Flashback

by Michael Palmer

  Clayton Iverson fixed him with a glare that would have melted block iee.

  "Don't you dare tell me what's legal and what's not, young man, " he rasped. "I was a lawyer and a judge while your mommy was still wiping your behind. Our contract with you people says that we have until noon today to repurchase this hospital by a majority vote of the board.

  That's what it says. No more, no less. And unless something's wrong with my timepiece, here, I make it seven of."

  Ashen, Frank watched as his father was wheeled up to the chairman's table. He was desperately sorting through disruptions he could instigate that might carry the meeting past the deadline. But before he could light on a specific action, the Judge was speaking. "I'll make this short, " he began. "I had promised many of you that I would do the legwork necessary to ensure that it was to the benefit of our community to finalize our temporary arrangement with the Ultramed people. Because of my accident, and for other reasons which I have. neither the time nor inclination to go into now, I decided to. withhold my conclusions about this business and let the chips fall where they may. Well, I have come back at this time to tell you that my reaction was unfair-to you, my friends and colleagues, and to the city of Sterling as well. "I have learned enough to appear before you now and tell you categorically that while we may have benefited in the short run from Ultramed's involvement with our hospital, it would be a grave mistake to turn Davis Regional over to them permanently. My housekeeper, Annie Doucette, almost died because of a policy-an Ultramed corporate policy-that rewards physicians for transferring patients out of the hospital as early as possible, and rewards them even more if that transfer is to an Ultramed-owned nursing home. Patients who helped build this hospital are being shunted off to Clarion County because they haven't got enough insurance. There's more-much more"-he glanced at Leigh Baron-"but because of the time, I'm going to ask you to trust me on that. Now, we have three minutes until noon. If it is agreeable with Whitey, here, I would like to call for another vote on this question."

  "Any objections?

  " Bourque asked. "Yes, " Frank said, standing. "I object."

  "Well, I'm sorry, Frank, " Bourque countered, "but you're not a board member, 'n' we don't have time for any outside objections."

  Frank hesitated, and then sank numbly to his seat. "Okay, then," Bourque said. "You all have a second ballot in your folders. I put one there knowin' that at least some of you were bound to screw up the first one."

  A brief volley of laughter gave way to dense silence as the twenty board members marked their ballots, folded them, and passed them toward the front of the room. Leigh Baron, her back to Frank, sat staring stonily at the gallery of presidents. As the last of the ballots reached Whitey Bourque and was counted, the steeple bells of St. Anne's began tolling the noon hour. Sara Newton, the nurse anesthe ist, was a mousy young woman with braces that had yet to correct a striking overbite. She had been asleep in maternity, awaiting a delivery, and arrived at the doors to the operating suite only moments after Zack, breathless, bleary-eyed, and disheveled. "Where's the emergency? " she panted, tugging at a kink in her bra. "In the unit, " Zack said. His shoulder was throbbing from the dash through the hospital, and he had resorted to partially splinting it by jamming his thumb through a belt loop. "The unit? Well, then, let's get going. Say, are you okay? You look a little pale."

  "I'm fine. A little stressed out is all."

  "That's right. There was a notice sent around that you've been fired."

  "I've been rehired. Sara, I need Jack Pearl.

  It's a case he's familiar with. I'd like you to take over his case in O.R. 1 so he can leave."

  The woman was astonished. "Dr. Iverson, I can't do that."

  "Listen, Sara, " Zack said sharply, "I don't have time to argue. I know you're very good at your job, and if I thought you could do what I need, I wouldn't hesitate. But this is Pearl's affair. His and mine. And at least two lives are on the line. Now please."

  "Wh-What can I do? " she asked, shaken. "Get a fresh set of scrubs on and be outside O. R. I as quickly as you can. I'll signal you when it's okay to come in."

  "Jack will never agree to something like this."

  "You leave Jack to me. Now, please, hurry."

  Zack raced into the surgeon's locker room and painfully undressed. He threw his clothes into his locker and pulled on a scrub suit, a paper hair cover, mask, and shoe covers, and he hurried past the sinks in the prep room and into O. R. I. Greg Ormesby, the surgeon on the case, looked up and took several seconds to recognize who he was. "Iverson?" he asked somewhat coolly. "That is you under there, isn't it?"

