The Eyes of Heisenberg Read Online Free

Naturally!
    The Durants couldn’t be content with seeing the tape after the cut. Oh, no. They had to be on the scene. That meant the Durants weren’t as innocent as they might appear—no matter what this hospital’s Security staff said. The public just did not insist anymore. That was supposed to have been cut out of them.
    The statistical few who defied their genetic shaping now required special attention.
    And Potter reminded himself, I did the original cut on this pair. There was no mistake.

    He ran into Svengaard outside the latter’s office, heard the man’s quick resume. Svengaard then began babbling about his Security arrangements.
    â€œI don’t give a damn what your Security people say,” Potter barked. “We’ve new instructions. Central Emergency’s to be called in every case of this kind.”
    They went into Svengaard’s office. It pretended to wood paneling—a corner room with a view of flowered roof gardens and terraces built of the omnipresent three-phase regenerative plasmeld, the “plasty” of the Folk patios. Nothing must age or degenerate in this best of all Optiman worlds. Nothing except people.
    â€œCentral Emergency?” Svengaard asked.
    â€œNo exceptions,” Potter said. He sat in Svengaard’s chair, put his feet on Svengaard’s desk, and brought the little ivory-colored phone box to his stomach with its screen only inches from his face. He punched in Security’s number and his own code identification.
    Svengaard sat on a corner of the desk across from him, appearing both angry and cowed. “They were scanned, I tell you,” he said. “They were carrying no unusual devices. There’s nothing unusual about them.”
    â€œExcept they insist on watching,” Potter said. He jiggled the phone key. “What’s keeping those ignoramuses?”
    Svengaard said, “But the law—”
    â€œDamn the law!” Potter said. “You know as well as I do that we could route the view signal from the cutting room through an editing computer and show the parents anything we want. Has it ever occurred to you to wonder why we don’t do just that?”
    â€œWhy … they … ahh …” Svengaard shook his head. The question had caught him off balance. Why wasn’t that done? The statistics showed a certain number of parents would insist on watching and …
    â€œIt was tried,” Potter said. “Somehow, the parents detected the computer’s hand in the tape.”
    â€œHow?”
    â€œWe don’t know.”
    â€œWeren’t the parents questioned and …”

    â€œThey killed themselves.”
    â€œKilled them—How?”
    â€œWe don’t know.”
    Svengaard tried to swallow in a dry throat. He began to get a picture of intense excitement just under Security’s surface. He said, “What about the statistical ratio of—”
    â€œStatistical, my ass!” Potter said.
    A heavy masculine voice came from the phone: “Who’re you talking to?”
    Potter focused on the screen, said, “I was talking to Sven. This viable he called me on—”
    â€œIt is a viable?”
    â€œYes! It’s a viable with the full potential, but the parents insist on watching the—”
    â€œI’ll have a full crew on the way by tube in ten minutes,” said the voice on the phone. “They’re at Friscopolis. Shouldn’t take ’em more than a few minutes.”
    Svengaard rubbed wet palms against the sides of his working smock. He couldn’t see that face on the phone, but the voice sounded like Max Allgood, T Security’s boss.
    â€œWe’ll delay the cut until your people get here,” Potter said. “The records are being faxed to you and should be on your desk in a few minutes. There’s another—”
    â€œIs that embryo everything we were told?” asked the man on the