Chapter 5

The almost complete lack of crime in the streets was due primarily to the success of the Early Warning Personality Scanner an electronic device situated in the cellar of the Department of Justice.

This advanced, incredibly sophisticated computer kept a constant subliminal watch on every citizen; a watch so conclusive that it could predict when a person would begin to exhibit neurotic or psychotic behavior.

The moment the computer discovered such a person, a card was immediately dispatched to the Medical Services Unit which sent out an Apprehension Squad to pick the potential criminal up.

This Squad was noted for its tact and its ability to pick people off the street with a minimum of fuss. Highly trained, they were able to instantly diagnose the person and take him to whatever automated asylum they thought fitting for immediate treatment.

Roger saw the Squad as they turned the corner, everybody knew the green and white uniforms they wore. He wondered who they were after and for just one terrible moment thought it was himself but then he laughed it off and walked into a cafeteria for lunch.

Waiting on line for his food he saw the three members of the Squad take a seat in the cafeteria. They seemed to be talking to each other in quiet tones. One of the Squad members was gesturing with his hands in a violent manner. They were obviously deciding how to pick up a person that had been judged potentially dangerous by the Early Warning Personality Scanner. Roger looked around to see if he could pick out the culprit.

He had picked up his knife and fork and was about to cut the sirloin steak in front of him when he felt the presence of people behind him. He turned quickly and saw the Squad. At close range, they seemed gigantic, the sheer brilliance of their uniforms hurting his eyes.

Roger felt the fingers of panic grasping his throat. It's impossible, he thought, totally impossible.

Trying to maintain his calm, he spoke to them: "Really, you must have made some mistake."

"Relax, Roger, relax, there's nothing to worry about you'll be away for only a few days. It's for your own good."

He looked around trying to see some escape route but the Squad had completely surrounded him and all he could see was their kindly, concerned faces.

They tried to calm him:

"Your family and employer have already been notified. Do you wish to finish your meal or do you wish to come now?"

It was too late. There was nothing he could do, nothing he could say. He looked at the food on his plate but his appetite was completely gone and he followed the squad out of the cafeteria. The people watched him go and one or two of them consoled him, saying it was for his own good and he would be back better than new in a few days.

They whisked him away in their hydrofoil and he was given a sedative to calm his shaking nerves. They skimmed over the ground for about an hour until they had left the city far behind. Finally, they pulled up before a massive concrete structure and let him out. Roger and the Squad walked to a booth where a single guard was positioned. The Squad leader handed him a card and after it was thoroughly inspected, the Squad left, leaving Roger in the care of the guard.

"Take off your shoes and socks and remove any sharp instruments."

The moment that order was given, Roger knew where he was. They had taken him to the automated asylum.

"Please hurry. Everything is being prepared for you.

He removed his shoes and socks and took off his belt.

"Now the rest of your clothes."

A moment later he was naked. The guard telephoned from inside the booth and a small passageway in the wall opened. The guard pointed to it:

"Just follow your nose."

The steel corridor felt cold on his naked feet and he walked quickly toward the dim light which shined at the end of the passageway.

He entered a small ante-room and noticed a screen high on the far wall. A second later a picture of him flashed on the screen. It was a snapshot that his wife had taken many years ago during a trip to Mars. He was puzzled for a moment and then furious that his wife would have made such a private picture available. The snapshot only stayed on the screen for a few moments and then it was replaced by a short paragraph which said:

YOUR HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED AS A BORDERLINE PSYCHOTIC. YOU WILL BE TREATED WITH A COMBINATION OF HYDROTHERAPY AND EROTIC THERAPY. IF YOU COOPERATE YOU WILL BE HOME WITHIN FORTY EIGHT HOURS. WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS. WE WILL NOT HARM YOU. WE ARE HERE TO MAKE YOU WELL.

Then the screen went blank. At first he didn't know what hydrotherapy was and then he remembered reading about it. It was a form of water cure where the patient was placed in hot and cold baths.

