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O'Brien held up the fingers of his left hand, with the thumb concealed.<br />
"There are five fingers there. Do you see five fingers?"<br />
"Yes."<br />
And he did see them, for a fleeting instant, before the scenery of his mind changed. He saw five<br />
fingers, and there was no deformity. Then everything was normal again, and the old fear, the hatred,<br />
and the bewilderment came crowding back again. But there had been a moment—he did not know<br />
how long, thirty seconds, perhaps—of luminous certainty, when each new suggestion of O'Brien's had<br />
filled up a patch of emptiness and become absolute truth, and when two and two could have been<br />
three as easily as five, if that were what was needed. It had faded out before O'Brien had dropped his<br />
hand; but though he could not recapture it, he could remember it, as one remembers a vivid<br />
experience at some remote period of one's life when one was in effect a different person.<br />
"You see now," said O'Brien, "that it is at any rate possible."<br />
"Yes," said Winston.<br />
O'Brien stood up with a satisfied air. Over to his left Winston saw the man in the white coat break<br />
an ampoule and draw back the plunger of a syringe. O'Brien turned to Winston with a smile. In almost<br />
the old manner he resettled his spectacles on his nose.<br />
"Do you remember writing in your diary," he said, "that it did not matter whether I was a friend or<br />
an enemy, since I was at least a person who understood you and could be talked to? You were right. I<br />
enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to<br />
be insane. Before we bring the session to an end you can ask me a few questions, if you choose."<br />
"Any question I like?"<br />
"Anything." He saw that Winston's eyes were upon the dial. "It is switched off. What is your first<br />
question?"<br />
"What have you done with Julia?" said Winston.<br />
O'Brien smiled again. "She betrayed you, Winston. Immediately—unreservedly. I have seldom seen<br />
anyone come over to us so promptly. You would hardly recognize her if you saw her. All her<br />
rebelliousness, her deceit, her folly, her dirty-mindedness—everything has been burned out of her. It<br />
was a perfect conversion, a textbook case."<br />
"You tortured her."<br />
O'Brien left this unanswered. "Next question," he said.<br />
"Does Big Brother exist?"