Jr. Lloyd Biggle 28 min read

A new hire reports to a basement room at police headquarters, where a fired old detective now runs a strange apparatus of tubes, wires, and dials called the D.F.C.

Lloyd Biggle Jr.'s 1957 story opens on Forsdon's first day under Captain Marks, whose demotion into an odd new department hides a genuinely startling capability. Clever, character-driven psi-and-time SF with a detective's frame. Read it for an intriguing golden-age tale about a washed-up cop and the impossible machine that gives him a second act.

In its time

Published in 1957, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

28 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Paul Orban