The Terminal Man
Page 21

He was climbing the ladder.
Morris was drenched with cold sweat. He still could see nothing, nothing at all. He was so disoriented he no longer remembered where he was on the wing. Was the ladder in front of him or behind?
Another creak.
He tried to fix the sound. It was coming somewhere in front of him. That meant he was facing the tail, the rear of the wing. Facing the ladder.
Another creak.
How many steps were there? Roughly six feet, six steps. Benson would be standing on the wing soon. What could he use for a weapon? Morris patted his pockets. His clothes were soaked and clinging with sweat. He had a momentary thought that this was all ridiculous, that Benson was the patient and he was the doctor. Benson would listen to reason. Benson would do as he was told.
Another creak.
A shoe! Quickly, he slipped off his shoe, and cursed the fact that it had a rubber sole. But it was better than nothing. He gripped the shoe tightly, held it above his head, ready to swing. He had a mental image of the beaten mechanic, the disfigured, bloody face. And he suddenly realized that he was going to have to hit Benson very hard, with all the strength he had.
He was going to have to try to kill Benson.
There were no more creaking sounds, but he could hear breathing. And then, distant at first but growing rapidly louder, he heard sirens. The police were coming. Benson would hear them, too, and would give up.
Another creak.
Benson was going back down the ladder. Morris breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he heard a peculiar scratching sound and felt the wing beneath his feet shake. Benson had not climbed down. He had continued to climb up, and was now standing on the wing.
"Dr. Morris?"
Morris almost answered, but didn't. He knew then that Benson couldn't really see, either. Benson needed a voice fix. Morris said nothing.
"Dr. Morris? I want you to help me."
The sirens were louder each moment. Morris had a momentary elation at the thought that Benson was going to be caught. This whole nightmare would soon be over.
"Please help me, Dr. Morris."
Perhaps he was sincere, Morris thought. Perhaps he really meant it. If that were so, then as his doctor he had a duty to help him.
"Please?"
Morris stood. "I'm over here, Harry," he said. "Now, just take it easy and- "
Something hissed in the air. He felt it coming before it hit. Then he felt agonizing pain in his mouth and jaw, and he was knocked backward, rolling across the wing. The pain was awful, worse than anything he had ever felt.
And then he fell into blackness. It was not far to fall from the wing to the ground. But it seemed to be taking a long time. It seemed to take forever.
13
Janet Ross stood outside the treatment room in the emergency ward, watching through the small glass window. There were six people in there taking care of Morris, all clustered around him. She couldn't see much. All she could really see were his feet. He had one shoe on; the other was off. There was a lot of blood; most of the EW people were spattered with it.
Standing outside with her, Anders said, "I don't have to tell you what I think of this."
"No," she said.
"The man is terribly dangerous. Dr. Morris should have waited for the police."
"But the police didn't catch him," she said, suddenly angry. Anders didn't understand anything. He didn't understand how you could feel responsible for a patient, how you could want to take care of somebody.
"Morris didn't catch him, either," Anders said.
"And why didn't the police get him?"
"Benson was gone when they got to the hangar. There are several exits from the hangar, and they couldn't all be covered. They found Morris under the wing and the mechanic on top of the wing, and they were both pretty badly hurt."
The treatment-room door opened. Ellis came out, looking haggard, unshaven, defeated.
"How is he?" Ross said.
"He's okay," Ellis said. "He won't have much to say for a few weeks, but he's okay. They're taking him to surgery now, to wire up his jaw and get all the teeth out." He turned to Anders. "Did they find the weapon?"
Anders nodded. "Two-foot section of lead pipe."
"He must have got it right in the mouth," Ellis said. "But at least he didn't inhale any of the loose teeth. The bronchi are clean on lung films." He put his arm around Janet.
"They'll fix him up."
"What about the other one?"
"The mechanic?" Ellis shook his head. "I wouldn't place bets. His nose was shattered and the nasal bones were driven up into the substance of the brain. He's leaking CSF through the nostrils. Lot of bleeding and a big problem with encephalitis."
