Summary
Garland claims that he already knows the results of the testing to which he and bounty hunter Phil Resch are about to be subjected. While Resch is away, retrieving his apparatus for the Boneli Reflex-Arc Test, Garland pulls a laser tube at Deckard. Deckard explains that killing him would not relieve Garland of his obligation to take the test, and this prompts Garland to lower the laser tube. Garland explains that Resch is an unsuspecting android, and that he knows each of the other androids on Deckard’s list because they all arrived together on the same ship from Mars. According to Garland, Resch stayed behind in order to receive a synthetic memory system, which is the reason Resch is unaware of his own status as an android. Garland and Deckard discuss the possible reaction Resch will have when he is informed of his status. Garland then declares that Polokov came to Earth earlier than the rest, perhaps with a separate group, because Polokov was different and seemed to have had a brain-type that was unfamiliar even to his (Garland’s) own group of androids. Deckard asks about the confusing phone call to his wife. Garland explains that the department protects itself by running on a closed loop that is cut off from the rest of the city.

Resch returns to Garland’s office with his equipment. Before he can set it up, Garland reaches towards Resch with a tiny laser tube. Both bounty hunters react by rolling to the ground; Resch, on his way down, manages to fire his own beam precisely into Garland’s head. Deckard informs Resch that the building is infested with androids, and they devise an escape plan that involves propping Garland up at his desk and exiting the building with Deckard playing the detainee who is cuffed to bounty hunter Resch.

On their way out of the Hall of Justice, Resch expresses his astonishment at having never considered the possibility of androids infiltrating his department. He and Deckard ponder the timeline involved in the infiltration on the way to Resch’s hovercar, and they examine two possibilities that either the real Garland was replaced three months ago when the androids arrived, or that Resch himself has been impregnated with false memory, an option only accurate if Resch himself is an android.

As they depart for the opera house, Resch asks Deckard if he would be willing to test him. Deckard tries to redirect the topic to their present mission of retiring Luba Luft. Resch, however, refuses to let go of the idea that he could very well be an android. He remarks to Deckard that he owns a real squirrel named Buffy to which he is very emotionally attached.

Analysis
Chapter Eleven highlights the commonalities that androids and humans share in their respective struggles for survival. The androids must keep their existence on Earth a secret in order to avoid being detected and destroyed by bounty hunters. The elaborate infiltration of a police department by androids in order to protect their secret inhabitance of Earth highlights the androids’ strong desire for survival. The struggle by humans to survive their own inevitable destruction is highlighted publicly in the ideology of Mercerism. The public nature of the humans’ struggle is contrasted by the secrecy involved in the androids’ struggle.