Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Chapter 11: The Escape
This chapter is tense from the first line to the last. And it ends with one of those quiet, devastating moments that Philip K. Dick does better than almost anyone.
Garland’s Last Move
We pick up right where chapter 10 left off. Inspector Garland, the boss of the fake police station, has agreed to let Phil Resch run a Boneli Reflex-Arc Test on all three of them. Resch, Rick, and Garland himself. Resch goes upstairs to grab the testing equipment.
And the second Resch leaves the room, Garland pulls a laser tube out of his desk drawer and points it at Rick.
But Rick stays calm. He tells Garland that killing him won’t help. Resch will just run a postmortem test. He’ll find out. The truth will come out no matter what.
Garland knows Rick is right. He lowers the weapon. And then something happens that I didn’t expect. Garland just starts talking.
The Confession
Garland confirms what we suspected. He’s an android. The whole station is run by androids. They all came to Earth together on the same ship from Mars. It’s a closed loop, cut off from the rest of San Francisco. The real police don’t even know this place exists.
But here’s the thing. Garland says Phil Resch doesn’t know he’s an android. Resch stayed behind on Mars for an extra week to receive a synthetic memory system. He thinks he’s human. He’s been working as a bounty hunter, killing his own kind, for three years. And he has no idea.
Rick asks what Resch will do when he finds out. Garland’s answer is chilling. “I don’t have the foggiest idea. He may kill me, kill himself, maybe you, too. He may kill everyone he can, human and android alike.”
Then Garland says something that sticks with me. He talks about life as an android on Earth. “We’re not even considered animals. Where every worm and wood louse is considered more desirable than all of us put together.” That’s a character who knows exactly what he is and exactly how the world sees him. And he came to Earth anyway.
Rick points out that androids don’t exactly help each other when things get rough. Garland snaps back: “I think you’re right. It would seem we lack a specific talent you humans possess. I believe it’s called empathy.”
Ouch. He’s confirming the very thing that supposedly makes him less than human.
The Shot
Resch comes back with the test equipment. And then, fast, almost too fast to follow, Garland pulls a weapon and points it at Resch. But Resch is faster. He’s a professional. He rolls off his chair, pulls his laser tube, and fires in mid-fall.
One shot. Garland’s head is split in two. He slumps forward, slides off his chair like a sack of eggs, and that’s it. Inspector Garland is done.
Resch doesn’t even seem shaken. He looks at the body and says, “It forgot that this is my job.” Then he asks Rick what Garland said while he was gone.
And here’s where Rick makes a choice. Garland told Rick that Resch is an android. But Rick doesn’t say that. He holds back. He keeps the information to himself. For now.
The Escape
Now they need to get out of a building full of androids. Resch props Garland’s body up at his desk. Makes it look natural enough if nobody comes too close. Then he gets on the intercom and tells the receptionist that Garland doesn’t want to be disturbed for thirty minutes.
He handcuffs himself to Rick, because to anyone watching, Rick is still a prisoner. And they walk right through the lobby. Uniformed police everywhere, going about their business. Nobody looks twice.
They take the elevator to the roof, get into Resch’s hovercar, and lift off. Just like that. Out.
The whole thing is handled like a professional operation. Quick, clean, no drama. Which tells you something about Phil Resch.
The Question That Won’t Go Away
On the flight back toward the opera house, where Luba Luft is still waiting to be retired, Resch starts to unravel a little. Not a lot. But enough.
He can’t believe he worked under android supervision for three years. He asks Rick if he thinks the real police department would hire him. Rick says maybe, but his voice is guarded. Because he’s sitting next to a man who might not be a man at all.
Then Resch starts thinking out loud. If Garland was always an android, then at some point a real Garland got replaced. Or maybe Resch’s memories of Garland over the years are fake. Implanted. And the only beings who get false memories implanted are androids.
You can feel him getting closer and closer to the edge.
Then he says it. “After we retire Luba Luft, I want you to give me the Boneli test or that empathy scale you have. To see about me.”
Rick tries to dodge it. “We can worry about that later.”
“You don’t want me to take it, do you?” Resch says. “I guess you know what the results will be.”
The Squirrel
And then, right when the tension is at its peak, Resch does something that breaks my heart a little. He starts talking about his pet squirrel. A real one, not electric. Her name is Buffy. Every morning he feeds her and cleans her cage. Every evening he lets her run around his apartment. She has a wheel in her cage. She runs and runs and the wheel spins but the squirrel stays in the same spot.
“Buffy seems to like it, though,” Resch says.
Rick says he guesses squirrels aren’t too bright. And then they fly on in silence.
What Dick Is Doing Here
This chapter forces you to sit with an uncomfortable question. If Resch is an android, then he’s an android who loves a living creature, who cares for it every single day. He has empathy for that squirrel. But empathy is supposed to be the one thing androids can’t have. That’s the whole basis of the Voigt-Kampff test, the whole justification for hunting them down.
So what does it mean if an android can love a pet?
And on the other side, Rick is starting to wonder something about himself. He’s surrounded by people who kill efficiently and without emotion. Resch is one of them. But isn’t Rick one of them too? Where exactly is the line between a human bounty hunter and an android bounty hunter?
Dick isn’t answering these questions yet. He’s just letting them sit there, getting heavier with every page.