4
Maybe I'm just worried, Rick guessed that I would also encounter the bad luck that Dave encountered. If the bionic man is so smart that he can knock Dave down with laser gun , then it will be fine to knock me down. But it didn't seem to be this what he was anxious about.
"I found you brought the instructions for that new brain unit." Director Bryant hung up the phone and said to him.
Rick said, "Yes, I heard the rumor. How many bionics are there this time? How many did Dave find?"
"At least eight." Bryant looked down at the note board, "Dave found the first two."
"The remaining six are also in our Northern California ?"
"As far as we know, they are all there. Dave said. I was talking to him just now. I have taken the notes on his desk. He said everything he knows is in these notes." Bryant knocked on the manuscript paper. At the moment he doesn't seem to be going to hand the notes to Rick. For some reason, he was still flirting through those notes, frowning from time to time, and licking his dry lips with his tongue.
"I happen to have no other task," Rick offered, "I can take over Dave's job at any time."
Bryant said confidently: "When Dave tested his suspicion, he used the revised version of the Voit Kampf scale. You should know - in fact, you must know - this test is not only for this new type of brain unit. No test is specifically for which brain unit. After the Voit Scale was revised by Kampf three years ago, it is the only effective method we have now." He paused and thought for a while. , continued: "Dave thinks this test is accurate. Maybe it's enough. But I'll give you a suggestion, before starting to find the six bionics," he tapped the stack of notes again. "Fly to Seattle and talk to the people at Rosen. See which models of bionics they have equipped this hub 6 brain unit to provide some representative samples."
"And test them with the Voit Kampf scale."
"It sounds so easy." Bryant said half-tongued to himself. "What?"
Bryant said: "I'll talk to Rosen on the way you fly over first." He looked at Rick silently for a while, then finally muttered, bit his nails, and thought about what to say next. "I will discuss with them to see if I can mix in a few real people in the test. But you won't know which ones are. This is decided after I discuss with the manufacturer. They should be ready when you arrive." Suddenly, he pointed at Rick and said with a serious expression: "This is the first time you have taken on the heavy responsibility of the advanced bounty hunter . Dave has rich experience and many years of experience behind him."
"I am also experienced." Rick replied nervously.
"The tasks you have performed are all Dave's schedule. What tasks you transfer to you and which tasks are performed by him have always been decided by Dave. But now these six have been solved by Dave himself - one of them actually took the initiative. That's it." Bryant turned the notes in a direction and asked Rick to take a look. "Max Polokov," Bryant said. "This is its own name. Suppose Dave found the right direction. The whole list is based on this assumption. But the revised Voit Kampf scale only tested the first three, two of which were killed by Dave, and then it was Polokov's turn. Just as Dave was testing him, Polokov pulled his gun and knocked him down."
"This just proves that Dave suspected it was right," Rick said. Otherwise he wouldn't be knocked down, because Polokov had no motivation to do so.
"You set out to Seattle right away." Bryant said, "Don't tell them for now. Let me tell you," he stood up and stared at Rick coldly. "When you were hosting the Voit Kampf test there, if there was a real person who failed-"
" that wouldn't be possible," Rick said.
"I talked to Dave a few weeks ago, and he also felt it was impossible.But I have a memorandum from the Soviet police, forwarded by Warsaw Pact , and it is spread to the world and major colonies. A group of psychologists in Leningrad proposed to the Warsaw Pact to apply the latest and most accurate personality analysis tool used to identify bionics, the Voit Kampf scale, to a group of human schizophrenia patients they selected. Those who have the so-called "indifferent personality" characteristics. You should have heard of it. "
Rick said: "This is the characteristic that the test needs to measure. "Then you understand what they are worried about. "
" has always existed since we first encountered bionic people disguised as humans. The consensus in the police community was actually written in Luri Kampf's paper eight years ago.
