Who? by Algis Budrys
"Who?" is a narrative centered around Lucas Martino, a physicist whose life is drastically altered following an explosion during a secret project for the Allied Nations Group (ANG). After the incident, Martino is kidnapped by Communist forces led by Colonel Anastas Azarin. Utilizing advanced medical techniques, the Communists enhance Martino’s body with prosthetics, raising questions about his true identity when he is eventually returned to the ANG. Shawn Rogers, the security chief, faces the challenge of determining if the man before him is indeed Martino or an impostor.
Over the next five years, Rogers’ team shadows Martino, grappling with the implications of his transformed self. The story delves into Martino's past, illustrating his analytical approach to life and relationships, particularly through his interactions at college. A critical moment arises when Rogers directly questions Martino's identity, leading to an unsettling response. The narrative culminates in a revelation about Azarin’s failed plan to replace Martino with a double, forcing the return of the original scientist. Ultimately, "Who?" explores themes of identity, trust, and the consequences of technological manipulation in a politically charged environment.
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Subject Terms
Who?
First published: 1958
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—inner space
Time of work: The late twentieth century, with flashbacks
Locale: The European Allied-Communist border, New York City, and New Jersey
The Plot
Lucas Martino is a physicist with a unique talent for invention. While working on a top-secret project for the Allied Nations Group (ANG) at its laboratory close to the Communist border, he is injured in an explosion. Communist forces commanded by Colonel Anastas Azarin are the first to arrive at the laboratory, and they kidnap Martino.
Shawn Rogers, Central European Frontier District security chief for the ANG, must determine if the man later returned to him is really Martino. Identification is difficult because of procedures used by the Communists to save Martino’s life. Their doctors, highly advanced in prosthetic integration, have replaced Martino’s arm and encased what was left of his skull in a metal dome, wiring sensory input replacements for his eyes and ears. Rogers does not know if they have substituted an impostor for Martino and kept the real scientist, brainwashing him into working on his project while under their control.
Knowing Azarin’s cunning, Rogers cannot trust the word of the returned man as to his identity. The ANG tries everything to verify Martino’s identity but can never be certain. Its leaders give up and assign Rogers and a team to follow Martino’s every move to ensure that if he is an impostor he is not compromising ANG security.
For five years, Rogers’ team shadows Martino. During that time, flashbacks reveal bits of Martino’s life. He is a single-minded individual who catalogs pieces of information until he can connect them into a solution later. Using his problem-solving approach to life, Martino determines to find a girlfriend during his first year at the City College of New York. His relationship with Edith Chester never matures because of his mindset that theirs is only a utilitarian alliance.
Martino’s ability to piece together facts distinguishes him from his classmates in college. His roommate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology points out the difference between his ability to assemble information as the way to understand concepts and other students’ simple ability to find answers in books. Martino will use his ability to try to make sense of what has happened to him and how he lives his life after the explosion.
Five years after the explosion, Rogers confronts Martino on the farm where he has settled into a solitary life. Rogers asks, “Are you Martino?” Martino, remembering how he was before the accident, answers “No.”
In a flashback, Azarin’s reasons for releasing the real Martino to the ANG are revealed. He ordered doctors to create a duplicate of the postaccident Martino by performing the same procedures on a Communist operative who knew enough about Martino to impersonate him should that be necessary. Azarin planned to put the surgically altered double on a sabotaged plane that would be sent back to ANG territory. When the plane crashed, ANG authorities would discover the double’s body and believe it to be Martino. The sabotage was botched, and the plane crashed into the ocean, sinking too quickly for bodies to be found. The failed sabotage meant that the Communists had to return the original Martino because by then they had kept him too long to begin altering another operative to attempt the ruse again. To avoid a disastrous confrontation with the ANG, they had to return the real Martino, who in any case had been uncooperative in meeting their demands that he work on his project for Communist benefit. After the conclusion of Azarin’s flashback, the story ends with Martino stepping into Allied hands thinking that he has not lost any part of his identity.