Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 46 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SAVIOUR things of the past in the Deep Cities, where armaments and basic necessities were the only things ever manufactured. She opened the door swiftly. **Yes,”’ she said. And then she shut her mouth abruptly and held onto the door lintel with a hand on which the knuckles showed up very white indeed. The man in the black uni- form bowed slightly, his smile easy and pleasant—or so one might think until one had seen how swiftly its owner could make it come and go. Behind the man, stiffly to attention, stood two other black-uniformed figures. She knew what they were. Anyone in the Deep Cities would have known. She made her voice as steady as she could. ““You’re from Psychosecurity, aren’t you?” *““That’s right, madam. Cap- tain Mathews, at your service. And you, I think, are Mrs. Vane?’’ “TI am. I expect you’re here to see my husband.” . His embarrassed cough seemed very natural to one who did not know how often it was used in just such cir- cumstances as these. ““Er— well, not exactly, Mrs. Vane. I’ve actually been sent to pick up your son.” 21 There was nothing they could have done, he thought, lying on his back in the dark, shivering in the chill of the empty freight tunnel to which only a fraction of Deep London’s atomically gener- ated heat could percolate. There was nothing any of us could have done. I wouldn't have wanted them to try, even, in case it made things bad for them, afterwards. He recalled, with horrid vividness, the way the psycho- security man had saluted his father. After that had come the smiling explanations. Ap- parently he’d been due for psychoanalysis that morning but, owing to his having been dismissed early, he hadn’t been told about it. The man was very sorry, of course, to come rapping on the door like that, but the General, being a military man, would under- stand how essential it was for things to be done at the right time. Oh no, the man didn’t think there was anything wrong. Of course he was just a cog in the machine and didn’t know why it was necessary for the boy to have instant analy- sis. Some little thing, perhaps, that analysis would bring to light ? Certainly nothing to be > alarmed about, so far as he knew. When would it be conmicloooks.com