Dirge (22 page)

Trembling, Tse was holding her face in her hands. Blood from a deep scratch had welled up to stain the upper right sleeve of her duty blouse. Settling in behind her, the medtech began to treat the wound.

Nadurovina had no time for niceties. “What happened?” Reaching forward, she grabbed the younger woman’s wrists and roughly pulled them away from her face. “Look at me, nurse!” Tse’s tear-stained face lifted to meet the psychiatrist’s.

“I…I don’t know. It just happened. One minute everything was fine. I was just clearing away the dinner tray when it happened.”

Nadurovina glanced in the direction of the room but was unable to see anything but surging, swirling bodies. If it was this confused and chaotic now, she reflected, what must it have been like ten minutes ago?

“When what happened? Talk to me, nurse. Was it…Did the Pitar…?”

“Pitar?” Blinking, Tse reached up and rubbed at her eyes with the unstained sleeve of her uniform. “What Pitar? There are no Pitar here.” Realization penetrated the younger woman’s understanding as Nadurovina heaved a vast sigh of relief. Despite every precaution, despite all the round-the-clock, state-of-the-art security, there was always the possibility, the fear, that if the aliens were guilty of Mallory’s charges or if they had simply taken a severe disliking to him they might somehow manage to get to him. Evidently they had not.

On the other hand, their apparent absence and lack of involvement in whatever had taken place in the hospital room meant they were still, in the eyes of uncommitted justice, as innocent as Dmis had claimed.

Tse was babbling quietly. “He just went crazy. One minute he was finishing the last of his ice cream and passing me the tray, smiling and happy, and then…” The slow shaking of her head was visible evidence of her disbelief. “It was like a bomb went off inside him.”

“Is he…all right?” With her initial concerns allayed, Nadurovina could afford to be more compassionate.

“I guess so. I don’t know.” The younger woman’s expression pleaded for understanding. “I tried to help, tried to calm him down, but it was like he couldn’t hear me. He started throwing things, breaking things.” As if still not believing it was there, she reached up to feel the cut the medtech had just finished bandaging. “I ran, both to protect myself and to get help.” She looked toward the room. “It’s been quiet for a little while, so I guess they got him calmed down. I hope…I hope they didn’t have to hurt him.”

“He’s had the best people the staff of this hospital can boast attending to him on permanent rotating duty.” The psychiatrist tried to sound reassuring. “I am certain he will be all right.”

“What do you think happened, Doctor?”

“I don’t know, either, Irene. But I can hazard a guess. He has experienced a delayed psychological reaction to the Pitar’s visit. You saw how calm he was in the alien’s presence. It was the last thing I would have expected, whether his story is true or not. Somehow he held it all in, kept perfect control of his reactions and emotions. Then I expect he tried to forget all about it. And he managed to do it—until his system could not take any more. When you told me it was like a bomb went off inside him you were probably closer to the truth than you realize.” She shook her head.

“People have this belief that fusionable material contains the most explosive type of energy.” Reaching up, she tapped her forehead. “Myself, I have always believed it was trapped in here.” Her expression somber, she knelt to face the shaken woman and put a comforting hand on the other’s knee. “If you would like to be relieved of this assignment, I will see to it that the order is cut.”

Tse swallowed and wiped at her eyes again. “No. I’ll stay on.”

Silently pleased, an admiring Nadurovina straightened. “Your devotion to your job is commendable. I will make sure that you are properly compensated for your dedication.”

Tse looked up at her. “I’m not staying on because I’m devoted to my job.”

Nadurovina hesitated only briefly. “Oh. So that is how it is.”

The younger woman nodded. “That’s how it is.”

The psychiatrist’s mouth tightened. “I don’t approve. It is not professional.”

Tse responded with an awkward, choking laugh. “You’re telling me. I didn’t plan it, you know. I had no idea anything like this would happen.”

“I am not sure that any of us ever do, dear.” The older woman sighed. “I won’t say anything. As long as it does not appear to be interfering with your professional duties, I will not raise any objections to your staying on.”

Reaching up, Tse took the other woman’s hand in hers and mustered the best smile she could. “Thank you.”