Anders said, "How do you assess his chances?"
"He's on the critical list."
"All right," Anders said. He walked off.
Ross walked with Ellis out of the emergency ward toward the cafeteria. Ellis kept his arm around her shoulders. "This has turned into a horrible mess," he said.
"Will he really be all right?"
"Sure."
"He was kind of good-looking..."
"They'll get his jaw back together. He'll be fine."
She shuddered.
"Cold?"
"Cold," she said, "and tired. Very tired."
She had coffee with Ellis in the cafeteria. It was 6:30, and there were a lot of staff people eating. Ellis ate slowly, his movements showing fatigue. "It's funny," he said.
"What?"
"I had a call this afternoon from Minnesota. They have a professorship in neurosurgery to fill. Asked me if I was interested."
She didn't say anything.
"Isn't that funny?"
"No," she said.
"I told them I wasn't considering anything until I was fired here," he said.
"Are you sure that'll happen?"
"Aren't you?" he said. He stared across the cafeteria at all the nurses and interns and residents in white. "I wouldn't like Minnesota," he said. "It's too cold."
"But it's a good school."
"Oh, yes. A good school." He sighed. "A fine school."
She felt sorry for him, and then suppressed the emotion.
He had brought it on himself, and against her advice. For the last twenty-four hours, she had not allowed herself to say "I told you so" to anyone; she had not allowed herself to think it. For one thing, it wasn't necessary to say it. For another, it would not be useful in helping Benson, which was her chief concern.
But she didn't have much sympathy now for the brave surgeon. Brave surgeons risked other people's lives, not their own. The most a surgeon could lose was his reputation.
"Well," he said, "I better get back to the NPS. See how things are going. You know what?"
"What?"
"I hope they kill him," Ellis said. And he walked away toward the elevators.
The operation began at 7 p.m. She watched from the overhead glass viewing booth as Morris was wheeled into the OR, and the surgeons draped him. Bendixon and Curtiss were doing the procedure; they were both good plastic surgeons; they would fix him up as well as anybody possibly could.
But it was still a shock to watch as the sterile gauze packs were taken away from Morris's face and the flesh exposed, The upper part of his face was normal, though pale. The lower part was a red mash, like butcher's meat. It was impossible to find the mouth in all the redness.
Ellis had seen that in the emergency ward. It was shocking to her now, even at a distance. She could imagine the effect much closer.
She stayed to watch as the drapes were placed over the body, and around the head. The surgeons were gowned and gloved; the instrument tables set in position; the scrub nurses stood ready. The whole ritual of preparing for surgery was carried out smoothly and efficiently. It was a wonderful ritual, she thought, so rigid and so perfect that nobody would ever know - and the surgeons themselves probably didn't consider - that they were operating on a colleague. The ritual, the fixed procedure, was anaesthetic for the surgeon just as gas was anaesthetic for the patient.
She stayed a few moments longer, and then left the room.
14
As she approached the NPS, she saw that a cluster of reporters had cornered Ellis outside the building. He was answering their questions in clear bad humor; she heard the words "mind control" repeated several times.
Feeling slightly guilty, she cut around to the far entrance and took the elevator to the fourth floor. Mind control, she thought. The Sunday supplements were going to have a field day with mind control. And then there would be solemn editorials in the daily papers, and even more solemn editorials in the medical journals, about the hazards of uncontrolled and irresponsible research. She could see it coming.
Mind control. Christ.
The truth was that everybody's mind was controlled, and everybody was glad for it. The most powerful mind controllers in the world were parents, and they did the most damage. Theorists usually forgot that nobody was born prejudiced, neurotic, or hung-up; those traits required a helping hand. Of course, parents didn't intentionally damage their children. They merely inculcated attitudes that they felt would be important and useful to their children.
