Phillip K. Dick - Captive Market (Auberjonois) 128k 00.42.40 {39mb}.mp3 (1955)

"Captive Market" was first published in If in Apr 1955. Fairly popular with editors, the story was anthologized first in 1957 in THE FIRST WORLD OF IF, then collected in THE PRESERVING MACHINE (1969) and in 1988 included in Isaac Asimov and Martin Greenburg’s prestigious anthology THE GREAT SF STORIES 17.

"Captive Market" is a grim little story in which a precognitive old lady who owns a country store finds a future where survivors of a nuclear war need provisions to escape Earth for Venus. Greedily she sells them whatever they need but with her precog powers she can always find a future where they do not escape and keep on coming back for more.

This is another of Dick’s unique takes on psionics as he invests the powers into a small-minded old lady with nothing but money and profit on her mind. Certainly she’s no super-human mutant ready and able to lead humanity to a better future.