Читать книгу Overturned - Rothilda von Rotortod - Страница 14

The presentation the assistant spoke of referred to the experiments with the Earthling they had chosen as the first intermediary for their project. The requirements to be considered in the selection process had already been determined on Kadohan: It should be a person who – according to the Earthlings' standards – was "close to nature", but at the same time had no reservations about the business world. The person should appear close to the people, but nevertheless be willing to take the lead. And he or she should warn of the dangers of industrial energy production, while at the same time appreciating the amenities that electricity offers.

So the choice was made for a certain Alfons Heimenross. With his half-long hair and the dialectal colouring of his language, he emanated – so the Kadohanian selection committee found – a kind of tamed wildness. He seemed close enough to nature to be found appealing by nature lovers, but at the same time serious enough not to meet with rejection in the business world. In addition, he was a passionate opponent of all forms of energy production that had previously been commonplace, but lived in an environment that depended heavily on intensive electricity production. So he seemed to be more easily reprogrammable than others in the interest of the Kadohanian mission.

Another advantage offered by Alfons Heimenross was that, as a politician, he had the necessary contacts to advance large-scale projects. What was also favourable: he lived alone. Picking him up for the nighttime reprogramming experiments was therefore much less problematic. It was enough to imprint him on the people who picked him up every night for this purpose. No consideration had to be given to possible family members.

At regular intervals they administered a hypnotic drug to Heimenross via a pizza service. This allowed them to transport him to the experimental laboratory like a sleepwalker. In the early morning they regularly gave him a special forgetting serum. As a result, his convictions changed insidiously, without him being able to remember the circumstances under which this happened.