Who? (novel)

Who?

Cover of first paperback edition
Author	Algis Budrys
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Pyramid Books
Publication date	1958
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	157

Who? (1958) is a science fiction novel by American writer Algis Budrys, set during the Cold War.

In the historical development leading up to the book's plot – a future history at the time of writing, which can now be considered a kind of retroactive alternate history – the Cold War led to the Eastern and Western blocs fusing into two unified super-states during the 1970s (the Western super-state is styled the "Allied Nations Government", the Eastern super-state is apparently a continuation of the Soviet Union with Chinese participation, with its capital at the fictional Novoya Moskva) and remaining locked in an endless permanent confrontation into the foreseeable future. Actual events seem to have diverged from this scenario with the Sino-Soviet rift and confrontation of the late 1950s and early 1960s, not long after the book's publication.

An explosion resulting from an experiment gone awry rocks an Allied research facility near the border with the Soviet Bloc. A Soviet team abducts Dr. Lucas Martino, a leading Allied physicist in charge of a secret, high-priority project called K-88.

Several months later, under American pressure, the Soviet officials finally hand over an individual, claiming that he is Dr. Martino. The man has undergone extensive surgery for his injuries. He has a mechanical arm advanced beyond any produced in the West. More importantly, his head is now a nearly featureless metal skull, a kind of extreme craniofacial prosthesis. A medical evaluation reveals that several of the man's internal organs are also artificial. His biological arm and its hand's fingerprints are identified as Martino's, but this may be the result of an arm and hand transplantation. The Allies are suspicious that the Soviets have sent them a technologically altered spy and are holding the real Martino for further interrogation.

The struggle to determine the man's true identity is the novel's central conflict. In the end, Shawn Rogers, the agent given the task, is unable to reach a conclusion. The man is released, but kept under surveillance and barred from working on physics projects. Later, when progress bogs down on the K-88 project, Rogers is sent to ask him to come back to work. The man refuses to go, and when finally asked directly if he is Lucas Martino, denies it. It is implied that his experiences have led to an existential crisis and loss of identity.