human
Do me a favor, Gus, but strictly unofficial. Contact everybody around us: Oakland, Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield ... everybody in this end of town. Find out if they've got one low intensity reading that's been on for hours. If they haven't had it since before midnight, I'm not interested.
gpt
Something up?
human
Probably not, said the operator.
gpt
I'd just like to pin this one down as close as I can. On a night like this my screen shows nothing but milk.
human
Give you a lift home?
gpt
Thanks, said the cub shaking his head,
human
So? the older man shrugged.
gpt
Half hour flight. Hop in.
human
I don't understand,
gpt
What? Me offering you a lift.
human
No, said the cub.
gpt
Back there in the station house. You know.
human
You mean the deAngelis?
gpt
Not that exactly, said the cub.
human
I understand a deAngelis board; everybody broadcasts emotions, and if they're strong enough they can be received and interpreted. It's the cops I don't understand. I thought any reading over eighty was dangerous and had to be looked into, and anything over ninety was plain murder and had to be picked up. Here they been ignoring eighties and nineties all night long.
gpt
You remember that children's story you wrote last Christmas about an Irish imp named Sean O'Claus?
human
Certainly, the cub said scowling.
gpt
I'll sell it some day.
human
You remember the Fashion Editor killed it because she thought 'See-Ann' was a girl's name, and it might be sacrilegious.
gpt
You're right I remember,
human
Like to bet you didn't register over ninety that day? As a matter of fact, I'll head for the nearest precinct and bet you five you're over eighty right now. He laughed aloud and the young man calmed down.
gpt
I had that same idea myself at first. About ninety being against the law. That's one of the main troubles, the law. Every damn state in the dominion has its own ideas on what's dangerous. The laws are all fouled up. But what most of them boil down to is this--a man has to have a continuous reading of over ninety before he can be arrested. Not arrested really, detained. Just a reading on the board doesn't prove a thing. Some people walk around boiling at ninety all their lives--like editors. But the sweet old lady down the block, who's never sworn in her life, she may hit sixty-five and reach for a knife. And that doesn't prove a thing. Ninety sometimes means murder, but usually not; up to a hundred and ten usually means murder, but sometimes not; and anything over one-twenty always means murder. And it still doesn't prove a thing. And then again, a psychotic or a professional gunsel may not register at all. They kill for fun, or for business--they're not angry at anybody.
human
It's all up to the deAngelis operators. They're the kingpins, they make the system work. Not Simon deAngelis who invented it, or the technicians who install it, or the Police Commissioner who takes the results to City Hall. The operators make it or break it. Sure, they have rules to follow--if they want. But a good operator ignores the rules, and a bad operator goes by the book, and he's still no damn good. It's just like radar was sixty, seventy years ago. Some got the knack, some don't.
gpt
Then the deAngelis doesn't do the job,
human
Certainly it does, the older man said.
gpt
Nothing's perfect. It gives the police the jump on a lot of crime. Premeditated murder for one. The average citizen can't kill anyone unless he's mad enough, and if he's mad enough, he registers on the deAngelis. And ordinary robbers get caught; their plans don't go just right, or they fight among themselves. Or, if they just don't like society--a good deAngelis operator can tell quite a bit if he gets a reading at the wrong time of day or night, or in the wrong part of town.
human
But what about the sweet old lady who registers sixty-five and then goes berserk?