A Man Obsessed

In Short

Set in a unstable twenty-first century marked by widespread social decay, this speculative thriller follows Jeffrey Meyer on a five-year hunt to murder Paul Conroe. The chase leads Jeff into the sinister Hoffman Medical Center, where desperate men sell their bodies as human guinea pigs to secretive researchers. As Jeff submits to high-risk physiological testing to track down his quarry, he discovers that the facility hides a revolutionary program studying latent extra-sensory powers. Driven by shifting motives and hidden psychological currents, the characters must confront the true origin of Jeff’s obsession before his unstable abilities destroy them all.

The Story

Jeffrey Meyer corners his target, Paul Conroe, in a rain-slicked city block, but Conroe vanishes into the formidable Hoffman Medical Center. Determined to finish the hunt, Jeff enters the facility by volunteering for dangerous, high-paying medical trials overseen by Dr. Roger Schiml and Dr. Gabriel. These "Mercy Men" subject their bodies to grueling physical stress tests, catheterizations, and forced hypnosis under the guise of routine pharmaceutical research.

Assigned to the recruits' quarters, Jeff meets the Nasty Frenchman, a cynical veteran of the trials, and Blackie, a desperate woman whose presence seems bound to an inexplicable run of bad luck. During a tense gambling session, Jeff discovers that his sheer force of will can alter the fall of the dice, matching Blackie's subconscious ability to distort probability. Recognizing that his target might possess similar extra-sensory traits, Jeff forms an uneasy alliance with Blackie to navigate the facility’s maze of security guards, floor plans, and restricted records.

Jeff breaks into the medical center’s microfilms, hoping to locate Conroe’s records. Instead, he finds psychiatric files belonging to his late father, Jacob Meyer. The documents reveal that Jacob suffered from severe manic-depressive cycles and erratic extra-sensory outbursts. Confused and shaken, Jeff is drawn deeper into the facility's secret labs, unaware that Schiml and Conroe are actively monitoring his brain activity using micro-probing instruments.

Rather than fleeing from Jeff, Conroe has been collaborating with Dr. Schiml to isolate the genetic markers of extra-sensory abilities. Conroe reveals that Jeff’s lifelong quest for vengeance is not his own. As a child, Jeff absorbed his father's terrifying, delusional hatred during a fatal confrontation in an elevator shaft. Jacob Meyer believed he was being hunted, and his final, desperate thoughts were burned into young Jeff's mind: I've got to find him and kill him. For twenty years, Jeff has been acting out the telepathic command of a dead man, targeting Conroe as the projection of his father's paranoia.

Using precise brain-probing techniques while Jeff is under deep hypnotic restraint, Dr. Schiml operates on the neural pathways housing the inherited trauma. Jeff experiences the vivid return of his childhood memories, realizing that Conroe was never his enemy. With the psychic compulsion surgically neutralized, Jeff wakes to a clear mind. Blackie is also offered treatment to unburden her damaging probability-warping ability. Offered his freedom by Conroe and Schiml, Jeff chooses to remain at the Hoffman Center to help the doctors research and protect humanity's emerging telepathic evolution.

How It Unfolds

The cornered prey Jeff chases Paul Conroe down a wet city street, but the target slips past a police blockade into the heavily guarded Hoffman Medical Center. Realizing standard access is impossible, Jeff applies at the volunteer office to sell his body for high-risk medical experiments.

Into the quarters Guided by a cynical recruit called the Nasty Frenchman, Jeff enters the living quarters for human test subjects. He learns the strict rules of the Center: no outside contact, no questions, and total compliance with the medical staff.

The battle of chance During a high-stakes dice game, Jeff unconsciously manipulates probability to beat Blackie, a fellow recruit who relies on her own latent extra-sensory powers to win. Realizing they both possess strange gifts, they agree to help each other navigate the facility's hidden corridors.

Under the scalpel Dr. Gabriel subjects Jeff to forced hypnosis and brutal physical endurance runs on treadmills to map his physiological breaking points. Amid the agonizing trials, Jeff senses the quiet, constant presence of death as nearby volunteers fail to survive the procedures.

Ghosts in the archive Jeff breaks into the confidential microfilm archives expecting to locate Conroe's file, but instead finds psychiatric records detailing his own father's severe mental instability. Alarms sound throughout the complex, forcing Jeff to flee back to his quarters in a fast-moving transit car.

