Flashback

CHAPTER TWENTY — TWO

Zack raced down the corridor at nearly a full run, hesitating only to glance into his father's room. The bed was stripped, and an aide was washing down the plastic mattress cover. He bolted through the stairway door and vaulted down to the first floor. A major piece in the puzzle had fallen into place-a piece that irrefutably connected Toby Nelms, Suzanne, and Jason Mainwaring. Now, Frank would have to listen. "My brother in? " he panted to the buxom, blond receptionist. Annette Dolan looked at him strangely. "He is, but-"

"Thank you, " Zack said, already on his way through Frank's office door.

Frank, behind his desk, working at his computer, looked up coolly. "You don't work here anymore, " he said. "Frank, I've got to talk to you.

I've learned something-something important."

"Mr. Iverson, I'm sorry. I tried to stop him, " Annette Dolan said from the doorway.

Frank smiled at her emotionlessly. "That's okay, Annette, " he said. "I know how persistent my little brother can be. I'm sure you did your best to stop him. Before you get back to work, though, why don't you go on home and change that sweater. It's not appropriate for the office."

The receptionist hesitated a beat, her lower lip quivering. Then she turned and hurried away. "Now, then, " Frank said, glancing at his watch, "what on earth could be important enough to take you away from your packing?"

Zack moved to sit down, but Frank stopped him with a raised hand. "Don't get comfortable, sport, " he said. "Just say what you want to say and leave." He motioned to the computer. "Number six now, Zack-o. Six out of nearly two hundred administrators nationwide. Not bad, if I do say so myself. No, siree, not bad at all."

V@ell, then you'd better listen to me, Frank. Because I've learned something that could bring this place crashing down about your ears if you don't do something about it."

There was no more than a flicker of interest. "Oh?"

"It's that anesthe ic, Frank. The one I tried to tell you about before."

"Go on."

"I just came from speaking with Mrs. Nelms, the mother of the boy in ICU."

"I know who she is, " Frank said. "Well, I was going over some of my concerns with her, and-"

"You what?"

"Frank, just calm down and listen."

"No, you listen. Do you have any idea how much of a nuisance that woman will be if you fill her with all that human experimentation bullshit of yours?"

"Frank, it's not bullshit. It's really happening, and you'd better help me do something about it or this place will be crawling with lawyers, hospital-certification people, and police. I promise you."

"Don't you dare threaten me."

"Well, then, will you please listen, for Chrissake? Suzanne's life may be on the line here, to say nothing of that poor kid in the ICU. We don't have much time."

Frank toyed with a paper clip for a few moments, straightened it, and then snapped it in two. "Okay, Bro, " he said finally. "You've got five minutes."

"They're experimenting with something, Frank-Mainwaring and Pearl.

They're fooling around with some sort of new general anesthe ic, and they think it's working fine, only it isn't. The patients look asleep during their surgery and even think they were asleep afterward. But at some level, just below their conscious surface, they were wide awake, experiencing the whole thing-the cutting, the blood, the pain, everything."

"Sport, I didn't believe you this morning, and I don't believe you now. py "Well, you'd better. I have proof "Oh?"

"It's the music, Frank.

"Greensleeves'-the music Mainwaring operates to."

"What in the hell are you-"

"Mainwaring nearly always works to one piece of music. It's a classical version of Greensleeves'-you know, the folk song from-"

"I know the tune, " Frank said testily. "Well, according to Mrs. Nelms, every time her kid had one of his seizures, he was watching a children's show where they play that melody."

"That's your proof?"

"There's more. Last week Suzanne and I were together, when suddenly she went blank, totally blank."