"Role-playing disorders in patients with schizophrenia without worsening". Kampf compared the common phenomenon of empathy degradation in human psychiatric patients with surfaces similar but fundamentally—"
" those psychologists in Leningrad," Bryant interrupted him roughly, "think that a small number of humans cannot pass the Voit Kampf test. If you test those people in a police enforcement action, you will identify them as humanoid machines. By the time you realize that the identification was wrong, they are already dead. "He calmed down and waited for Rick to answer.
" But those specific people," Rick said, "must be all in-"
" all in the mental hospital. "Bryant agreed, "They can't live normally in the outside world." Once a serious mental illness occurs, it will definitely be noticed by others - of course, unless they have just had an attack recently and no one has time to pay attention. But this is still possible. "
" one in a million possible. "Rick said. But he got it.
"What Dave is worried about," continued Bryant, "is this new emerging hub type 6 advanced bionic. As you know, Rosen once assured us that the Hub Type 6 can be identified by standard personality tests. We once believed it. But now, we have to judge the authenticity ourselves. We had expected this day long ago. This is your mission in Seattle. Do you understand? There may be mistakes in both cases. If your tests cannot find all humanoid machines, it means we don’t have reliable analysis tools and we can’t find all the escaped bionics. On the other hand, if you identify a real person as a bionic person—" Bryant smiled coldly, "that would be embarrassing. Although no one will make such news public immediately, Rosen's people will not. In fact, we can hold this news indefinitely. Of course, we need to inform the Warsaw Pact, and then they will inform Leningrad. One day, this matter will be revealed in the newspaper, embarrassing us. But by then we might have developed better tests. "He picked up the phone. "Are you going to set out now?" Drive the police station bus and refuel at our own gas station. ”
Rick stood up and said, “Can I bring Dave Holden’s notes? I want to see it on the road. ”
Bryant said: “Let’s talk about it when you finish the test in Seattle. "Rick secretly noticed that his tone was a little gloating.
When his police speed landed on the roof of the Rosen building in Seattle, a young woman was already waiting for him. Black hair, thin, wearing the latest giant dust-filtered glasses, wearing a bright striped long windbreaker, and her hands were in her trench coat pocket. She came to the side of the car, and her little face with a clear outline was full of gloom and disgust.
"What's wrong? "Rick asked while getting out of the car.
The girl replied tactfully, "Oh, I don't know. Maybe it was their tone on the phone. It's fine. "She suddenly stretched out a hand and he held it reflexively. "I'm Rachel Rosen. I think you are Mr. Deckard. "
" This is not my idea. "
" Yes, Director Bryant told us. But here you represent San Francisco Police Department official, and you don't believe that our brain units are good for the public. "Her eyes looked at him through his long lashes—most likely false lashes.
Rick said: "The humanoid machine, like other machines, can quickly switch between beneficial and harmful. If it is beneficial, it is not our concern."
"And if it is harmful," Rachel Rosen said, "You are here. Mr. Deckard, I heard that you are a bounty hunter?"
He shrugged his shoulders and nodded reluctantly.
"You directly believe that the android is not a living thing," the girl said, "so you can 'turn off' it, as they say."
"Are your test candidates ready?" he said, "I think-" He stopped suddenly. Because, at that moment, he saw a large group of animals. A company as powerful as
, he realized, could certainly afford them. Deep down in his mind, he might have expected to see so many animals. So he was not surprised at all, he only felt a little yearning. He silently left the girl and walked to the nearest cage. He had smelled several scents, the animals standing and sitting, and the sleeping raccoon that looked like .
He had never seen a raccoon in person in his life, he had only seen it in three-dimensional movies on TV. For some reason, the dust hits raccoons just as hard as it does birds, with few surviving individuals. His first reaction was to take out the nearly tattered Sidney manual and look at all the prices listed under the raccoon. The price is of course in italics, just like the Percheron horse, no matter what the price, it is simply not available on the market. The Sydney Catalog only lists the price involved in the last raccoon sale. It's an astronomical number.
"His name is Bill," the girl said behind him, "Raccoon Bill. We acquired it from a subsidiary last year." She raised her hand and pointed a little further away, and then he discovered that the company's armed guard was standing aside, holding a Skoda light rapid-fire machine gun, and had been staring at him since he got out of the car. But, he thought, my car clearly has police car markings.
