# Laurence Connaught — Short Fiction character guide

> Laurence Connaught in Short Fiction by Frederik Pohl.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Connaught, Larry Connaught, Larry

**First appearance:** 0000-asteroid-of-the-damned

## Snapshot

Laurence Connaught was an honest idealist who learned twenty-three words that could make any man king of the world.

## Who they are

Larry was the narrator's friend, a man who could read twenty-three words and thereby walk through walls, open any vault, and survive any pistol. The narrator killed him in cold blood, not out of malice but because absolute power corrupts absolutely, and Larry could not be trusted with a secret that would work for criminals, traitors, and lunatics alike. He matters because his death is the story's moral fulcrum, the moment the narrator claims a godlike power and the reader must decide whether the killing was mercy or murder.

## In the story

### [Pythias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se/chapters/pythias)

The victim; a close friend of the narrator who discovered a secret technique for psychokinetic powers, which he demonstrates before being killed.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se/characters/connaught
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se/characters