The surgical intervention Dr. Schiml and Conroe place an anesthetized Jeff on an operating table, using micro-instruments to probe his brain cells. They race to locate the neural origin of his violent telepathic outbursts before his unconscious rage destroys the laboratory around them.

A clear morning Jeff awakens in a sunlit hospital room with his mental compulsion entirely gone. Realizing his lifelong pursuit was merely the telepathic echo of his father's madness, he forgives Conroe and decides to stay at the Center to support their research.

The People

• Jeffrey Meyer: A relentless, haunted man driven by an all-consuming compulsion to murder Paul Conroe. He endures extreme physical pain and hazardous medical trials to achieve his goal, only to discover that his single-minded rage is an inherited telepathic hallucination passed down from his late father. He evolves from an obsessed killer into a willing participant in scientific research.
• Paul Conroe: The elusive target of Jeff's hunt. Rather than a ruthless criminal, Conroe is a weary, soft-spoken man burdened with extra-sensory abilities of his own. He works alongside the medical staff to study telepathy, enduring great personal terror while waiting for doctors to heal the man trying to kill him.
• Dr. Roger Schiml: A sharp, dedicated physician at the Hoffman Medical Center who leads the secret human testing program. Though dry and pragmatic about the risks his volunteers face, he is fundamentally driven by a desire to preserve human life and unlock the next stage of human evolution.
• Blackie: A sharp, guarded volunteer whose uncorrected extra-sensory power manifests as a persistent "jinx" of bad luck for those around her. She uses cynicism and gambling to survive inside the Center, but ultimately seeks a way to rid herself of her destructive trait.
• The Nasty Frenchman: A seasoned, bitter recruit who acts as a guide for new volunteers. Motivated entirely by monetary payouts, he accepts the facility's grim realities with a sneering, mercenary attitude.

In Its Own Voice

"Jeff had his own all-consuming obsession--Paul Conroe must die!"

Before entering the medical facility, Jeff is defined entirely by his violent impulse, treating the chaotic world around him as a mere backdrop to his personal vendetta.

"He ran until his face went purple and his muscles knotted. At last he fell down, unable to continue."

The brutal nature of the physiological experiments shows the extreme physical toll exacted on the volunteers inside the Hoffman Center.

"God, Roger, how could a man hate that way? It was thick; it ran out into the room like syrup."

Conroe recoils from the sheer physical intensity of Jeff's telepathic rage as it leaks out during the brain-probing procedures.

"It wasn't me hunting Conroe. It was my father, the ghost of my father still in my mind."

Upon recovering from surgery, Jeff finally understands the psychological mechanism that dictated his entire adult life.

What It's Really About

The core of the narrative examines the distinction between innate human agency and external psychological conditioning. Jeff's obsession feels like an authentic personal mission, yet it is entirely an artifact of inherited trauma, passed from father to son through latent telepathic projection. Beyond the personal drama, the book poses sharp ethical questions regarding medical progress. It asks whether the noble goal of understanding human physiology and mental evolution justifies the exploitation of desperate, disenfranchised citizens. The underground laboratory mirrors a cold, utilitarian society where human bodies become disposable commodities for scientific advance. Ultimately, the story argues that true freedom requires confronting uncomfortable truths about one's past rather than blindly pursuing destructive convictions.

Why Read It Today

Fans of mid-century speculative fiction will appreciate this novel's swift pacing, gritty urban atmosphere, and clever blend of medical thriller tropes with psychological science fiction. Alan E. Nourse, drawing directly on his real-world experiences as a medical student taking paid experimental drug trials, gives the laboratory scenes an authentic, unglamorous texture. The procedural detail surrounding step-tests, heart catheterizations, and forced hypnosis grounds the high-concept telepathy in believable physical hardship.

The prose reflects its pulp origins, occasionally relying on melodrama, stark character archetypes, and rapid exposition. Modern readers may find the twenty-first-century setting distinctly retro-futuristic, filled with jet cars, visiphones, and physical microfilms alongside advanced neurosurgery. However, the narrative remains remarkably propulsive. It avoids simple villainy, offering instead a nuanced look at trauma, scientific ethics, and redemption. Readers who enjoy moral ambiguity, claustrophobic settings, and early explorations of human extra-sensory potential will find it a quick, engaging, and remarkably grounded entry in classic mid-century fiction.