The Simulacra

by Philip K. Dick

I don’t enjoy this Wolff Report business—I think it’s too risky, this idea of tinkering with the past on a grand scale, even if it might mean saving six or eight or even ten million innocent human lives. Look what happened when we tried to send assassins back to kill Adolf Hitler in the early days of his career; something or someone balked us every time, and we tried it seven times! I know—I’m convinced—that it was agents from the future, from our time or past our time. If one can play with von Lessinger’s system, two can. The bomb in the beerhall, the bomb in the prop plane—” “But this attempt,” Stark said, “will delight neo-Nazi elements. You will have their cooperation.” Nicole said bitterly, “And that’s supposed to ease my worry? You, of all people, should see what a malign harbinger that is.”