The Penultimate Truth

by Philip K. Dick

Carol said, “If leadies are fighting the war, what are in the military hospitals? Leadies? No. Because they send damaged leadies down to shops, our shop for instance. And a leady is a metal construct and it has no pancreas. There are a few humans on the surface, of course; the Estes Park Government. And in Pac-Peop, the Soviet. Are the pancreases for them?” He was silent; she had him completely. “Something,” she said, “is wrong. There can’t be military hospitals because there aren’t civilians or soldiers who’ve been maimed in the fighting and who need artiforgs. Yet—they won’t release the artiforgs to us. To me, for instance, for Souza; even though they know we can’t survive without Souza. Think about it, Nick.” “Hmm,” he said. Carol said quietly. “You’re going to have to come up with something better than ‘Hmm,’ Nick. And soon.”