Page 47 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

The Phantom Limb

“Like Brad,” began Fred Feghootsky, in conversational tones, “I,
too, am looking backward to an older armature on which to hang
the threadbare garments of a scarecrow story.” He glanced left and
right, scanning vainly for the merest smile at his simile. “But I will
stay right here on terra firma. Into the hopper I throw elements of
pulp-fiction crime and horror, pseudo-scientific overreach and the
latest in neurological research. Ladies and gentlemen, I give
you…The Phantom Limb.”
“In fact, four phantom limbs. Barron is a psychopathic criminal
mastermind sitting at the center of a web of evil. His literary
antecedents are Moriarty, Fantômas and Mabuse—themselves
amoral caricatures of the world-historical political villains of the
twentieth century: psychopaths, one and all. Barron has had a good
run, avoiding the organizational failings of the Mafia and the
unreliable commitments of religious terrorism. His strategic crime
wave netted him a small fortune, all of it swiftly laundered into
Swiss numbered bank accounts. As I said, he placed himself in a
position where none of his lieutenants could conspire against him:
they did not know each other, and each was keenly aware of the
hazards of trying to cheat their leader. Yet Barron was betrayed, by
persons unknown to the police raiding his offices following an
explosion and fire that left the kingpin a quadruple amputee with
third-degree burns on what was left of his body. Nevertheless, he
was tried, convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his limited
life span in a prison hospital.”
“Hors de combat, right? Not so fast: enter Dr. Cyphen,
neurological lecturer and researcher at the local university. He is
interested in the relationship of motor neurons to commands
originating in the cerebellum, particularly in the phantom limb
phenomenon. His work involves a mind-machine interface;
therefore willing subjects among recent amputees must be found.
But his particular theories require inserting a large number of
intrusive electrodes into voluntary subjects: the hospitalized patients
he attempts to recruit are unwilling to undergo the additional pain
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