But Erotic Therapy! There was nothing wrong with him sexually. He beat his hands against the wall in desperation.

The passageway! He turned to run back into the dark hallway from whence he had come. When he reached the opening he was thrust back by an invisible barrier, thrust back so hard that he fell to his knees.

The screen lit up again and he read these words:

YOU CANNOT ESCAPE. BE CALM. WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS. WE WILL MAKE YOU WELL. YOU MUST COOPERATE.

He was sweating and every muscle in his body seemed to be shaking. He buried his face in his hands and began to sob.

"You must have made some mistake," he screamed to the screen, "there's nothing the matter with me."

A second later he felt the floor give way beneath his feet and he was falling, falling, he could scarcely breathe, so fast was his descent.

The water closed over him with a rush and he fought to get to the surface. Then he found that he could stand. He looked around, dazed, as the hot water swirled around him.

It was a massive tub and the water was being sent in circles at a terrific rate of speed. It was the hottest water he had ever been in but soon his body became accustomed to it. He began to walk about the tub, trying to look for an entrance, but the tub was enclosed by walls and there seemed no way out.

Finally, he just stood still, his feet braced against the bottom.

Then he saw a silvery flash in the tub that was moving rapidly. At first he thought he was hallucinating and he blinked his eyes. Then he saw it again; it was flesh colored. He could see the sudden appearance of skin and then the object dove deep into the tub.

He searched for it again, afraid yet wanting to see something. It was a woman. He caught his breath sharply. It was a naked woman, he had seen the curve of naked breast as she dove.

Then she surfaced and floated only a few feet from him, her succulent nipples pointing straight up. She was fair skinned with long black hair which seemed to float on the water like lilies.

He called to her but there was no answer and at the sound of his voice she dived again. This time she came up near him, only a few inches away.

Roger forgot everything as he watched her; all he could see was the shape of her buttocks, the soft curve of her thighs and the dark patch of her womanhood which glistened as the hot water swirled about her.

He started to move toward her. She saw him and smiled a smile of infinite promise. He felt his organ rising, he felt it cutting through the water like a knife through hot butter. She was swimming backwards, always out of reach of his questing hands.

Roger cornered her against the far wall. She didn't fight. Instead she held out her arms to him and he moved into their divine circle. His mouth savagely grasped her nipple and he sucked on it as the water swirled in his mouth. He wanted more. He forgot everything-he wanted her. The water seemed to drive him into a sexual frenzy. He pushed her against the wall and spread her legs. She was still smiling, still calling him silently to her.

He rammed it in. He rammed it in until he could go no further. He felt as if she was crumbling from the penetration but then her body responded and she allowed herself to move to him, to begin the rhythm. Again and again he thrust his penis into her flower and it seemed to suck him up with all the mystery of the ocean. He couldn't have enough. He kept searching for her lips as he pumped but she avoided them.

"Who are you?" he screamed.

But his words were caught short as his body reacted with lust and he shot his seed into her. He was quivering as they disengaged and he felt his body burning with the fever of the water and the ejaculation.

She said nothing but swam away. On the far side of the tub she dived and he didn't see her again.

A moment later the floor beneath him gave way and once again he found himself spinning through space, spinning so fast that his ears sang and his stomach turned over and over.

It was cold water this time. Swirling sheets of cold water which numbed his body and set his teeth chattering. He felt himself being flailed alive by the whirling water.

Then he heard his name being called. Was he dreaming? Was there another human in the tank? He refused to believe it and his eyes searched the walls for one of those ubiquitous screens.

Suddenly, there was a movement beside him. He turned slowly toward it, his limbs being made dull by the frigid water.

It was a woman. She was treading water near his elbow. He looked into her eyes as if daring her to prove it wasn't a mirage. She touched him on the shoulder blade and then began massaging his skin rubbing some warmth in him.

She seemed so authoritative, so used to the tank that he gave himself up into her hands. She pushed him backwards so that a second later he was floating in the whirling tank. Then her hands moved down his body until they grasped his maleness.

