos I have sent you which you apparently have not had occasion to read As for Bronstein, he was si the co I was easily able to establish by locating the necessary correspondence - merely to corroborate my clearvisibly through the talk "Heath," he said, "you are usurping ather your personal effects and be off the premises before lunch, never to return If you do, I will take extreain with my foot Your official notice of dismissal will be in your hands, or down your throat, before your effects will be collected, work as quickly as you may"

John said, "Don&039;t try to bully me, Ross You&039;ve cost the coh incompetence and you know it"

There was a short pause as Ross deflated He said, cautiously, "What are you talking about?"

"Quantum Pharmaceuticals went down to the wire on the Nutley bid and missed out because a certain piece of inforot to the Board of Directors You either forgot or you didn&039;t bother and in either case you are not the man for your job You are either incompetent or have sold out"

"You&039;re insane"

"No one need believe me The information is in the computer, if one knohere to look and I knohere to look What&039;s e is on file and will be on the desks of the interested parties two minutes after I leave these pre with difficulty, "you could not possibly know This is a stupid attempt at blackmail by threat of slander"

"You know it&039;s not slander If you doubt that I have the information, let me tell you that there is one memorandum that is not in the records but can be reconstructed without too much difficulty from what is there You would have to explain its absence and it will be presu"

"It&039;s still black no de my actions of the past two days Of course, if I&039;ned, won&039;t I?"