"Can't they just tum the current off?"
"Sure, they can cut the circuit, but don't you see, the gerbil you're getting every picosecond is the same one that was in the field before you turned it off. They-"
"Wait a minute. Just wait a minute. You turn off the current and the thing still works? That doesn't make sense.''
"I know, but that's what they told me. You turn off the current, the machine stops working, okay, but that gerbil was in the field when the machine was working, and you can't go back and change that. So you just keep on getting more gerbils."
"Forever?"
"Yeah, I guess so. I mean, if you've got an infinite number of gerbils, you just don't run out. Anyway, I was starting to say, they gave Tom another demonstration-they put a laser on the gerbil to measure its height above the floor, and then they brought in a goddamn anvil and hung it from the gerbil's ear. Gerbil didn't move. So, partly this is good news and partly it's bad news. The good news is, is if we go with this system we won't need any structural supports in the Cube, because there won't be any gravity load. The bad news is, is we can't zap people into S.A. and then move them in container ships, we've got to ship them live, and not only that, we can't zap them until they're in place in the Cube. So that's a whole new system, and we've got to redesign everything from scratch."
"Who's going to get the bid for the construction?'.
"Farbenwerke, probably."
"Do they know about this?"
"Yeah, and they're not happy."
"You didn't mention another thing. If you can't move the people in the Cube, how are the aliens going to pick it up?"
"That's their problem. We've got to assume they can do things we can't do, right? If they want us to do this some other way, they can come and tell us about it."
Sunday just before dinnertime, Lavalle and Wellafield found themselves alone in the living room. Lavalle was drinking a Gibson; Wellafield had a ginger ale. She said, "Doc, I've been having some funny feelings lately. I just wondered-"
"What kind of feelings, Linda?" He leaned forward and smiled reassuringly.
"Well, it's hard to explain, but sometimes I seem to know what Ed is thinking about."
"Uh-huh. Well, that seems to happen to couples sometimes. My wife-Unh!"
He closed his eyes and opened them again. "Where was I? Oh, uh, telepathy isn't very scientific, you know, but there is what we call a rapport that people get when they are very close to someone. Now, is there something about these episodes that bothers you?"
She hesitated. ''Just that- I don't know, I'm having dreams that I never had before. But there's something else, too. I think I'm starting to feel the way he does about the aliens. I mean, I love them and I'm afraid of them, the way he is. I don't see how that could happen just by being around somebody. "
"No, perhaps not, perhaps not." He sat back and looked at the ceiling for a moment. "Well, there is another explanation. You know Ed says himself that the aliens put something in his brain."
"He hasn't got any scar-"
Wellafield waved his hand. "Microsurgery, perhaps. Or maybe he's wrong about their putting it in his brain, maybe it's somewhere else. But let's suppose it's what we call an implant, that is, something that releases a neurochemical agent of some sort into the bloodstream."
"Okay."
"And so his body fluids would contain this substance, and, ah, when you have intimate relations-I hope this doesn't embarrass you-"
"No, I get it." To her surprise, she felt herself flushing. "Thanks, Doc."
"Don't mention it, my dear."
After a really interesting lunch of curried crab and apricots, the Cube Team had a presentation from the Council of American Commercial Advertisers. The presenter was a large, aggressively cheerful man named Rodney ("Call me Rod") Singleton.
"We've got to sell this just like any other product," Rod told them, "and it will be the biggest ad campaign of all times because it's worldwide and we've got to reach everybody. Now how do we sell something that might look bizarre at first glance to everybody in the world? There are five ways, and we'll use them all. Number one, a promise of benefits. You'll have a better life if you use our product. Number two, peer pressure. Everybody who is anybody is using this product. Number three, glamour. Celebrities use this product. Number four, sex. Lots of great-looking models demonstrating the product. Number five, risk. You're taking your life in your hands when you use this product."
"Excuse me, isn't that a negative pitch?"
"You'd think so, wouldn't you? But studies have shown again and again that people are attracted by the risk of death. Like the skull-faces that showed up in ice cubes in liquor ads in the seventies and eighties? They sold booze like crazy, and the skull and crossbones on cigarettes work almost the same way. Incidentally, I've seen some of the sketches for the life capsules, and I understand there's some concern that they look too much like caskets. I'd like to go over this with the design group-I think there's a definite point where they're going to look just enough like caskets."
"Wait a minute, are you saying that if the capsule doesn't obviously look like a casket, people are going to want to get in it because of some subliminal, what, death wish?"
"That's very well put, and I think we should be alert to take advantage of that. Now, moving along, the next point is saturation. Everywhere you look, you're going to see our ads. On billboards, on halo, in newspapers and magazines. You're going to see Cube games and Cube toys for the kiddies. We'll have essay contests for school-children: 'Why I Want to Go to Our New Planet.' You'll see the ceremonies when people actually get into the life capsules and get their pictures taken. You won't be able to get away from this, because it'll be everywhere . Preachers will talk about it in their sermons. Teachers in their classes. The President will talk about it, the Mayor will talk about it, and I guarantee you we can tum this bizarre idea into something everybody takes for granted.''
"About the sex, that won't work in Islamic countries, will it?"
"Not the same way; no bikinis, but believe me, sex sells to Muslims too. That's an important point, though, cultural differences. We can't run this whole thing like an American campaign; it's got to be tailored to every group. That means we've got to have input from an army of anthropologists and media people. No problem. We've done the same thing with cigarettes."
"How about different religions, though?"
"We've got to have the religious leaders behind us, no question. Well, for every religion there's some kind of a handle. With Christians it's heaven, with Muslims it's paradise, same difference. The Chinese and Japanese and Scientologists are going to join their ancestors, the Indians are going to achieve nirvana. For starving people, they're going to a place where they'll never have to be hungry again.''
"Is that true?"
"Well, who knows if it's true? We're selling a product, and we're making certain claims for it. If we had to find out if the claims are true, how could you ever sell anything?"
CHAPTER 32
The Cube Team had been officially renamed; it was now the United States Consulting Service (USCS) , and it had a commanding voice in the Council of the International Human Rescue Corporation (IHRC) in Berlin. But it still met every Monday in Washington, where it called itself by its old name.
On a rainy day in April, when the winds were whipping diseased cherry blossoms down the avenue, Sam Cooper said, "We were thinking of Tsu Jin Shan, northeast of Nlan-jing, but it turns out it's only fifteen hundred feet, and even if it was taller, with gerbil construction we really don't need a mountain. We can put up a mile-high building right outside Shanghai, no weight at all and absolutely solid. And that's better than the mountain, because we can have multiple tracks that converge on the building as it goes up.