it was
when I asked him if he'd taken the prescribed dreams and he didn't
answer.... Anyway, I tested his machine. It was insane!"

"Dreams made by some twisted mind," the Superfather said. "Remember.
They've no real existence. Nothing lives or moves outside the city.
There were old myths but they've been dead for countless generations."
He paused. "Where _are_ the pictures?"

"I burned them."

"Good." He motioned to the men behind him. They came forward and stood
on each side of Twenty-three.

"Twenty-three," said the Superfather, "we may have to erase your
memories and your present individuality." He cleared his throat. "Our
records show that some two thousand people have disappeared in the last
five years. Your case has much to do with it.... Where'd you get the new
cards?"

Twenty-three was silent.

The Superfather pulled out a pack of cards. "Before we leave this room,
you'll be a different man. If you tell us,"--he waggled the cards in his
right hand--"this'll be your new life. You'll have dreams of outdoing
every man on the machine lines and fix your body so you'll have the
capacity to do it. You _will_ do it. You'll become a Superfather. You'll
burn to excel them. You'll push on up, become a Superfather-plus. You'll
work with ideas, ways of increasing efficiency, pushing the workmen
faster and faster. And you'll find ways of conditioning them to meet the
greater and greater demands for speed. The city and people'll be at your
fingertips. There'll be rooms of marble and gold for you. Soft carpets
and buttons to push that'll give you any desire instantly. You'll _have_
everything and _be_ everything!" He paused and took a deep breath. "All
this'll be yours if you'll tell us where you got the cards, without
forcing us to probe your mind with the electric-scalpel...."

With an effort, Twenty-three raised his eyes to the Superfather's face.

"And if I don't tell you?"

"Moving a lever back and forth twice a minute hour after hour, year
after year. Living in a bare cubicle. No entertainment. No desires." He
paused. "And no _memories_."

Twenty-three looked over the Superfather's shoulder. The last card, he
thought, is in the machine. Escape from the city. They said that, from
outside. I've got to know. No matter what they put in the machine, that
card will show first. Even if it's only for ten seconds or thirty or
sixty, or however long--I'll know.

"No," he said, "I won't tell you...."

The woman gas