Newborn children were little computers waiting to be programmed. And they would learn whatever they were taught, from bad grammar to bad attitudes. Like computers, they were undiscriminating; they had no way to differentiate between good ideas and bad ones. The analogy was quite exact: many people had remarked on the childishness and the literalness of computers. For example, if you could instruct a computer to "Put on your shoes and socks," the computer would certainly reply that socks could not be fitted over shoes.
All the important programming was finished by the age of seven. Racial attitudes, sexual attitudes, ethical attitudes, religious attitudes, national attitudes. The gyroscope was set, and the children let loose to spin off on their predetermined courses.
Mind control.
What about something as simple as social conventions? What about shaking hands when you meet someone? Facing forward in elevators? Passing on the left? Having your wineglass on the right? Hundreds of little conventions that people needed in order to stereotype social interaction- take away any of them, and you produce unbearable anxiety.
People needed mind control. They were glad to have it. They were hopelessly lost without it.
Chapter 16
But let a group of people try to solve the greatest problem in the world today - uncontrolled violence - and suddenly there are shouts from all sides: mind control, mind control!
Which was better, control or uncontrol?
She got off at the fourth floor, brushed past several policemen in the hallway, and went into her office. Anders was there, hanging up the telephone. And frowning.
"We just got our first break," he said.
"Oh?" Her irritation dissipated in a wave of expectancy.
"Yes," Anders said, "but I'll be damned if I know what it means."
"What happened?"
"Benson's description and his pictures are being circulated downtown, and somebody recognized him."
"Who?"
"A clerk in Building and Planning, in City Hall. He said Benson came in ten days ago. Building and Planning files specifications on all public structures erected within city limits, and they administer certain building codes."
Ross nodded.
"Well, Benson came in to check specs on a building. He wanted to review electrical blueprints. Said he was an electrical engineer, produced some identification."
Ross said, "The girls at his house said he'd come back for some blueprints."
"Well, apparently he got them from Building and Planning."
"What are they for?"
"University Hospital," Anders said. "He has the complete wiring system for the entire hospital. Now what do you make of that?"
They stared at each other.
By eight o'clock, she was almost asleep standing up. Her neck was hurting badly, and she had a headache. She realized that she didn't have a choice any more - either she got some sleep, or she'd pass out. "I'll be on the floor if you need me," she told Anders, and left. She walked down the corridor of the NPS, past several uniformed cops. She no longer noticed them; it seemed as if there had always been cops in the hallways for as long as she could remember.
She looked into McPherson's office. He was sitting behind his desk, head on his shoulder, sleeping. His breath came in short, ragged gasps. It sounded as if he were having nightmares. She closed the door quietly.
An orderly walked past her, carrying filled ashtrays and empty coffee cups. It was strange to see an orderly doing cleaning duties. The sight triggered a thought in her mind - something unusual, some question she couldn't quite formulate.
It nagged at her mind, but she finally gave up on it. She was tired; she couldn't think clearly. She came to one of the treatment rooms and saw that it was empty. She went in, closed the door, and lay down on the examination couch.
She was almost instantly asleep.
15
In the lounge, Ellis watched himself on the 11-o'clock news. It was partly vanity and partly morbid curiosity that made him do it. Gerhard was also there, and Richards, and the cop Anders.
On the screen, Ellis squinted slightly into the camera as he answered the questions of a group of reporters.
Microphones were jammed up toward his face, but he seemed to himself calm. That pleased him. And he found his answers reasonable.
The reporters asked him about the operation, and he explained it briefly but clearly. Then one asked, "Why was this operation done?"
"The patient," Ellis answered, "suffers from intermittent attacks of violent behavior. He has organic brain disease - his brain is damaged. We are trying to fix that. We are trying to prevent violence."
No one could argue with that, he thought. Even McPherson would be pleased with it as a polite answer.
"Is that common, brain damage associated with violence?"
"We don't know how common it is," Ellis said. "We don't even know how common brain damage alone is. But our best estimates are that ten million Americans have obvious brain damage, and five million more have subtle brain damage."