That was the moment she cracked up. She was in a cafe somewhere. Rickmansworth. Don’t know what she was doing there, but that was where she cracked up. Apparently she stood up, calmly announced that she had undergone some extraordinary revelation or something, wobbled a bit, looked confused, and finally collapsed screaming into an egg sandwich.
Arthur winced.
I’m very sorry to hear that, he said a little stiffly.
Russell made a sort of grumping noise.
So what, said Arthur in an attempt to piece things together, was the CIA agent doing in the reservoir?
Bobbing up and down of course. He was dead.
But what…
Come on, you remember all that stuff. The hallucinations. Everyone said it was a cock up, the CIA trying experiments into drug warfare or something. Some crackpot theory that instead of invading a country it would be much cheaper and more effective to make everyone think they’d been invaded.
What hallucinations were those exactly?… said Arthur in a rather quiet voice.
What do you mean, what hallucinations? I’m talking about all that stuff with the big yellow ships, everyone going crazy and saying we’re going to die, and then pop, they vanished as the effect wore off. The CIA denied it which meant it must be true.
Arthur’s head went a little swimmy. His hand grabbed at something to steady himself, and gripped it tightly. His mouth made little opening and closing movements as if it was on his mind to say something, but nothing emerged.
Anyway, continued Russell, whatever drug it was it didn’t seem to wear off so fast with Fenny. I was all for suing the CIA, but a lawyer friend of mine said it would be like trying to attack a lunatic asylum with a banana, so… He shrugged.
The Vogon… squeaked Arthur. The yellow ships… vanished?
Well, of course they did, they were hallucinations, said Russell, and looked at Arthur oddly. You trying to say you don’t remember any of this? Where have you been for heaven’s sake?
This was, to Arthur, such an astonishingly good question that he half-leapt out of his seat with shock.
Christ!!! yelled Russell, fighting to control the car which was suddenly trying to skid. He pulled it out of the path of an oncoming lorry and swerved up on to a grass bank. As the car lurched to a halt, the girl in the back was thrown against Russell’s seat and collapsed awkwardly.
Arthur twisted round in horror.
Is she all right? he blurted out.
Russell swept his hands angrily back through his blow-dried hair. He tugged at his blond moustache. He turned to Arthur.
Would you please, he said, let go of the handbrake?
“从那时起她就疯了。她在某个地儿的咖啡馆。瑞克曼斯沃斯。不知道她在那儿干什么，反正她在那儿疯了。她站了起来，平静地宣称她收到了一些超凡的启示或什么玩意儿，接着晃了半天，看起来很迷惑，最后狂叫着自己是鸡蛋三明治。”
阿瑟缩了一下。“我非常抱歉，”他有些生硬地说。
拉塞尔愠怒地哼了一下。
“那个什么，”阿瑟试图把事情理顺。
“那个中情局探员在水库做什么？”
“当然是上下浮动。他早就挂了。”
“但是那个......”
“拜托，你知道这些的。那个幻觉。“大家都说那是出了个乱子，中情局在试验药物战争或什么东西。入侵国家的想法被一些疯狂的理论所取代，那个理论认为更有效更廉价的方法就是让每个人都认为自己被入侵了。”
“具体那个幻觉到底是什么......？”阿瑟用更轻的声音问。
“你指什么，什么幻觉？我说的是那些巨大的黄色飞船，每个人都疯了，说我们就要完了，接着piu的一下，那些飞船消失了，药物也就失效了。中情局否认此事，意味着此事一定是真的。”
阿瑟的脑袋开始有些晕了。他的手紧紧地抓住什么东西来稳住自己。他的嘴一张一合好像他想说什么却没说出口。
“总之，”拉塞尔继续说，“无论那是什么药物，好像并没有在芬妮身上那么快失效。我打算控告中情局，但我的一个律师朋友说这无异于拿香蕉攻击疯人院，所以......”他耸耸肩。
“沃贡人......”阿瑟尖叫着。“那些黄色飞船......消失了？”
“是啊，当然了，它们是幻觉嘛，”拉塞尔说着，奇怪地看着阿瑟。“你想说你根本就不记得了？苍天啊，你当时在哪儿啊？”
这个，对阿瑟而言，是个如此惊人的好问题，以至于他由于震撼而差点从座位上跳起来。
“上帝啊！！！”拉塞尔大喊，努力地控制住突然要打滑的车。他把车从一辆迎面而来的大卡车前救开，急转到了一片草地上。就在车子歪斜着停下来时，后座的女孩撞上了拉塞尔的座位，颓然倒下了。
阿瑟惊恐地转过身。
“她没事儿吧？”他脱口而出。
拉塞尔用手恼怒地捋了捋他光亮的头发。他拽了拽他金色的小胡子。他转向阿瑟。
“能不能请你，”他说，“把手刹放开？”