The tank was beginning to spin in his mind. The combination of first hot water and then cold water had disturbed his thought patterns for a moment-which was the purpose of the cure. Roger thought of the woman as some sea creature, some great shark that had been sent to him to bring him salvation.

Her fingers were like seaweed, winding themselves into his sex. He could feel the stirring between his legs, the flesh coming to life slowly but massively. He was still floating as she gently spread his legs for him and he could see her moving between his thighs.

Then he saw her mouth open; the lips were trembling and hungry. For just a brief moment the pinkness of her mouth was visible to him.

Her lips moved over his flesh, swallowing his vibrating column. He felt himself shiver as the entry was made, he felt as if her lips were made of fiery velvet. A groan escaped him and the water, frigid and unyielding, splashed against his face.

His penis was like an electric current suddenly loosed in water. She did magic to it, she licked it and sucked it, and moved her mouth up and down the column, faster and faster until his flesh was burning with the fact of love. His hands were stretched out toward her, a silent gesture of affirmation.

Every muscle in his body was like jelly, trembling and crying out. She was swallowing more of him, bringing him to an erotic frenzy that he had never experienced before. His penis was so hot from her lips that the cold water swirling around him seemed to steam.

Suddenly, she backed off. She peeled her lips off his maleness and as they slid off he moaned with the loss. She swam over to the other side of the tank. He was caught, chained to his flesh, chained to that lance of passion which speared the cold swirling water.

He went after her. She was like a slippery fish who again and again wielded her cunning to escape capture.

But she couldn't reckon with his frenetic passion which gave him an almost inexhaustible stamina. He caught her around the waist and his hands slid up to her breasts, squeezing them warm in the cold water. Her nipples began to push forward, against his palms, and he felt the vibrations in her points as he played with them. Holding her with one hand, he slipped the other down and felt the shape of her buttocks.

She was against him. His flesh sought entry, his flesh had to penetrate, to seek relief of her body. The buttocks seemed to spread for him and a second later he rammed his penis between the two quivering buns. As he entered her and as they closed about his column, he felt his body shudder as if it would fall apart. Then, thrashing with his arms in the water like a wounded whale, he drove the flesh home again and again.

His head was thrown back as he thrust and he laughed with joy. The swirling icy water no longer seemed to both him; it was the ideal ecological arrangement for his action.

She was quivering in his arms and her body melted into his plunging maleness. He was going in deeper and deeper, cutting a wider swath of passion. Suddenly, she threw her head back and screamed. He made one last violent thrust and then his seed poured into her.

Roger floated on his back, gasping for breath, the ejaculation having drained him of energy. He pushed the girl away and he watched her float to the other side of the pool before she vanished from view.

A second later the bottom opened up and he plunged into a third pool; this one warm and silent, without the whirling sensation of the other two. It was shallow and he stood there, trying to reflect on what had happened to him. He felt strangely at ease, as if all the tensions of the past few months had been swept away by the water and his semen.

Then, to his astonishment, the water began to drain. Soon, the pool was completely empty and he felt ashamed of his nakedness.

Hearing a strange noise, he turned to the far wall and saw a screen. This time it said:

ROGER, YOUR SESSION IS OVER. YOUR HAVE MADE ALMOST UNBELIEVABLE PROGRESS AND WE THINK IT IS FUTILE TO KEEP YOU HERE ANY LONGER. WE WILL KEEP YOU UNDER SURVEILLANCE AND IF YOUR CONDITION RECURS YOU WILL BE CALLED BACK.

Five minutes later one of the walls opened up and he followed the passageway back to the ante-room where his clothes were. Dressing quickly he walked back to the entrance and was let out. A few miles from the place he realized a car was following him. He could tell that it was the Apprehension Squad's vehicle, but he no longer had that sense of panic as when he first saw them. Perhaps they were right, he thought, perhaps they were right.

At home, he outlined the details of his visit, making sure to omit the more lurid ones. That, he vowed, would be saved for his dreams.