The Simulacra

by Philip K. Dick

Nicole Thibodeaux thought, I’ve got too much to do. I’m attempting to conduct delicate, tricky negotiations with Hermann Goering, I’ve instructed Garth McRae to let the new der Alte contract to a small firm and not to Karp, I have to decide what to do if Richard Kongrosian is ever found again, there’s the McPhearson Bill and that last analyst, Dr. Superb, and now this. Now the NP’s hasty decision—made without even attempting to consult me or notify me in advance—to move in on Loony Luke’s jalopy lots in dead earnest. Unhappily, she studied the police order which had gone out to every NP unit throughout the USEA. This isn’t in our interest, she decided. I can’t afford to attack Luke because I simply can’t get at him. We’ll only look absurd. And—we’ll look like a totalitarian society. Kept in existence only by our enormous military and police establishments.