the manager scrutinized the circuits closely and grunted in disgust. "whoever converted this did a sloppy job. here." he bent over the gun and began manipulating micro-instruments. he worked rapidly and surely. a moment later, he snapped the weapon together and straightened up, handing it to luis. "there," he said proudly. "it's a much more effective retrogressor than it was. uses less power too."

luis swallowed. either he was mad or the man was, or perhaps it was the society he was trying to adjust to. "aren't you taking a chance, doing this for me?"

the manager smiled. "you're joking. a tenth of the freezers we sell are immediately converted into retrogressors. who cares?" he became serious. "do you still want to know who bought it?"

luis nodded—at the moment he didn't trust his voice.

"it will take several hours. no charge though, customer service. tell me where i can reach you."

luis jotted down the number of the screen at the shelter and handed it to the manager. as he left, the manager whispered to him: "remember, the next time you buy a freezer—ours can be converted easier than the one you have."

he went out into the sunlight. it didn't seem the same. what kind of society was he living in? the reality didn't fit with what he had re-learned. it had seemed an orderly and sane civilization, with little violence and vast respect for the law.

but the fact was that any school child—well, not quite that young, perhaps—but anyone older could and did buy a freezer. and it was ridiculously easy to convert a freezer into something far more vicious. of course, it was illegal, but no one paid any attention to that.

this was wrong; it wasn't the way he remembered....

he corrected himself: he didn't actually remember anything. his knowledge came from tapes, and was obviously inadequate. certain things he just didn't understand yet.

he wanted to talk to someone—but who? the counselor had given him all the information he intended to. the store manager had supplied some additional insight, but it only confused him. luise—at the moment she was suspicious of him.

there was nothing to do except to be as observant as he could. he wandered through the town, just looking. he saw nothing that seemed familiar. negative evidence, of course, but it indicated he hadn't lived here before.

before what? before he had been retrogressed. he had been brought here from elsewhere, the same as luise.

he visited the spaceport. again the evidence was negative; there was not a ship the sight of which tripped his memory. it had been too much to hope for; if he had been brought in by spaceship, it wouldn't still be around for him to recognize.

late in the afternoon, he headed toward the center of town. he was riding the belt when he saw luise coming out of a tall office building.