Eric shook his head. “You’ve lost me.”

Cliff took a deep breath. “Early in this century, brain research was crude and very experimental. But then with the development of space-age technology—computers, electronic probes with tips a thousand times smaller than a needle’s, electronic devices that measure the tiniest impulses from the brain—our knowledge was catapulted forward. In the fifties, they proved that all emotions—joy, anger, fear, ecstasy—all emotions begin as electrical impulses in the brain. They trigger physiological reactions such as rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, and so on, but to begin with, they are only electrical impulses in the hypothalamus.”

Eric nodded, beginning to understand. “And you said it was the hypothalamus where this implantation is put.”

“Yes. In addition to the hypothalamus being the seat of emotions, scientists found a thin stream of cells in that part of the brain, the source of all sensations of pain. They also found that if you stimulate those pain cells with an electrical impulse—a few hundred thousandths of a volt—it will ‘tell’ the body it is experiencing pain—even though there is no outside pain.”

He stopped again, raising his hands for emphasis. “Do you understand that, Eric? Pain may be artificially induced by electrically stimulating the brain. However, it is not artificial pain. It’s as real, as trauma producing, as terrible as a blow to the body or a bad burn.”

He stood up, moved to the washbasin, filled Eric’s cup, and drained it swiftly. “Next came the development of what is called a stimoceiver.”

“A what?”

“A stimoceiver, from the words stimulus and receiver. It’s a tiny miniaturized radio receiver with microelectrodes attached to it that can read, or better receive, the impulses of the brain. An electrical impulse can also be sent down those electrodes to stimulate certain areas of the brain. Thus it both stimulates and receives, and thus its name—stimoceiver.”

Eric stopped his pacing. “And that’s what they mean by implantation?”

Cliff hesitated, then took a quick breath and sat down again. “Yes. The concept is brilliantly—no, hellishly simple. What they’ve done is to combine a stimoceiver with a miniature computer, or better, a computer chip. The electrodes are planted in the hypothalamus, and impulses, thousands of them every minute, are sent to the miniature computer, which sorts through them all. When a pattern associated with unacceptable behavior shows up—guilt, violence, anger, dishonesty, hatred—the computer reacts by sending a mild electrical charge down another electrode into the pain center.”

His eyes were like dark pools in a muddy river as he turned and stared at Eric. “The result? A fiendishly effective teaching device. The perfect conditioning machine. You either salivate properly or you get burned. One step out of line and whammo!”

“Faster, Becky!” Lori shouted joyfully. “Let’s go faster.” She pushed up hard on the teeter-totter and shot up to the apex of the board’s path.