  At the mention of Zack's name, all activity in the room came to an instant halt. Jack Pearl, who was hunched over his instruments, looked up and paled. "Sorry to bust in like this, Greg, " Zack said with forced calm, "but I need to talk to Jack, here."

  "I'm busy, " Pearl muttered. "Well, whatever it is will just have to wait," Ormesby said. "We'll be done in half an hour. Now, if you please, Iverson."

  Zack bent over Pearl and laid his right hand at the base of the man's neck. "Jack, " he whispered, "it's Suzanne. She's in the ICU right now, and she's having a seizure just like Toby's. She's reliving her operation and she's screaming out your name. Yours and Jason's."

  Even wearing a mask and hair cover, the frail anesthesiologist oked ill.

  "That can't be, " Pearl whispered back. "I want you up there with me right now."

  "You're crazy."

  Zack slipped his fingers around the sides of Pearl's neck and applied just a bit of pressure. "She's the second case, Jack. The one you were holding out for."

  "I'm not going anyplace. Now let go of me! You're hurting me!"

  Zack looked up just as Sara Newton appeared outside the door. He. motioned her in with a snap of his head, and tightened his grip, digging his sinewy fingers into the nerves alongside Pearl's neck. "Iverson, what in the hell is going on here? " Ormesby demanded. "Are you crazy?

  Somebody call security. Iverson, for crying out loud, there's a goddamn woman opened up on the table here. Can't you see that?"

  "I'm sorry to do things this way, Greg, " Zack said, raising the little anesthesiologist to his feet, "but there's trouble in the ICU that only Jack can help with."

  "That's crazy! " Pearl cried out. "He's crazy! Ow! You're hurting me, Iverson! Let go!"

  Greg Ormesby and the surgical team watched in stunned silence as Zack pulled the little man away from his console and gestured Sara Newton into his place. "Iverson, stop this right now! " Ormesby shouted.

  "You're endangering my patient."

  "Nonsense. Sara, here, is an excellent anesthe ist, and you know it.

  She'll take good care of your patient. I'm sorry to have to do things this way, but I just don't have time to explain right now. I will, though, Greg. I promise."

  "Oh, for God's sake. Will somebody call security?

  Iverson, this is madness."

  Zack did not respond. The pain in his shoulder partially numbed by his own adrenaline, he dragged Pearl through the scrub room and slammed him against the bank of lockers, pinning him by the throat so that he was up on the tips of his toes. "Iverson, " Greg Ormesby hollered, "I see now that what everyone is saying about you is true. I'll get you for this!

  I'll see you up on charges!"

  "Okay, Jack, " Zack said, ignoring the surgeon's bellowing. "This is it.

  Now tell me, There is an experimental drug, isn't there?…" He augmented his grip with his injured arm, and hoisted the anesthesiologist up another fraction of an inch. Pearl's toes came off the carpet. "Well, isn't there?"

  Pearb either too frightened or too obstinate to answer, did not respond.

  His face was violet. His eyes, now nearly level with Zack's, were bulging. At that moment, a security guard burst into the locker room, and without a word, struck Zack with his nightstick-a blow that glanced off the side of his head and landed squarely on his injured shoulder.

  Crying out from t
he pain, Zack dropped heavily to the carpet, clutching his arm, as Jack Pearl slithered down the locker and, moaning, collapsed in a heap nearby. The guard knelt on the small of Zack's back and raised his stick, preparing for another blow. "Stop that! Right now!"

  Startled, the guard came off Zack and whirled toward the voice. Zack reacted more slowly. He turned, and through tears of pain saw Jason Mainwaring, hands on hips, standing by the door. "Mainwaring, " he gasped, "it's Suzanne. She's in the unit, and-"

  "I know. I just came from there." Mainwaring turned to the guard.

  "Everything's under control here now. You can go."

  "But-"

  "I said, things are under control."

  "Y-Yes sir." The guard backed from the room, with Mainwaring's ice-blue eyes helping him along. "Okay, Jack, " the surgeon said as the door swung shut, "give Iverson whatever he wants."

