He waved Boyd to the chair on the other side of his desk.
“I’ve got a problem, Mr. Boyd. I’m not sure I can co-operate with you any more.”
“Can you tell me why?”
“If I get satisfactory answers to a couple of questions I’ll tell you why I might have to withdraw.”
Boyd shrugged. “Ask away then.”
“I don’t know which order to put them in so I’ll ask them both together. Who the hell are you? And why are you interested now when you weren’t when I originally reported it?”
“I’m an intelligence officer, Dr. Ansell.”
“That can mean anything or nothing. It’s not an answer.”
“It’s all I can tell you, doctor, so let me answer the other question. You sent a report which made its slow progress through the usual channels to my section of the intelligence services. We think you were right to do so. You’re obviously concerned as to what has been happening to this man. Whether he’s hallucinating, or malingering, or is genuinely disturbed. It would help you, and maybe him too, to know the truth. I’ve been ordered to find out the truth. If I can. I need all the help you can give me.”
“Have you got any kind of identity card I could see?”
Boyd fished in his pocket and pulled out the identity card that was used for the general public. Ansell looked at it carefully and handed it back. For a few moments he looked down at his empty desk top and then he lifted his head and looked across at Boyd.
“I hope I’m not making a terrible mistake, Mr. Boyd.” And he turned in his chair, reached out and switched on the Technics tape-recorder. It was almost twenty minutes later when he turned to switch it off.
“It’s not much help to you, Mr. Boyd, but maybe what I’m going to tell you can help. That man has not only been hypnotized before, but he’s been hypnotized many, many times, by a professional. He has no realization that he’s been hypnotized.” He paused. “And what is more he has been hypnotized at two levels. The second, deeper level showed up briefly in that session. And he’s also … and it’s significant … been given a post-hypnotic block. Do you understand what that is?”
“No.”
“It means that nobody except the original hypnotist can get into the second level. He has been hypnotized to forget that he’s been hypnotized. No normal psychiatrist would have any need to do that. It’s highly dangerous. It also explains why the poor fellow never got any of the decent jobs he applied for. He has been hypnotized to forget a whole year of his life in the army, so when he has to fill in an application form covering what he had been doing in that twelve months he can’t do it. Literally can’t do it. This man has been grossly abused. And abused by a highly competent psychiatrist.”
“Have you any idea as to why this should be done?”
“There’s the obvious suggestion that he was hypnotized by someone during his army service.”
“For what purpose?”
“God knows. Maybe you could hazard a guess better than I can.”
“Is there any way for you to get to the second level of hypnosis?”
“Only by luck. Skill can’t do it. The key to that level will be some code-word. Without that it’s locked in his brain.”
“What about a pentathol injection?”
“It would make no difference. He doesn’t even know that he was hypnotized at all. I doubt if he would believe it if I told him.”
“How can you find the code-word?”
“He gave a clue.”
“What was it?”
“He said, ‘You don’t like the Kennedys,’ or words to that effect. He was fully conscious when he said that. When I asked him what he meant he didn’t know what I was talking about. It had already gone. I suspect that the code-word is in that sentence or is something to do with it.”
“You’d be guessing?”
“Exactly. So is it worth it? Wouldn’t it be better to let sleeping dogs lie?”
“From my point of view it has to be done.”
“Even if it could end by doing this man even more damage than has been done already?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t underestimate even his present condition. He is a deeply disturbed man. There’s little I can do for him now that I know about the second level. I could just be opening Pandora’s box.”
“My answer still has to be—go ahead and try.”
“That means you feel you have a very good reason to want to pursue this?”
“Yes.”
“May I ask what it is?”
“I wouldn’t be prepared to discuss it. I wouldn’t be allowed to anyway.”
“It seems to me that we both suspect the same scenario.”
“I’m sure we do.”
“If what we both suspect is true, would this man be able to claim some disability pension?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“He wouldn’t be able to prove anything.”
“You mean your evidence would be withheld?”
“It wouldn’t exist. It would be highly classified.”
“What makes you think it’s that important?”
“My training and my experience,” Boyd said softly.
“And if I refuse?”
“I couldn’t discuss what would happen if you refuse. We should have to make other arrangements.”
“Sounds ominous.”
Boyd didn’t reply.
“Tell me what you want.”
“I want enough information to find out who hypnotized him and why.”
“Nothing more?”
“Maybe.”
“Are you married, Mr. Boyd?”
“Yes.”
“Any children?”
“No. Why do you ask?”
“To see how much of a stake you’ve got in humanity.”
“What about you?”
Ansell smiled. “No wife. No children. But a soft spot for the wounded. Especially the mentally wounded.”
Boyd said softly, “Maybe Walker isn’t the only one with this problem.”
“I’ve already thought of that. Let me take you for a drink in our bar and it will give me time to think.”
“OK.”
They had their drinks, and as they walked back to Ansell’s consulting room he said, “It’s going to take a lot of sessions you know, and the odds are against me being successful.”
“Somebody’s going to have to try to do it. I’d rather it was you.”
“Why?”
“You care about him, so
