The Love You Crave

39.

If Kimberly calls me back, she’s my first choice. If not, I’ll try Miranda. Why Miranda over Nadine? She’s non-judgmental, she’s beautiful, and she’d love to fly to Chicago to spend a couple of romantic days with me. For a fee. Assuming another client hasn’t booked her yet, and that she’s not busy with a project at NYU, where she’s working toward her Master’s in Counseling Psychology.

I decide to call Miranda, to put her in the on-deck position in case Kimberly fails to call. When her voice mail comes on, I leave a message. When I hang up, it dawns on me I left her and Kimberly the same message. It also registers I have three women in my life who are twenty years old. One’s my daughter, one’s my lover, and the third is Gwen, who tried to have me killed today, after having sex.

I know what you’re thinking. I need to get involved with a nice woman my own age, right? Problem is, I don’t know any hookers my age.

It’s possible neither Kimberly nor Miranda will call me back. And I don’t want to fly to Cincinnati to drop the device off with Nadine. It would be in her care for hours instead of minutes. It would make more sense to hire four security guards in Chicago and have them accompany me to UIC. I’d put the device in a locker outside the MRI room and hire one to stand in front of it and the other three to watch him!

Then I realize I don’t even have an appointment.

Since I can’t trust Darwin, and Dr. Petrovsky’s a plastic surgeon, I can only think of one doctor who might be able to get me in.

Dr. Howard.

I dial his number.

“Damn it, Creed! Why is it you never call me during business hours?”

“Because you never take my calls during the day.”

“That’s bullshit. What do you want?”

“I need an MRI appointment this afternoon at UIC.”

“Why?”

I tell him. Turns out he’s heard about their jumbo MRI machine.

“Why do you need a scan?”

I tell him that, too.

“I don’t have that kind of pull,” he says.

“Listen up, Doc. You’re the one that put the chip in my head. Then you charged me a hundred million dollars-a hundred million dollars!-for the code to deactivate it, and then you tell me I’m still at risk. You owe me.”

“I do owe you. But I don’t know how you expect me to get you in. Or what I’m supposed to tell them.”

“You’re going to tell them it’s a national emergency, that I’m an agent with homeland security and I’ve got a chip in my brain and you need to know if it can be surgically removed. While I’m getting the scan, the magnet should erase the imbedded messaging.”

He sighs.

“What’s magic about this afternoon?”

“What if I told you I have a chance to kill dozens of terrorists all over the world if I can get this chip deactivated?”

“I’d tell you to call Darwin.”

“I can’t. He’s the one that made you implant the chip. He’d never allow it to be erased.”

“Darwin’s a lot of things, and many of them are vile. But first and foremost he’s a patriot. I bet he’d allow it, if you can convince him there’s a connection between erasing the chip and killing a bunch of terrorists.”

“I can’t trust him. But I’ll trust you. I’ve uncovered an arms deal. Two hundred chips have been distributed to terror cells all over the world. At least one of them is in Las Vegas, and I’m certain there are many more in the U.S. If I can de-magnetize the chip in my head, I’ll be free to reprogram the chip codes and blow them all up at the same time, all over the world. I’m betting dozens of terrorists have the chips in their possession. When I reset the code, they’ll blow up.”

“And you have a way of resetting the code? Some sort of device?”

“I’ve said all I’m going to say.”

“You need to de-magnetize the chip because when you reset the codes and detonate the chips, the chip in your head will also be activated.”

“That’s right.”

“If you don’t get the scan, you’re not willing to blow up the other chips.”

“Would you?”

“No.”

“Then get me the appointment.”

“I’ll try. But I don’t see the urgency about having this done this afternoon.”

“The terror cell in Vegas sewed a chip into an illegal alien’s mouth yesterday, and blew her head off trying to determine how powerful the explosion would be. Every passing day increases the possibility of a terrorist attack. Thousands of lives are at stake.”

“How big a danger are these chips?”

“What do you mean?”

“It seems like the charge would only be powerful enough to kill the person holding it, and possibly a few others.”

“You can bet they won’t use the chips that way.”

“Then how?”

“I expect they’ll set plastique in key places and use the chips as detonators, like blasting caps.”

“But if you can blow them up while they’re holding them-”

“Exactly.”

“So what’s this device that can be used to reprogram the chips?”

“That’s not something you need to worry about.”

“The reason I’m asking, you won’t be able to have it anywhere near the imaging room, correct?”

“That’s right.”

Doc Howard pauses. Then says, “I’ll do what I can.”