person can be taken back to a stage where there's not enough nervous
organization to sustain the life process.

"However, life is tenacious. As the lower levels are reached, it takes
increasing energy to subtract from anything that's left. Most people
who want to get rid of someone are satisfied to leave the victim
somewhere between the mental ages of one and four. For practical
purposes, the man they knew is dead--or retroed, as they say."

"Then that's what they did to me," said the man. "They retroed me and
left me in the Shelter. How long was I there?"

* * * * *

Borgenese shrugged. "Who knows? That's what makes it difficult. A day,
or two months. A child of two or three can feed himself, and no record
is kept since the place is free. Also, it's cleaned automatically."

"I know that now that you mention it," said the man. "It's just that
it's hard to remember."

"You see how it is," said the counselor. "We can't check our files
against a date when someone disappeared, because we don't know that
date except within very broad limits." He tapped his pen on the desk.
"Do you object to a question?"

"Go ahead."

"How many people in the Solar System?"

The man thought with quiet desperation. "Fourteen to sixteen billion."

The counselor was pleased. "That's right. You're beginning to use some
of the information we've put back into your mind. Earth, Mars and
Venus are the main population centers. But there are also Mercury and
the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, as well as the asteroids. We can
check to see where you might have come from, but there are so many
places and people that you can imagine the results."

"There must be _some_ way," the man said painfully. "Pictures,
fingerprints, something."

"Something," Borgenese nodded. "But probably not for quite a while.
There's another factor, you see. It's a shock, but you've got to face
it. And the funny thing is that you'll never be better able to than
now."

He rocked back. "Take the average person, full of unsuspected anxiety,
even the happiest and most successful. Expose him to the retrogression
gun. Tensions and frustrations are drained away.

"The structure of an adult is still there, but it's empty, waiting to
be filled. Meanwhile the life of the organism goes on, but it's not
the same. Lines on the face disappear, the expression alters
drastically, new cell growth occurs here and there throughout the
body. Do you