"The largest manufacturer of androids," he said thoughtfully, "invests excess capital in live animals."
"Look at that owl." Rachel Rosen said, "Here, I'll help you wake it up." She walked towards a small cage in the distance. A dead tree with branches stood in the center of the cage.
There are no more owls in the world. He opened his mouth to say something, but did not say it. At least that's what we hear. The Sydney Catalog listed it as extinct, he thought. That little, precise mark E is everywhere in the catalogue. As he followed the girl forward, he reconfirmed the statement in "Sidney's Catalog". He remembered correctly. Sydney never makes mistakes, he told himself. This is also a fact we know. Besides Sydney, who else can we trust?
"It's man-made." He suddenly woke up, and a strong and sharp disappointment came to his heart.
"No." She smiled slightly, her white teeth as fine and neat as braided shells, complementing her black eyelashes and hair.
"But the Sydney Catalog -" he said, holding up the catalog to her, trying to prove it to her. The girl said: "We don't buy them from Sydney, nor do we go through any middlemen. All our animals are purchased from private hands, and the prices are never reported." She added, "In addition, we have our own animal collectors, and they are now working in Canada. There is still a little forest left there, of course. , only relatively speaking. At least it is enough for small animals to survive, and occasionally a bird can be found."
He stood still, staring at the owl dozing on the branch for a long time, thinking about the war and the days when owls fell from the sky. He remembers his childhood when one species was discovered extinct one after another, and newspapers reported every day which species was extinct, one day a fox, the next a badger, until people gradually lost interest in animal obituaries.
He was also reminded of his own desire for real animals. Deep in his heart, dissatisfaction with the electronic sheep gathered again. He always cared for and cared for the electronic sheep as if it were a real sheep. Enslaved by a dead thing, he thought. It doesn't even know I exist.Like bionic humans, it has no ability to understand the existence of other life forms. He had never thought about the similarities between animatronics and androids from this perspective. Electric sheep, he thought, could be seen as low-end models of androids, much inferior robots. Or conversely, androids can be seen as highly evolved pseudo-animals. Both perspectives disgusted him.
"If you want to sell this owl," he asked the girl Rachel Rosen, "how much do you want to sell it for? How much is the down payment?"
"We will never sell an owl." She stared at him with a look that was half pitiful and half funny, at least that's how he interpreted it, "even if we want to sell it, you will never be able to afford it. What is your animal?"
"It's a sheep," he said, "a black-faced Suffolk ewe." "Oh, then you should be satisfied."
"I am indeed satisfied." He replied, "It's just that I have always wanted owls since I was a child, and I wanted them before they died." Then he immediately changed his words, "Except for yours, all the others are dead."
Rachel said: "Whether it is our current emergency measures or the overall plan, another owl is needed to mate with Scrappy." She pointed to the dozing owl. The owl opened its eyes slightly, and two yellow eye slits flashed past. Then, it sat back down to its original position and continued to sleep peacefully. Its chest rose and fell greatly, as if it was sighing in its dream.
He looked away. There was so much bitterness mixed with the previous shock and longing. He said: "I want to start testing your sample group now. Shall we go downstairs?"
"The call from your boss was answered by my uncle. Now he has probably-"
"You are a family?" Rick interjected, "So big "The company is actually a family business?"
She was not interrupted and continued: "Uncle Elden should have prepared the android group and the control group." She strode towards the elevator, thrusting her hands into her coat pockets again, without looking back at him. He felt a little unhappy, and after hesitating for a moment, he raised his feet and followed her.
"What do you think of me?" he asked as the two descended in the elevator together.
She pondered for a moment, as if she didn't know it herself. "Well," she said, "you, a little police department employee, are in a unique position right now. You know what I mean?" She gave him a dirty look.
"How many of the androids you are producing now," he asked, "are equipped with Nexus 6?" "All of them," Rachel replied.
"The Voigt Kempf test will definitely work on them."
