Chapter 15 Chapter fifteen

"It's unbelievable," thought Hilary to herself, "it's unbelievable that I've been here ten days!" She thought that the most terrible thing in life is to adapt so quickly.She remembered seeing an exhibit on medieval torture while in France.The prisoner was locked in an iron cage, unable to stand, sit, or lie down.The guide said that the last prisoner lived in the iron cage for 18 years, and lived another 20 years after being released, until he died of old age.This resilience, Hilary thought, is what separates humans from animals.Man can live in any climate, on any food, and under any conditions, whether he is a slave or a free man.

When she first arrived at the unit, she initially felt a blinding fear, a terrible feeling of being imprisoned and discouraged, which was intensified by the fact that the captivity was cloaked in luxurious surroundings.But after spending a week here, she began to adapt to the living conditions here unconsciously and naturally.It's a quirky, dreamlike way to live.Nothing here is particularly real.She felt that she had been in this dream for a long time, but she would continue to live in it for a long time, perhaps, forever.Here she will live forever, cut off from the outside world. She sees this dangerous ability to adapt partly as a result of being a woman.Women are born to adapt to the environment.This adaptability gives them strength, but it is also their weakness.They are good at observing the environment, accepting it, and then settling down with realism and enjoying it as much as possible.What interested her most was the reflections of her traveling companions.She rarely saw Needham, except occasionally at meals.The German woman just nodded at her.Needham was happy and content, she judged.Life here was clearly what she had imagined it to be.She was the type of woman who was absorbed in her work and lived comfortably with her natural arrogance.Her own sense of superiority, and that of her fellow scientists, was the first of her convictions.She thinks nonsense about friendship among human beings, peaceful life, freedom of thought and spirit.For her, the future is narrow but overwhelming.She herself was part of a superior race, and the enslaved others of the world could bestow favors on them if they behaved well.Needham didn't care if her colleagues disagreed, if their ideas were communist rather than fascist.As long as they work well, they are useful and their minds are transformed.

Dr. Barron is smarter than Needham.Hilary spoke to him occasionally.He is also engrossed in his work and is very satisfied with his working conditions.But his curious French wit led him to speculate and consider his present circumstances. "It's not what I expected, frankly, no," he said one day. "It's between you and me, Mrs. Betterton. I can say that I don't like prison life. But it does." It's like a prison, even though the cage is thickly plated with gold." "There is little here the freedom you came to seek?" He looked at her with a quick wry smile.

"No," he said, "you're wrong. I didn't really come to seek freedom. I'm a civilized man. Civilized people understand: there is no such thing as freedom. Only young, not fully civilized countries Liberty' is written on their flag. There must be a well-organized security apparatus. The essence of civilization is moderation in the way of life, the middle way. People will always return to the middle way. No, I tell you frankly , I'm here for the money." Hilary smiled, her eyebrows raised. "What good is money to you here?" "It's okay to pay for very expensive lab equipment," Dr. Baron said. "I don't have to pay for it out of my own pocket so I can serve science and satisfy my personal curiosity. I'm a guy who loves what he does, but I love it Not for the benefit of humanity. I often find those who work for humanity a bit dull and incapable of doing their job. No, the interests I appreciate are purely academic. Besides, I have already received a huge sum of money before I left France .the money is regularly deposited in a bank under another name. When all this work is over, I can do with the money as I please."

"When all this work is over?" Hillary asked. "But why end?" "One should have common sense," Dr. Baron said. "Nothing lasts forever. I have come to the conclusion that this place is run by a madman. I tell you, a madman can have a logical mind. If You're rich, you're logical, and you're a madman, and you can successfully navigate your fantasy world for quite some time. But in the end," he said with a shrug, "everything comes to an end. Because , you know, everything going on here is unreasonable. For any unreasonable things, there will always be someone to settle the score. At present," he shrugged again, "this is the most suitable place for me."

That Torky Eriksson, whom Hilary had expected to be remorseful, seemed to be quite pleased with the atmosphere of the place.He is not as pragmatic as the aforementioned Frenchman.He lived his kind of dedicated life.His inner world was too foreign to Hilary for her to comprehend.This view of the world produced in Eriksson a sense of majestic happiness, intoxicating him with mathematical calculations and fantasizing about an endless chain of possibilities.The eccentricity and brutality of the man's character terrified Hillary.In her opinion, a young man like him would rather destroy three quarters of the world and leave one quarter to realize the utopia he imagined in his mind.

Hillary got along with that American named Andy Peters.Maybe, she thought, because Peters was a man of talent, but not a genius.She had heard from others that he was the first of his kind, a careful and skilled chemist, but not a pioneer of the science.Peters, like her, loathes and dreads the atmosphere of the place. "Actually I don't know where I'm going," he said. "I thought I did, but I was wrong. The political party has nothing to do with this place. We have no connection with Moscow. It's a separate play here—probably A fascist play." "You don't think you're putting a hat on by saying that?" Hillary said.

