Paycheck (2003) by Philip K. Dick Read Free Book Online Page A

easier.’
    ‘Well, Jennings. So the two of you worked out an elaborate plan to steal our schematics. Why? What’s the purpose? You haven’t turned them over to the Police.’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Then I can assume it’s blackmail.’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘What for? What do you want?’ Rethrick seemed to have aged. He slumped, his eyes small and glassy, rubbing his chin nervously. ‘You went to a lot of trouble to get us into this position. I’m curious why. While you were working for us you laid the groundwork. Now you’ve completed it, in spite of our precautions.’
    ‘Precautions?’
    ‘Erasing your mind. Concealing the Plant.’
    ‘Tell him,’ Kelly said. ‘Tell him why you did it.’
    Jennings took a deep breath. ‘Rethrick, I did it to get back in. Back to the Company. That’s the only reason. No other.’
    Rethrick stared at him. ‘To get back into the Company? You can come back in. I told you that.’ His voice was thin and sharp, edged with strain. ‘What’s the matter with you? You can come back in. For as long as you want to stay.’
    ‘As a mechanic.’
    ‘Yes. As a mechanic. We employ many—’
    ‘I don’t want to come back as a mechanic. I’m not interested in working for you. Listen, Rethrick. The SP picked me up as soon as I left this Office. If it hadn’t been for
him
I’d be dead.’
    ‘They picked you up?’
    ‘They wanted to know what Rethrick Construction does. They wanted me to tell them.’
    Rethrick nodded. ‘That’s bad. We didn’t know that.’
    ‘No, Rethrick. I’m not coming in as an employee you can toss out any time it pleases you. I’m coming in with you, not for you.’
    ‘With me?’ Rethrick stared at him. Slowly a film settled over his face, an ugly hard film. ‘I don’t understand what you mean.’
    ‘You and I are going to run Rethrick Construction together. That’ll be the way, from now on. And no one will be burning my memory out, for their own safety.’
    ‘That’s what you want?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘And if we don’t cut you in?’
    ‘Then the schematics and films go to the SP. It’s as simple as that. But I don’t want to. I don’t want to destroy the Company. I want to get into the Company! I want to be safe. You don’t know what it’s like, being out there, with no place to go. An individual has no place to turn to, anymore. No one to help him. He’s caught between two ruthless forces, a pawn between political and economic powers. And I’m tired of being a pawn.’
    For a long time Rethrick said nothing. He stared down at the floor, his face dull and blank. At last he looked up. ‘I know it’s that way. That’s something I’ve known for a long time. Longer than you have. I’m a lot older than you. I’ve seen it come, grow that way, year after year. That’s why Rethrick Construction exists. Someday, it’ll be all different. Someday, when we have the scoop and the mirror finished. When the weapons are finished.’
    Jennings said nothing.
    ‘I know very well how it is! I’m an old man. I’ve been working a long time. When they told me someone had got out of the Plant with schematics, I thought the end had come. We already knew you had damaged the mirror. We knew there was a connection, but we had parts figured wrong.
    ‘We thought, of course, that Security had planted you with us, to find out what we were doing. Then, when you realized you couldn’t carry out your information, you damaged the mirror. With the mirror damaged, SP could go ahead and—’
    He stopped, rubbing his cheek.
    ‘Go on,’ Jennings said.
    ‘So you did this alone … Blackmail. To get into the Company. You don’t know what the Company is for, Jennings! How dare you try to come in! We’ve been working and building for a long time. You’d wreck us, to save your hide. You’d destroy us, just to save yourself.’
    ‘I’m not wrecking you. I can be a lot of help.’
    ‘I run the Company alone. It’s my Company. I made it, put it together. It’s