  "Jason, I can't-"

  "Dammit, Jack, do it!

  There are two people in deep trouble in the unit up there. I may have made some mistakes in this business, but I'm no murderer. If Serenyl's responsible for their condition, then I want Iverson here to get whatever he needs to help them… Now!

  Pearl stumbled to his feet. Zack tried to rise, fell heavily, and then tried again-this time with shaky success. "Thanks, Mainwaring, " he said. "I didn't think I'd gotten through to you."

  "Just remember, Iverson, that just because I'm here doesn't mean I'm admitting to anything." He glanced over at the anesthesiologist, and then added in a voice too soft for the man to bear, "I'm no monster, Iverson. If Pearl's drug has hurt some people, I want to do whatever I can to help out. You remember that, now. You remember I did that."

  "Yeah, sure, Mainwaring, " Zack said. "I'll remember."

  Frank sat alone to one side of the Carter Conference Room and watched as Whitey Bourque, the last remaining board member, wheeled his father away for readmission to the hospital. The re-vote had been an impressive fourteen to six in favor of repurchase. As he neared the door, the Judge looked back at him and mouthed the words, "I'm sorry, Frank."

  Across from Frank, Leigh Baron shared a final exchange with her lawyers and sent them off. Then she turned and surveyed the near empty room and the vestiges of the meeting just past. "Well, he beat you, " she said finally. "He beat you, too, " Frank retorted. "He's one of the hardest men I've ever dealt with."

  "Tell me about it."

  Leigh paced to one side of the room and then back. "Unfortunately, " she said, "that is, unfortunately for you, your father's actions have placed me in a rather ticklish position."

  "You see, Frank, three years ago you did a very stupid, very amateurish thing. You took money from us. A good deal of money." Shocked, Frank stared up at her. "I… I don't know what you're talking about, " he managed. "Oh, Frank, " she said sardonically, "you disappoint me so."

  She crossed the room and laid the accountant's report in front of him.

  "We were a little worried about this vote today, " she explained, "so last night I visited with your father."

  "You what?"

  "I shared the contents of that folder with him, and promised that it would be incinerated as soon as the sale of the hospital was complete."

  "That's insane."

  "No, Frank, " she said calmly, "that's business."

  "What kind of person are you? Do you know that you probably were the cause of his accident?"

  "I know nothing of the kind. But what I do know is that your father made his choice, and now we must make ours. You can expect charges of embezzlement to be brought against you first thing next week."

  "You can't do that."

  "Can, and will, " she said. "I… I was about to put that money back. I have the cash. Right now. Right in the bank."

  "Too late."

  "You're an insensitive bitch."

  "Oh, that's wonderful, Frank. So witty, so articulate."

  "I'll… I'll double what I took, " he said. "Five hundred thousand. I can have it in your hands this afternoon."

  "Frank, you don't understand. If it was the money, you would have been buried three years ago, when we first became aware of what you had done."

  "In that case, " he said, suddenly seeing a crack of daylight and racing toward it, "if I go down, your company goes down with me, big time."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "I'm talking about some work that has been going on at this hospital-at your hospital. The testing of a new and unapproved anesthe ic. It's work involving your administrator, and one of your surgeons, and one of your anesthesiologists, and it hasn't come out too well. If you need proof, stop by the ICU and check out a kid named Nelms. And I promise you that if I get charged with anything, I'll smear Ultramed's name until your stock isn't worth using as toilet paper."

  "I don't believe you, " she said. But Frank could tell that she did.

  "Like I said, just stop by the unit. I'm sure the child's parents and their lawyers would love to know that a multibillion-dollar company was responsible for their son's condition."

  "You've been allowing this to go on without our knowledge? " Frank felt the shift in momentum. "Allowing it? Hell, I've been in charge of it.

  How do you think I was planning on coming up with that much money? In fact, the work is already done. I've been paid off. And fortunately-for all of us-only I know that it hasn't come out all that well… Now, do we have a Mexican standoff or not?"

  Leigh Baron spent several seconds sizing him up, but he knew that he had won. "How many patients? " she asked. "Oh, five hundred, " he said,

  "give or take."

  "I intend to check up on what you've told me."