With a last nod, Nadurovina turned and pushed back into the crowd. This time she was held up by a guard, but from within the room Chimbu must have seen her because she heard his voice call out for her to be admitted.

The hospital room did indeed look as if a bomb had gone off within. Of the patient there was no sign.

“We moved him across the hall into fifty-two.” A weary Chimbu looked harried and strained. “Along with anything else that was worth moving. He’s sleeping now, under sedation.” Without further comment he indicated their surroundings.

The destruction was impressive, Nadurovina saw. Hard to believe one short, malnourished, sick patient still in the middle stages of recovery had been able to wreak so much havoc in so brief a span. Chimbu saw the question in her face.

“Nurse Tse called the medtech staff on duty immediately, but they hesitated to interfere out of concern he might seriously injure himself. It took the duty physician a few minutes to get here and issue orders. At that time the patient was still going strong. Five orderlies needed to coordinate their efforts to get him down long enough for one of them to administer a sedative. They finally made the decision to jump him when it looked like he was going to make a run for the window.”

Nadurovina glanced in the direction of the specially retrofitted safety glass. It was strong enough to stop an explosive shell. She found herself wondering if it would have been enough to thwart the crazed Mallory. The window was still closed. “What about self-inflicted damage?”

“Nothing too serious. Minor cuts and bruises. I’ve talked to Tse, and I think it’s pretty clear what set him off.”

The psychiatrist nodded. “I have also spoken with her.” As she conversed with the chief medical officer she scanned the room. Expensive instrumentation had been smashed, cables ripped from the walls and monitors, furniture crushed. Bent and twisted, a chair lay in one corner like a beached anemone. Even the bed coverings had been shredded. Bending to pick up a plastic cup, she saw that pieces had been chewed out of the rim. The tornado that had gone back to sleep in Alwyn Mallory’s brain had reawakened. Remembering the shaken, frightened nurse, Nadurovina was thankful no one had been hurt.

What would Mallory do when he began to come out of his sedative-induced sleep? By that time if the hospital staff had done its job properly a new set of monitoring equipment should be in place and operational. There was no guarantee the patient would not resume where he had left off, raging and destructive, endangering all those around him as well as himself. Tse’s intervention could be crucial, she knew. Steeling herself, she headed for the hallway to talk to the nurse.

Her considerable powers of persuasion were not required. Tse was anxious to return to Mallory’s side. She listened quietly to the older woman’s instructions, taking on that advice she thought useful and wordlessly ignoring the rest. By this time she felt she knew Alwyn Mallory better than anyone else. Ultimately, when he next awoke she was the one who would have to make the first, critical decisions.

In furniture, facilities, and layout room fifty-two was a mirror image of the one a berserking Mallory had wrecked. Under the influence of the powerful sedative he slept all through the rest of the day and on into the night. Tse dozed off beside him, unwilling to make use of the inflatable bed that had been provided for her. When she awoke, it was to find the first tendrils of daylight creeping through the window and the patient lying with eyes open, staring silently at her.

Surprised, she started slightly, relaxing only when he smiled.

“I was a bad boy, wasn’t I, nurse?”

“How are you feeling?”

Even before he could answer she was automatically checking the monitors alongside his bed. She knew they would read more or less normal. If anything serious had manifested itself during the night, doctors and other nurses would have attended to the problem, invariably waking her in the process. But she had to ask.

“Tired. A little sore.” Reaching up, he felt of the pellucid epidermal seal that had closed a cut on his forehead. “I don’t remember many details. Just a lot of noise.”

Her tone was quietly reproving. “That would have been you smashing up everything within reach in the other room.”

“Other room?” Raising up slightly, he scrutinized his new surroundings, noting the reversed layout and the altered view through the large window. “I don’t remember being moved.”

“They had to knock you out. It took five orderlies.”

“Five, eh?” He seemed perversely pleased. “I imagine this is going to go on my bill.”

Putting a hand over her mouth she covered the laugh she was unable to suppress. This was supposed to be a serious moment, one in which she admonished the invalid for his unacceptable actions and discussed with him how to prevent a recurrence. Instead, she found herself giggling and grinning at the irrepressible patient’s every other comment. Furthermore, she discovered that she didn’t give a damn about the reactions of those individuals whose attention might be fixed to distant peeping monitors.

