Atlas Shrugged [744]
A short wire led from the machine to an electric storage battery behind it. Long coils of wire, like the twisted arms of an octopus, stretched forward across the stone floor, from the machine to a leather mattress spread under a cone of violent light. John Galt lay strapped to the mattress. He was naked; the small metal disks of electrodes at the ends of the wires were attached to his wrists, his shoulders, his hips and his ankles; a device resembling a stethoscope was attached to his chest and connected to the amplifier.
"Get this straight," said Dr. Ferris, addressing him for the first time.
"We want you to take full power over the economy of the country. We want you to become a dictator. We want you to rule. Understand?
We want you to give orders and to figure out the right orders to give.
What we want, we mean to get Speeches, logic, arguments or passive obedience won't save you now. We want ideas-or else. We won't let you out of here until you tell us the exact measures you'll take to save our system. Then we'll have you tell it to the country over the radio."
He raised his wrist, displaying a stop-watch. "I'll give you thirty seconds to decide whether you want to start talking right now. If not, then we'll start. Do you understand?"
Galt was looking straight at them, his face expressionless, as if he understood too much. He did not answer.
They heard the sound of the stop-watch in the silence, counting off the seconds, and the sound of Mouch's choked, irregular breathing as he gripped the arms of his chair.
Ferris waved a signal to the mechanic at the machine. The mechanic threw the switch; it lighted the red glass button and set off two sounds: one was the low, humming drone of an electric generator, the other was a peculiar beat, as regular as the ticking of a clock, but with an oddly muffled resonance. It took them a moment to realize that it came from the amplifier and that they were hearing the beat of Galt's heart.
"Number three," said Ferris, raising a finger in signal.
The mechanic pressed a button under one of the dials. A long shudder ran through Galt's body; his left arm shook in jerking spasms, convulsed by the electric current that circled between his wrist and shoulder. His head fell back, his eyes closed, his lips drawn tight. He made no sound.
When the mechanic lifted his finger off the button, Galt's arm stopped shaking. He did not move.
The three men glanced about them with an instant's look of groping.
Ferris' eyes were blank, Mouch's terrified, Taggart's disappointed. The sound of the thumping beat went on through the silence.
"Number two," said Ferris, It was Galt's right leg that twisted in convulsions, with the current now circling between his hip and ankle. His hands gripped the edges of the mattress. His head jerked once, from side to side, then lay still.
The beating of the heart grew faintly faster.
Mouch was drawing away, pressing against the back of his armchair.
Taggart was sitting on the edge of Ms, leaning forward.
"Number one, gradual," said Ferris.
Galt's torso jerked upward and fell back and twisted in long shudders, straining against his strapped wrists-as the current was now running from his one wrist to the other, across his lungs. The mechanic