  "Feel free. Just be careful when you do. If this blows, it blows in your face."

  "Frank, you're pathetic."

  "Ah, ah. Now who's being articulate?"

  "One word, Frank, if so much as one word about this… this stupidity touches Ultramed, I swear I'll bury you. What you've done is horrible."

  Frank grinned broadly. "No, it's not, " he said with a wink. "It's business."

  THE ARTICLE

  "Studies in the Reversal of the Delayed Toxicity of Lysergic Acid Diethylamine (LSD), " had been written by a Scottish neurologist named Clarkin, and published almost fifteen years before in the little-read British Journal of Neuropsychology. It was an anecdotal report, not a scientific study in the true sense of the. word. Zack had stumbled onto the work during his first year of residency and had saved it because the notion of treating LSD flashbacks with LSD both amused and fascinated him. In most of his cases, Clarkin had used a high-density, saline-flotation isolation tank. With no such device at hand, they would simply have to make do. And while the Scotsman's concepts were intriguing, the data presented were too scant to justify many of his conclusions. It was frightening to realize that with no other promising options, Clarkin's theories were all that Suzanne and Toby Nelms had going for them. As he supervised the nurses' transfer of Suzanne to a water mattress-the first step in reducing her sensory input to the absolute minimum-Zack wondered about the neurologist and his work. Was it a mistake not to try and locate him? Was he even still alive? Still practicing? Was he a scholar, or a fraud? Had he received acclaim for his theolies, or scorn?

  But most of all, Zack wondered if he might be endangering his two patients by what he was attempting to do. Over the years of his training he had developed total, implicit faith in his clinical judgment. Now, having difficulty focusing past the pain in his shoulder, and with the nightmare of the past twenty-four hours so fresh in his mind, he was having doubts. Be diligent. Be meticulous. Be honest. Account for every variable… Zack stared down at Suzanne, bound for the moment by four-point, leather restraints. Shortly after arriving in the ICU her coma had lightened and she had become combative and disoriented. Her symptoms were identical in many ways to Toby's, but were clearly evolving more rapidly and virulently-the result, Zack was certain, of Frank's vicious treatment of her. ALTHOUGH she was groggy from Valium she had recei
ved, it was apparent that she was still locked in her psychosis, totally out of touch with reality, Her temperature had risen to almost 101. Was there another way? He had been so sure of himself before the Judge's accident, sure enough to charge in and insist on applying Clarkin's anecdotal work to Toby Nelms. Now, even with Mainwaring's and Pearl's validation of his theories about an experimental drug, he felt himself on the knife's edge of panic. Be meticulous… Account for every variable… Zack rubbed at his shoulder. The swelling was increasing. Even the slightest movement of his arm was now sending numbing, metallic pain up into his neck and down to his fingertips. Fatigue and tension were battling for control of his mind. Across from him, in quiet resignation, Jack Pearl was readying his instruments and syringes. Off to one side, Jason Mainwaring stood alone, watching. As Zack finished placing patches over Suzanne's eyes and oilsoaked cotton in her ears. Mainwaring motioned him over. He looked uncharacteristically rumpled, gray, and drawn, and the concern in his eyes was, it seemed, genuine. "Iverson, you know, I'm sorry this is happening, " he whispered. "You should be."

  "I've never been one to make excuses for myself, but before you n' Pearl get started, there are two things I'd like you to know."

  "First of all, that woman you learned about from Tarberry-the one who died in my office 4 Yes… "She died of a coronary, not any allergic reaction.

  She never got anything but plain ol'xylocaine, And that's the truth. I had some… some enemies at the hospital who had learned about my involvement with a pharmaceutical company. They were determined to get me, and Mrs. Grimes's unfortunate death gave them the chance. I won't deny doin' some work in my office with an experimental local anesthe ic, but Mrs. Grimes got Xylocaine." Zack glanced over at Suzanne.

  "Mainwaring, " he said coolly, "I appreciate your coming back here the way you did. But don't look for any exoneration from me. What you two-you three-have done here was beyond stupid, and beyond wrong."

  "I've never been one to cut corners, but our company was failing. We… we were desperate. Serenyl would have saved us."