He considered the question for a moment. "Perhaps you are right," he said. "Indeed, it is useless for us to talk nonsense. But I am sure of this: I want to get out of here, and I must try to get out of here." "It's not that easy," Hilary whispered. This was their conversation after dinner by the fountain in the roof garden.The starry night made them feel as if they were strolling through the gardens of the palace of some sovereign in an Arab country, the concrete buildings lost in the twilight. "It's not easy," Peters said. "It's not easy to get out, but nothing is impossible."

"I love hearing that from you," Hilary said. "Ah! I love hearing that from you." He looked at her sympathetically, and asked: "You're feeling down!" "Sure, but that's not what I'm really scared of." "No? So, what is it?" "What I'm afraid of is getting comfortable with the status quo," Hillary said. "Yes," he said thoughtfully, "yes, I see what you mean. There seems to be some kind of collective mind work going on here. I think you're right to be afraid." "In my opinion, it's more natural for people to rise up and rebel," Hillary said.

"Yes, yes, I thought so too. As a matter of fact I wondered once or twice whether there was some little trick going on here." "Ghost name? What does this mean?" "Well, frankly, using drugs." "You mean some narcotic?" "Yes, you know, it's possible. Put something in food and drink. That can make people...how shall I say...tame?" "Is there such a narcotic?" "Well, that's actually beyond my knowledge. There's a drug that can be taken to calm people down. It can make them docile before an operation. As for a long-term dose of a drug that doesn't Affects productivity...that's out of my mind. I'm now more inclined to think that taming effects come through mind work. I mean, I think there are organizational and administrative people here who are well versed in hypnotism and psychology, And without us knowing it, they're constantly giving us advice about our well-being and how to get to our end, whatever that end is, and all of that is bound to have some effect. You know, in this way You can do a lot of tricks, especially if these guys are very good at it."

"But we can't give in!" Hilary said angrily. "We can't for a moment think it's a good thing to be here." "What does your husband think?" "Tom? I, ah... I don't know. It's so hard. I..." She fell silent. There was no way she could tell the man she was talking to now about her strange life.For ten days she had been living in a flat with a strange man.They sleep in one bedroom.At night when she couldn't sleep, she heard his breathing in the other bed.Both of them accepted the inevitable arrangement.She's an imposter, a spy, always ready to play one role and impersonate another.She knew nothing about Tom Betterton.To her, Betterton was an astonishing example of what can become of a talented young man after a few months in this debilitating environment.At least he was unwilling to accept his fate honestly.Not only was he not interested in doing work, but she sensed that he was increasingly annoyed by his inability to concentrate on his work.Once or twice he repeated what he had said the first night he saw her. "I can't think. It's like everything is drained from me." Yes, she thought, a true genius like Tom Betterton needed freedom most.For him, intellectual work did not make up for his lost freedom.Only with full freedom can he carry out creative work. He was, she thought, a man about to lose his mind.He is also indifferent to Hillary.She was neither a woman nor a friend to him.She wondered if he even realized and felt pain over his wife's death.His captivity was always on his mind.He said again and again: "I must get out of here. I must! I must!" Sometimes he said, "I don't know. I didn't expect it to be like this. How can I get out of here? How can I get out? I have to get out, I just have to get out!" This is essentially the same as what Peters once said, but with a big difference.Peters spoke like the voice of a promising, outraged, disillusioned man who was confident that he would outwit the people of the place he was.And Betterton's resistance is like a desperate man who is desperate to escape.Hilary suddenly thought: Maybe she and Peters were here for the first half of the year, too.Perhaps a person begins with great resistance and a very reasonable confidence in his own talents.In the end, he became as desperate as a mouse in a trap. She wishes she could tell everything to this man next to her.If only she could say: "Tom Betterton is not my husband. I don't know anything about him. I don't know what happened to him before he came here, so I'm in the dark. I can't help him, Because I don't know what to do and what to say." However, she could only say cautiously: "Tom is like a stranger to me now. He doesn't say anything to me. Sometimes I think: Captivity, that is, being locked up here, is driving him crazy." "That could," said Peters dryly, "could have caused that." "Tell me . . . you speak so confidently of getting out of here. How we get out . . . Is there any hope?" "Oliver, I don't mean that we're going to get out the day after tomorrow. It's something to think about. You know, people have run away under the most hopeless conditions. Some of us, and your country this side of the Atlantic Some have written books describing how they escaped from German fortresses." "The situation back then was different from what it is now!" "It's not a real difference. Where there's a way in, there's a way out. Of course, tunneling out here is impossible, so many ways are ruled out. But as I said, if there's a way in, there's a way out." The way out. Brainstorming, bluffing, pretense, deceit, bribery, corruption. You have to learn and think about it. I tell you: I'm going to get out of here, take my word for it." "I'm sure you will," Hilary said, "but what about me?" "Well, your case is different." His voice was a little nervous.For a moment she didn't understand what he meant.She sensed later that he might have surmised that she had achieved his purpose.She came here to find her beloved, and after finding him, she had little desire to escape personally.Thinking of this, she really wanted to risk telling Peters the truth of the matter, but the instinct of caution stopped her. She said good night and left the roof garden.