Camp Concentration

Thomas M. Disch imagines an alternate 1970s in which America had declared war on the rest of the world and much of its own citizenry and is willing to use any weapon to ensure victory. Louis Sachetti, a poet imprisoned for draft resistance, is delivered to a secret facility called Camp Archimedes, where he is the unwilling witness to the army's conscienceless experiments in "intellegence maximization."

Prisoners given Palladine, a drug derived from the syphilis spirochete, quickly blossom into genius, but there is one unfortunate side effect. Palladine is unvariably fatal.