Part 21 (1/2)
”Me? I don't think so. You're s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g a patient. Another patient is AWOL and probably in danger if he's not already dead. And now this third-I can't even begin to imagine what's happened to her. But I do know one thing. You're not competent.”
”I can't quit. Where would I go?”
”David, I think last night was wonderful and I think we can be important to each other, and maybe this is the only chance for either of us to taste real love. But not if you screw the patients.”
He looked over at Caroline, who was painting steadily. Katie saw this, and drew away from him.
”Go play with your toy, then.” She stalked out.
”Katie!”
”I'll be in the infirmary with the injuries.”
When she was gone, Caroline said, ” 'Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and a man goeth to his long home-' Do you know it?”
”Of course I know it. It's from Ecclesiastes.”
”Did you know that the Bible is a scientific doc.u.ment?”
”I don't see that at all.”
”You're soul blind, therefore blind to soul science. You're afraid of yourself, David. The long home of Ecclesiastes is the shadow of the soul reaching back across time, looking at its life and its previous lives. You need to open to yourself, David.”
”I am, I'm remembering an enormous amount. I can even use Herbert Acton's lamp.”
She put down her brush, leaned closer and whispered to him, ”We need to try a very serious dose of the gold. Take an injection.”
”It's a heavy metal. You can't inject that.”
”What we make isn't a metal anymore at all, or even really connected to the physical world like other elements.”
”Gold is gold.”
”No, this starts with some of the ancient substance, so it becomes a hyperelement. In its pure form, it's so light that it levitates.”
”It's hardly ancient. You just made it.”
”We made it correctly, starting with a little of the ancient material, to light the path for the new gold.”
Her hands came like a fluid, and framed his face, and the love in her eyes was so intense and so naked that he felt embarra.s.sed for her and looked away.
”David, you have to face our love. You need its energy.”
Furious, he pulled away from her.
”G.o.dd.a.m.n it, shut up shut up! What fatuous nonsense.”
Lowering her eyes, she quietly returned to her easel.
He looked around the room at the milling patients. He had to control this situation first, but he had to get out of here, he could not bear another moment with this woman. He felt nothing and she felt a lot and it was just extremely disturbing.
”Patients are to go to their quarters now and remain in their rooms until the breakfast bell at seven,” he announced.
”Excuse me, Doctor, you're needed.” Ray Weller had come up to him.
He stood there in a dirty ap.r.o.n, Glen and Doctor Hunt with him.
”We need an emergency meeting,” Ray said. Then, more softly, ”We're in trouble. Big trouble.”
That was obvious, but why say it in the hearing of patients, even in a whisper?
”In my office in five minutes,” he said. Then he went to Claire, who was talking softly with a group of patients. ”Time to shut it down for the night,” he told her. ”We're going to have an administrative staff meeting. We'll all be in my office.”
Claire raised her voice. ”Okay, boys and girls, beddie bye.”
There were none of the usual groans and protests, David noted. People simply got up and began moving toward the door into the patient wing.
”This is a danger sign,” he said to Claire. ”They're in shock.”
”Yeah,” she replied.
”I want two people on the monitors tonight.”
”Doctor,” Glen said, ”the system's down, and it's not coming back until we can get a new motherboard.”
Without its computer system, this place was in its death throes, especially when it came to security.
He waited until the last patient had gone, leaving just Caroline. The only sound in the room now was the faint rustle of movement when she dipped a brush.
”You need to go,” he said.
”I can't stop and you know it.”
”You can't work in the middle of the night, alone.”
”Especially in the middle of the night, alone.”
Glen stood in the doorway. He nodded sharply, urging David to come. Obviously, there was an immediate problem and he could not stay here longer.
”Someone will take you to your room,” he told Caroline. He would send one of the orderlies down immediately. She must not be left alone, not ever.
He followed Glen up what had once been the servants' stairway at the back of the original house. They rose into the magnificence of the upstairs hallway, its elegance speaking of an orderly world that had entirely gone.
They arrived at his office to an uneasy murmur of voices. When he entered, silence fell.