Psychiatrists -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
Suddenly, Davies triggered his safety belt. At close range, before
the lines could fan out in a radius, all the lines in front attached
themselves to Price, the ones at each side clung to their table and the
floor, and all the others to the table behind Infield. Davies released
all lines except those on Price, and then threw himself backward,
dragging Price out of his chair and onto the floor. Davies didn't mind
making others fall. They were always trying to make _him_ fall just so
they could laugh at him or pounce on him; why shouldn't he like to make
them fall first?
Expertly, Davies moved forward and looped the loose lines around
Price's head and shoulders and then around his feet. He crouched beside
Price and shoved the bottle into the gasping mouth and poured.
Price twisted against the binding lines in blind terror, gagging and
spouting whiskey. Davies laughed and tilted the bottle more.
Mrs. Price screamed. "The Cure! If you get that much liquor in his
system, it will kill him!" She rocked the rag doll in her arms, trying
to soothe it, and stared in horror.
Infield hit the big man behind the ear. He dropped the bottle and fell
over sideways on the floor. Fear and hate mingled in his eyes as he
looked up at Infield.
Nonsense, Infield told himself. Eyes can't register emotion.
Davies released his lines and drew them in. He got up precariously.
"I'm going to kill you," he said, glaring at Infield. "You made me fall
worse than Georgie did. I'm really going to kill you."
Infield wasn't a large man, but he had pressed two hundred and fifty
many times in gym. He grabbed Davies' belt with both hands and lifted
him about six inches off the floor.
"I could drop you," the psychiatrist said.
"No!" Davies begged weakly. "Please!"
"I'll do it if you cause more trouble." Infield sat down and rubbed his
aching forearms.
* * * * *
Davies backed off in terror, right into the arms of Reggie. The waiter
closed his huge hands on the acrophobe's shoulders.
"_You_ broke the Code all the way," Reggie said. "The Good Book says
'Thou shouldn't kill' or something like that, and so does the Code."
"Let him go, Reggie," Price choked out, getting to his feet. "I'm not
dead." He wiped his hand across his mouth.
"No. No, you aren't." Infield felt an excitement pounding through him,
same as when he had diagnosed his first case. No, better than that.
"That taste of liquor didn't kill you, Price. Nothing terrible
happened. You could find some way to get rid of that Cure."
Price stared at him as if he were a padded-cell case. "That's
different. I'd be a hopeless drunk without the Cure. Besides, no one
ever gets rid of a Cure."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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