A Scanner Darkly

l looked them up .

They're aphids.

They're in my hair, on my skin , in my lungs .

And the pain , Barris, it's unreasonable .

They're all over the place .

-They've completely gotten Millie too . -Okay, okay, wait, wait, wait.

Listen , you gotta get out of there . l'll meet you over at Joe's Cafe at 3 .

Calm down , everything's gonna be fine .

Put a couple of them in a jar so l can get them examined .

l'm sure they're aphids , but you never know.

Just in case , okay? Just do it. Relax, relax.

Gentlemen of the Anaheim 709th chapter of the Brown Bear Lodge . . .

. . .we have a wonderful opportunity this afternoon .

The county of Orange has provided us with a chance . . .

. . .to hear from and put questions to . . .

. . . an undercover narcotics agent who is out there on our behalf. . .

. . .fighting this awful Substance D epidemic.

lt's no secret we're living in a culture of addiction .

Nearly 20 percent of the population can now be classified as addicts .

And as far as anyone can tell , there is but one company . . .

. . .that is working and helping this situation .

That company is our sponsor, New Path .

You will notice you can barely see this man . . .

. . . because he is wearing what is called a "scramble suit."

The exact same suit he wears and , in fact, must wear. . .

. . .during certain parts , in fact, most parts , of his daily activities of law enforcement.

This man , whom we will call Fred because that is the code name . . .

. . . under which he reports information he gathers . . .

. . .once within the scramble suit. . .

. . .cannot be detected by even the latest in voice- and facial-recognition technology .

The scramble suit itself is purportedly made up . . .

. . .of approximately a million and a half fraction-representations . . .

. . .of men , women , and children in every variant. . .

. . . making the wearer of a scramble suit the ultimate Everyman .

This is terrible .

He looks , does he not, like a constantly shifting , vague blur. . .

. . . and nothing more , am l right?

Let's hear it for the vague blur.

lf you saw me on the street without this suit on , you'd say:

"There goes a total dope fiend ."

You'd feel aversion and walk away .

l don't look like you . l can't afford to .

My life depends on it.

l'm not going to tell you first what l do as an undercover officer. . .

. . .tracking down dealers and the source of their illegal drugs . . .

. . . in the streets of our cities and corridors of our schools . . .

. . . here in Orange County .

l'm going to tell you what l'm afraid of.

What l fear, night and day , is that our children . . .

. . .your children and my children--

l have two little ones , very little . . .

. . . but not too little to be addicted .

Calculatedly addicted to Substance D for profit by drug terrorists .

As many of you know, our military and their associates . . .

. . . are actively engaged in countries . . .

. . .where it is believed the organic component of Substance D . . .

. . . a small , highly toxic flower, originates .

And while our troops are down there fighting for us . . .

. . . it is up to each and every one of us here . . .

. . .to do our part in eliminating the demand for this drug .

lt's important you as citizens continue to report. . .

. . . all suspicious activity and individuals. . .

. . .for, simply put, if there were no demand in our society . . .

. . .there would be no market for these leeches to exploit.

Each day , this disease takes its toll on us .

And each day , the flow of profits and where they go . . . .

Well , it isn't about the profits anyhow, it's something else .

What'd you see happen?

lf you were a diabetic and you didn't have money for insulin . . .

. . .would you steal to get the money or just die?

l think you better go back to the , you know, prepared text there , Fred .

l forgot it. l think l have a block against this shit.

Repeat after me , but make it sound casual .

"Where the profits flow, we will s--

--and then retribution will swiftly follow .

At that moment, l would not want to be in their shoes. " Got it?

You know why l've got a block against this bullshit?

Because this is what gets people on drugs .

lt's all so disgusting you want to lurch off and become a user.

Come on , Fred, just say this shit and get it over with .

Anyway . . . .

Substance D .

D .

D is for dumbness and despair and desertion .

The desertion of your friends from you , you from your friends .

Everyone from everyone .

lsolation and loneliness . . .

. . . and hating and suspecting each other.

D is, finally , death .

Slow death .

From the head down .

Well , that's it.

Okay , let's eat.

All right, what's your name?

My name . . . .

You don't know your name? Well , that's interesting .

Probable cause . Out of the car, sir.

Now, you have the right to remain silent until . . . .

And . . . . And anything you say can and will be used against you when you . . . .

When what?

You know, fuck this shit.

-Hello? -Hey , how you doing?