“I have a feeling the government is picking up the cost of your stay.”

“Really?” Pushing down against the mattress, he sat up. “Maybe I’ll trash this one later. Yeah, one room a week. That would fit the way I’m feeling.”

Making an effort to be serious, she wagged a warning finger at him. “I’d think twice about that. Keep it up and you’ll be spending most of your time under sedation. You won’t be any good to anyone in that condition.”

His smile evaporated and he looked away from her. “Who gives a good goddamn?”

“I do,” she replied simply.

That brought his head back around. Outside, the equatorial sun was climbing rapidly, flooding the room with diffused but still sharply defining light. The window glass darkened slightly in response, moderating the illumination and temperature level in the room.

His tone was subdued, thankful. “I’d like to be able to say it was worth everything I went through just to hear those two words.”

She put a hand on his. “I don’t expect that kind of oblique praise, Alwyn. I don’t need it.”

“Then you believe me?” Despite his outward bravado, she could sense that veiled desperation underlined his words.

“I believe you,” she replied sympathetically, “but to convince others will require more than your word. Surely you can see their side. You can’t accuse an entire species of genocide and inconceivable acts without something more to back it up than the word of one man. Or even the words of a shipful. You mustn’t feel singled out.”

“But I do feel singled out,” he told her. “I
was
singled out. I survived. I’m the only one who survived. Why me? Why not someone with a better nature, or great artistic talent? Why not a composer or a writer, or a mother with three kids? I’m a cynical, misanthropic, short-tempered, semiretired son of a bitch. If there was any justice in this universe I’d have been one of the first to die.”

“That would have been a pity.”

His gaze narrowed slightly. “Yeah? Why?”

Her fingers tightened around his. “Because then we couldn’t be having this conversation.”

He stared at her for a moment longer. Then he began to cry. Not silently this time, nor in great racking sobs, but normally, the way any man would cry when overwhelmed by irresistible emotion. The very ordinariness of it was a profound relief to her.

He stopped so suddenly that she was alarmed.

“Alwyn, what is it, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” He wiped at his eyes almost angrily, as if trying to punish them for their betrayal of his fancied indifference. “I just remembered something.”

“Is it important?”

“I think so.” He was nodding slowly. “It’s proof.”

Nadurovina was not the first into the room. Rothenburg was faster. Chimbu followed behind, accompanied by an orderly. There were others who wanted to join them, but the chief medical officer had ruled against any more being present at any one time. Given the patient’s recent deranged outburst, the doctor did not want to do anything to make him feel pressured. That included crowding his space.

On the bed, Mallory was nodding wisely to himself. “This is about as much privacy as I thought I had.”

Rothenburg would not be denied. “You said you remembered proof. I heard you. I heard you distinctly. What kind of proof?”

Mallory eyed the intelligence officer unflinchingly. “You think I invented that story about the Pitar. You all think I’m nuts, that my mind is conjuring illusions to cover what I actually saw. That’s what that smiling Pitarian bastard you flew in to confront me with would like you to think, too.”

“Change our minds.” Ignoring the cautioning looks he was receiving from Nadurovina, Rothenburg challenged the other man openly. “Make us look stupid. Go on, do it! Shove the truth right in my face.”

Mallory held the Major’s eyes for a moment longer, then dropped his gaze and looked down at the bed. “I can’t. Not yet.”

An exasperated Nadurovina kept her voice level. “Why not? You said you had proof.”

“That’s the right tense, Colonel.
Had
is the operative word here.”

Rothenburg wanted to lurch forward, to shove the seated nurse away from the bed, reach down, and violently shake the infuriating man hiding beneath the covers until he made sense. “All right. You ‘had’ proof. What kind? It would have to be convincing beyond doubt.”

Mallory coolly met the officer’s angry glare. “How about a few hours of verifiable media-grade recording of the Pitar ravaging Treetrunk? Shooting down adults and children, razing buildings, stalking through the streets in body armor? Surgical teams carefully eviscerating women and preserving their internal organs?” His body had begun to tremble again, but his voice held steady. “How about it, Major? Would that constitute sufficient ‘proof’?”