Law requiring TexasTower residents with the infection to leave

The Law requiring TexasTower residents with the infection to leave mandates that an affected resident depart the TexasTower, even when the condition is known not to spread between people. Its clearest application is Joe Pareti’s forced removal after he contracts Ashton’s Disease: the law requires him to leave, while officials acknowledge there is technically no quarantine and that he may go where he pleases. The distinction between a compulsory exit from the tower and freedom of movement beyond it makes the rule’s reach—and its limits—visible.

Scope and Rationale

The law is invoked when Pareti is required to leave the TexasTower within an hour. The Projects Superintendent explains that Ashton’s Disease is unlovely and unpredictable, but cannot be transmitted to others. He stresses that the order is not technically a quarantine: Pareti is legally free to travel elsewhere. Yet the Superintendent also warns that his presence in the surface cities would not be welcome, adding that the action is underground. The rule therefore governs Pareti’s continued residence at the tower without formally barring him from other places; practical exclusion extends beyond the legal command.

Application to Pareti

Pareti receives a final statement of the back pay due for his nine-month shift and a sizeable termination bonus. A Company lift is sent to take him away, a fifteen-passenger vehicle with two stewardesses, a lounge, a movie theater, and pocket-billiard accommodations. The elaborate transport contrasts with the abruptness of the order: the company settles his employment account and arranges his departure, but does not offer him the option of remaining at the tower.

Social Consequences

The rule’s operation is accompanied by rejection that exceeds its stated health rationale. Peggy Flinn knows Ashton’s Disease is not contagious, yet when she encounters Pareti at the exit lock she says goodbye without kissing him farewell. He calls her a whore under his breath, and she hears him. Her hesitation shows how the condition can produce social separation even where transmission is not a risk. Pareti, having moved beyond his earlier shaken reactions, leaves determined to fight the disease by willpower; the law has removed him from the tower, but it has not imposed a formal quarantine or prescribed what he must do next.