Total Recall by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online Page B

true dream woman distorted by an artificial memory. Let this be some other woman, similar, but not so close as to be confusing. The memory might not be as nice, but caution was best.
    “Slim, curvaceous, voluptuous?” Dr. Lull asked crisply.
    He was really getting sleepy now! That stuff in the IV didn’t fool around. “Volupshus.”
    “Demure, aggressive, wanton? Be honest.”
    Why shouldn’t he be honest? Well, there was a reason, but he couldn’t quite recall it at the moment. “Wanton . . . and demure.” Let them wrestle with that conflicting matchup!
    “41A, Ernie.”
    So much for conflict! Maybe if he wasn’t so sleepy he’d have been able to mess them up a little. As it was, he had spoken true, with someone in mind even though he had thought to keep her a bit removed.
    He was vaguely aware of Ernie slipping cassette 41A into his console. The computer image became a schematic version of the woman in Quaid’s dream. The likeness was so close it was startling.
    Oh, no! Did they know? They couldn’t! Yet—
    “Boy, is he gonna have a wild time,” Ernie chortled. “Won’t wanna come back.”
    Quaid faded out. He was on his way, wherever.

CHAPTER  7

Problem
    M cClane was interviewing another prospective client, a lonely middle-aged woman. These were fairly common customers; women seemed to have more suppressed dreams than men, and to be more depressive. They weren’t necessarily poor, either, just tired of being stuck at home while their husbands got all the action. What he offered was ideal for them.
    “So you see, Mrs. Killdeer, we really can remember it for you wholesale. This will be the best experience you ever had!”
    “But there won’t be any souvenirs,” she complained.
    “Not true,” McClane said earnestly. “For just a few credits more, we supply postcards, photographs of you at the sights, letters from the handsome men you met—”
    The videophone rang, interrupting him. Damn! He’d told them not to do that when he was closing a deal. He activated the ’phone and Dr. Lull appeared on the screen.
    “Bob?” she asked. Her voice was tense. “You better get down here.”
    McClane rolled his eyes in the full view of Mrs. Killdeer, as if in league with the customer against the company. It was hardly an exaggeration; good sales were not all that common, and he hated to have his clincher speech messed up. “I’m with a very important client.”
    “Looks like another schizoid embolism,” Dr. Lull said.
    McClane was shocked. Worse, so was Mrs. Killdeer. She understood the reference! This was all too likely to cost him two clients: Quaid and Killdeer. What an awful break!
    He stood and attempted a reassuring smile. “I’ll be right back.”
    But he very much feared she would not be there when he returned. Damn, damn, damn!
    He strode out of the sales office and down the hall to the rear memory studio. The fools, to interrupt him with an announcement like that, in the hearing of a client! He was going to kick some ass! Did Renata Lull think she could pull a stunt like this and—
    But as he entered the studio he pulled up short, his ire forgotten. He stood appalled at what was happening.
    The client, Douglas Quaid, had gone crazy. He was shouting and thrashing about in the chair, struggling violently to break the straps that held him down. He was a powerful man—just how powerful McClane hadn’t properly appreciated before—and the IV connection was in danger of being separated. Indeed, the whole chair was rocking. What had happened? An adverse reaction to the sedative?
    Quaid was like a different person. He wasn’t crazed so much as enraged. His eyes were flinty, and his voice was cold and menacing. “You’re dead meat, all of you!” he shouted with perfect clarity. “You blew my cover!”
    Dr. Lull and Ernie were cowering against the far wall, trying to keep a safe distance from the struggling man. But McClane had had more experience with cases gone bad; they were more common