"If it doesn't work, we will have to withdraw all Hub 6 models from the market." Her dark eyes seemed to be burning with anger, and she glared at him fiercely. At this time, the elevator stopped descending and the elevator door slid open automatically. "Just because your police are incompetent and can't handle even the smallest of things, and can't catch a few hubby-type 6s who have deserted—"
Outside the elevator, a well-dressed, thin old man stepped forward and stretched out his hand. He had a worried look on his face, as if everything was happening too fast lately. "I'm Elden Rosen," he introduced himself as he shook hands with Rick. "Listen, Deckard, you know we don't make anything on Earth, right? We can't just call the factory and ask them to send a large number of various samples. It's not that we don't want or are unwilling to cooperate with you. In short, I have done my best." His left hand tremblingly inserted into the thin hair.
Rick gestured to the police suitcase in his hand and said, "I can start at any time." Old Rosen's nervousness made his self-confidence soar. They're afraid of me, he realized surprisingly. Including Rachel Rosen. Because I might be able to force them to discontinue the Hub 6 model. What I do in the next hour will affect their entire operational structure and may very well determine the future of the entire Rosen Corporation, whether in the United States, the Soviet Union, or on Mars.
The two members of the Rosen family looked at him nervously. He could sense the hypocrisy behind their warm politeness.He came here, threatening them and could be sentenced to death financially at any time. They had too much power, he thought. This company is recognized as one of the most important industrial cores of the solar system. The creation of bionic people has actually established a profound symbiotic relationship with the work of colonizing . Sooner or later, the destruction of one cause will lead to the destruction of another cause. Luosen Company naturally fully understands this symbiotic relationship. Elden Rosen obviously realized this as soon as he received a call from Harry Bryant.
"If I were you, I wouldn't worry," Rick said. Uncle and nephew Luosen took him through a spacious and bright corridor. At this moment, he was satisfied. More pleasant than any moment he remembers. They will soon know what his test equipment can do and cannot do. "If you don't have confidence in the Voit Kampf scale," he noted, "then your company should develop other testing methods early. It can be said that part of the responsibility lies with you. Oh, thank you." They took him to a small compartment as beautiful and comfortable as a living room, with carpets, lamps, sofas, and other modern furnishings - a small table with recent magazines scattered... He noticed that there was a February supplement to the Sini Catalog, which he had never seen before. In fact, the February supplement should not be released until three days later. Obviously, Rosen has a special relationship with Sini.
He was upset and picked up the supplement. "This is trampling on the public's trust. No one can know the price fluctuations in advance." In fact, this may violate a certain federal law. He thought about it for a while, but couldn't remember which one it was. "I'm going to take this away." He opened his suitcase and threw the supplement in.
was silent for a while, and Elden Rosen said carefully: "Listen to me, sir, we follow the company's regulations and never take the initiative to request preprints-"
"I'm not a security policeman." Rick said impatiently, "I'm a bounty hunter." He took out the Voit Kampf equipment from his suitcase, sat down at a nearby mahogany table, and began to assemble this simple wave tracing machine. "You can call the first test subject in," he told Elden Rosen, who was increasingly haggard.
"I want to watch," Rachel said, sitting down on the side. "I haven't seen a transference test yet. What are you testing?"
Rick said, "This," he raised a small suction cup with a wire. "It measures the expansion of the capillary on the face. We know that one of the most primitive automatic reactions of human beings is the so-called 'shame' or 'blushing' responses to the stimulus of moral shock. This is not subjectively controlled, and it is different from the skin's conductivity, breathing or heartbeat." He raised another device, a pen-shaped beam flashlight. "This can record the tension and contraction of the eye muscles. While blushing occurs, we can generally detect subtle but visible movements-"
" This movement cannot be detected in bionics," Rachel said.
"Yes, they won't be troubled by irritating problems, even if they are living, or potentially living, on biology ."
Rachel said: "Test me." "Why?" Rick was confused.
Elden raised his hoarse voice: "We choose her as your first test subject. She might be a bionic. We hope you can identify it." He sat down clumsily, lit a cigarette, and began to observe with all his attention.
