Records 35-40 Summary

D-503's head is bandaged in a "pitiless ring of glass iron" and he cannot sleep, planning U-'s murder. The taste of something "disgustingly sweet" has him spitting into a handkerchief. He pulls out a defective piston rod he has been studying, wraps it in pages of his manuscript, and heads to the controller's table. He remembers work is cancelled today and steps out into the street, where crowds are walking every which way. It is like letters jumping from a page and rearranging into nonsense. A man and a woman kiss for the last time. A banner overhead denounces machines and the Operation. A boy runs by, face distorted, weeping, fleeing someone, and D-503 figures U- must be in school. He enters the Underground Railroad but no trains are running. He tries to claw his way toward I-330's voice...