Oh , l'm all right.

Anything wrong?

Just this fucker stole 50 bucks' worth of shit from us today .

And my boss said it was somehow my fault, and it's coming out of my paycheck. . .

. . .which l don't even think is legal . l mean , can he legally do that?

Yeah , they can't do that.

At least, they used to not be able to do that. l'll check.

Hey, Donna, can l get anything from you?

Yeah , how much?

-Ten . -Ten?

Yeah , l'm hurting really bad . l'll pay you back later.

-Yeah , okay . Say, day after tomorrow? -Any sooner?

l'll come by later, like around 8?

Yeah . l'll see you later.

-Okay . All right, bye . -Okay, bye .

You see , all symptoms are purposeful , be they positive or negative .

You see? l wouldn't feel strangely about it.

Just the idea of turning yourself over for rehabilitation . . .

. . . is only naturally gonna make you a little apprehensive .

But that's just a manifestation of the fear.

lt's just the: That's the D talking .

You know, the first thing l hear, that when you go into the New Path . . .

. . .what they do to you , they cut your pecker off.

They could never get away with that. You kidding? That's a myth .

lt's actually the spleen that's remanded to their custody .

-The what? -Hey , how is everything?

Everything is super good .

Not with me . l got a lot of problems nobody else has .

No , no , come on . More people than you'd think.

And more people each day . This is a world getting progressively worse .

Can we not agree on that?

-What's on the dessert menu? -Would you like to order some dessert?

Like what?

Well , we have fresh strawberry pie . . .

. . . and fresh peach pie that we make here ourselves .

-No , we don't want any dessert. -All right.

Fucking fruit pies are for old ladies.

-What do you think about New Path? -While it doesn't matter. . .

. . .what l think, l kind of have to tip my hat to any entity . . .

. . .that can bring so much integrity to evil .

l mean , imagine this: A seemingly voluntary , privatized gulag . . .

. . . managed to eliminate the middlemen of public accountability and free will .

Wrapped it up in a bow and gave it like a gift.

l mean , come on , this is:

This is awe-inspiring stuff.

l heard you have to go cold turkey .

Cold turkey doesn't even apply to Substance D .

Unlike the legacy of inherited predisposition to addictive behavior or substances . . .

. . .this needs no genetic assistance .

There's no weekend warriors on the D . You're either on it. . .

. . .or you haven't tried it.

-Well , l like it. -Yeah .

How many caps do you take per day?

Very difficult to determine .

But not that many .

Well , like the old-school pharmacopoeia, a tolerance develops , you know.

These visions of bugs, they're just garden-variety psychosis . . .

. . . but a clear indication that you've hurdled . . .

. . .over the initial fun and euphoric phase and passed on . . .

. . .to the next phase .

News from the guinea-pig grapevine suggests that whatever it is . . .

. . .we won't know until it's way too late , you see?

You see that we're all canaries in the coalmine on this one?

l do think l have another source .

That Donna chick.

-Bob's girl? -Yeah .

Yeah , his girl . Although l know for a fact he never gets in her pants .

Really?

-But he talks like he does. -Oh , yeah .

That's Bob Arctor. He talks like he does many things .

That's not the same , my friend . That's not the same thing .

Donna has an aversion to bodily contact.

l mean , junkies lose their interest in sex, you realize . . .

. . .due to organs swelling up from vasoconstriction .

And l have observed in her an inordinate failure of sexual arousal . . .

. . . not just toward Bob Arctor. . .

. . . but other males as well .

l can't believe she doesn't put out.

Well , she would if she were handled right.

For instance , l could show you how to sleep with her. . .

. . .for less than 3 dollars .

l don't wanna sleep with her. l wanna buy from her.

Donna does coke , all right?

Three dollars doesn't get you a line of coke .

That's where you're wrong , pal .

What they've deliberately done . . .

. . . is mix the cocaine with the oil so it cannot be extracted .

But my knowledge of chemistry is such . . .

. . .that l know precisely how to separate the oil from the cocaine .

Now, now l will freeze it.

Cause cocaine crystals to rise to the top because they are lighter than the oil .

The terminal step , of course , l keep to myself. . .

. . . but suffice to say , it involves an intricate and methodological process of filtering .

How long is it gonna be in there?

Just about a half an hour.

You know, l've been thinking , Barris.

Even if we do get a pure gram of cocaine out of this deal . . .

. . . l don't wanna use it on Donna to get in her pants .