Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 71 — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

WISHFUL THINKING 3 HE ROOM WAS A BOX twelve feet square, lined ‘with tall green filing cabinets and centred by a desk. A desk lamp threw a sharp cone of brilliant light over the blotter, spilling onto the floor and illuminating the rest of the room with dim, unreal reflection. Two men sat at the desk, the smoke from their cigarettes coiling like a living thing in the close confines of the room. “T don’t like it.” John Evans, thin, gaunt, nervous, dragged at his cigarette and glanced at his watch. “Thirty minutes now. You shouldn’t have let him try it alone.” “Carl insisted.” Sam Con- way, falsely bland, sat and smoked and controlled his nerves with a lifetime of practice. He was a psycholo- gist, a good one, and had long learned to master his emotions. John was a tech- nician, a man who could dispense shock treatments, handle an electroencephalo- graph, perform electronic wiz- ardry, and yet who was the 87 slave of his own glandular reactions. He tensed as sound filtered into the room. “Relax.” Sam had noticed the tension, recognised the cause, identified it and dis- missed it. ““One of the patients having a bad time. Forget it.” “TI don’t like it,” John repeated. “‘If someone found us here they might start asking questions.” “We’re covered.” Sam crushed out his cigarette, hesitated, then lit another. *“‘There’s nothing in the rules to say that we shouldn’t get together in our off-time. If we want to talk shop and look up some case histories, then that’s our business.” He chuckled. “With the staff problem what it is no one is going to jump on us for being enthusiastic about our work,” “That depends,” said John drily. ‘““‘We’ve been a little too enthusiastic. What with the misordering of compon- ents, the misuse of machines and the misappropriation of comichooks.com =