The Human Division #12: The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads Read Free Page B

“I don’t remember those being touted to me when I was working as a doctor.”
    “Well, no, there’s nothing that will dosomething that specific,” Berger said. “But you know as well as I do that, one, sometimes drug interactions will do funny things—”
    â€œTurn someone into a methodical murderer?” Lowen asked again, incredulously.
    “—and two, there are lots of our products out there that will eat your brain if you overuse them, and if they eat your brain, then you’ll start doing uncharacteristic things. Like becominga methodical murderer, maybe.”
    â€œA reasonable hypothesis,” Lowen said. “But hypothetically this person was not regularly taking either legal or illegal pharmaceuticals. Next.”
    â€œAll right,” Berger said, and gave the appearance of thinking quickly. “A tumor.”
    â€œA tumor,” Lowen said.
    “Sure, a tumor,” Berger said. “A brain tumor starts growing, hypothetically, and starts pressing on a part of thebrain that processes things like knowing what is socially appropriate behavior. As the thing grows, our boring person starts putting her mind to murder.”
    â€œInteresting,” Lowen said. She sipped her drink again.
    â€œI’ve read stories about such things, and not only because my company sells a pharmaceutical treatment for cutting off the blood supply to tumorous masses in the body,” Berger said.
    “It’sgood to read for recreation,” Lowen said.
    â€œI think so, too,” Berger said.
    â€œAnd as superficially appealing as that suggestion is, this hypothetical person received a clean bill of health before her last assignment,” Lowen said. “It was hypothetically a job that required extensive amounts of travel, so a thorough physical examination was part of the job protocol.”
    “This hypothetical person isgetting very specific,” Berger said.
    â€œI don’t make up the rules,” Lowen said.
    â€œYes, you do,” Berger said. “That’s why it’s a hypothetical.”
    â€œOne more chance, Mr. Berger, comma, John,” Lowen said. “So make it good.”
    â€œWow, on the spot,” Berger said. “Okay. Remote control.”
    â€œWhat?” Lowen said. “Seriously, now.”
    “Hear me out,” Berger said. “If you wanted to do someone in, and have no one know,and completely cover your tracks, how would you do it? You would have someone that no one would ever expect do it. But how do you get them to do it? Skilled assassins may be good at looking like normal people, but the best assassins would be people who are normal people. So you find a normal person. And you put a remote control in their brain.”
    “You’ve been reading a few too many science fictionthrillers,” Lowen said.
    “Not a remote control that gives you gross control over a body, with everything herky jerky,” Berger said. “No, what you want is something that will lay across the frontal lobes and then subtly and slowly, over the course of time, bend someone towards doing the unspeakable. Do it so the person doesn’t even notice their own personality changing, or questions the necessityto kill someone. They just go ahead and plan it and do it, like they’re filing taxes or making a report.”
    â€œI think people would notice a remote control in someone’s head, though,” Lowen said. “Not to mention the hypothetical person would remember someone opening up their skull to get inside of it.”
    “Well, if you were the sort of people who would make this sort of remote control, you wouldn’tmake it easy to find,” Berger said. “And you wouldn’t make it obvious when it was inserted. You’d find some way to slip it into their body when they weren’t expecting it.” He pointed at Lowen’s drink. “Nanobots in your drink, maybe. You’d only need a few and then you could program those few to replicate inside the body until you had enough. The only