Night Chills (15 page)

Dawson said, “Is there such a thing?”

“There is now. His mind is wildly turbulent at this point—yet in such a way that it doesn’t wake him up altogether. And it gets worse:”

“He was frightened awake at two thirty-seven, wasn’t he?” Dawson asked.

Salsbury said, “That’s right. Not wide awake. But beyond the first level of sleep, into alpha wave territory. You’re learning to read it now.”

Dawson let out his breath somewhat explosively, as if he had been holding it for the past minute. “He was a good man. May he rest in peace.”

“There at the end,” the general said, “there were five consecutive alpha wave readings. Does that mean he was fully awake for five minutes before he died?”

“Fully awake,” Salsbury said. “But not rational.”

“I thought you said he died in his sleep.”

“No. I said he died in bed.”

“What happened in those five minutes?”

“I’ll show you,” Salsbury said. He went to the nearest computer console and briefly used the keyboard.

All but two of the overhead scanners went dark. One of these was an ordinary television screen controlled by the computer on a closed-circuit arrangement. The other was a cathode-ray readout tube.

Getting up from the keyboard, Salsbury said, “The screen on the right will run a videotape of the last six minutes of Kingman’s life. The screen on the left will provide a synchronized read-out of some of his vital life signs, updating them every thirty seconds.”

Dawson and Klinger moved closer.

The right-hand screen flickered. A sharply focused black-and-white picture appeared on it: Brian Kingman lying atop his covers, on his back, twelve data-gathering patches cemented to his head and torso, wires trailing from the patches to two machines at the side of the bed. A sphygmomanometer was attached to his right arm and wired directly to the smaller of the machines. Kingman glistened with perspiration. He was trembling. Every few seconds one of his arms would jerk up defensively, or one of his legs would kick out at the air. In spite of this movement, his eyes were closed, and he was asleep.

“He’s in stage one now,” Salsbury said.

“Dreaming,” Dawson said.

“Obviously.”

At the top of the left-hand screen there was a digital clock that broke down the time count into hours, minutes, seconds, and tenths of seconds. On the soft green background below the clock, white computer-generated characters reported on four of Kingman’s most important life signs.

BK/OB REP 14, ONGOING, AS FOLLOWS:

“He’s still asleep,” Salsbury said. “But his respiration and pulse have picked up approximately twenty-five percent. He appears to be having a bad dream. His thrashing about gets worse in just a moment. He’s ready to come out of it now. Ready to wake up. Watch closely. There!”

On the black-and-white screen, Kingman suddenly drew up his knees, kicked out with both feet, drew up his knees again, and kept them drawn up, almost to his chest. He gripped his head with both hands, rolled his eyes, opened his mouth.

“He’s screaming now,” Salsbury said. “I’m sorry there’s no audio.”

“What’s he screaming at?” Dawson asked. “He’s awake now. The nightmare’s over.”

“Wait,” Salsbury said.

“His respiration and pulse are soaring,” Klinger said. Kingman screamed soundlessly.

“Look how his chest is heaving,” Dawson said. “Good God, his lungs will burst!”

Writhing continuously but a degree less violently than he had been a moment ago, Kingman began to chew on his lower lip. In seconds his chin was covered with blood.

“An epileptic seizure?” the general asked.

Salsbury said, “No.”

At 2:59, the left-hand screen began a new line print from the top of the tube:

On the black-and-white screen, Kingman convulsed and was almost perfectly still. His feet twitched, and his right hand opened and closed, opened and closed; but otherwise he was motionless. Even his eyes had stopped rolling; they were squeezed tightly shut.

The read-out screen went blank, then an instant later flashed an emergency message.

0200 59 12

MASSIVE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION MASSIVE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION

“Heart attack,” Salsbury said.

Kingman’s left arm was bent in a V across his chest and seemed to be paralyzed. His left hand was fisted and unmoving against his neck.

0300 00 00
PULSE IRREGULAR
RESPIRATION IRREGULAR

Kingman’s eyes were open now. He was staring at the ceiling.

“He’s screaming again,” Klinger said.

“Trying to scream,” Salsbury said. “I doubt if he could
manage more than a croak in his present state.”

0300 01 00
PULSE ERRATIC
RESPIRATION ERRATIC
EEG WAVES DETERIORATING TO DELTA

Kingman’s feet stopped kicking.

His right hand stopped opening and closing.

He stopped trying to scream.

“It’s over,” Salsbury said.

Simultaneously, the two screens went blank.

Brian Kingman had died again.

“But what killed him?” Dawson’s handsome face was the color of dusting powder. “The drug?”

“Not the drug,” Salsbury said. “Fear.”

Klinger returned to the autopsy table to have a look at the body. “Fear. I thought that’s what you were going to say.”

“Sudden, powerful fear can kill,” Salsbury said. “And in this case, that’s where all the evidence points. Of course, I’ll do a thorough autopsy. But I don’t believe I’ll find any physiological cause for the heart attack.”

Squeezing Salsbury’s shoulder, Dawson said, “Do you mean Brian realized, in his sleep, that we were on the verge of taking control of him? And that he was so terrified of being controlled that the thought killed him?”

“Something like that.”

“Then even if the drug works—the subliminals don’t.”

“Oh, they’ll work,” Salsbury said. “I’ve just got to refine the program.”

“Refine?”

“I’ll put it in lay terms as best I can. You see, to implant the key-lock subliminals, I’ve got to—to bore a hole through the id and the ego. Apparently, the first program was too crude. It didn’t just bore a hole. It shattered the id and ego altogether, or very nearly did. I’ve got to be more subtle the next time, preface the commands with some careful persuasion.” He pushed a wheeled instrument cart to the side of the autopsy table.

Not wholly satisfied with Salsbury’s explanation, Dawson said, “But what if you don’t refine it quite enough? What if the next test subject dies? It’s conceivable that one member of my personal staff might walk off his job, vanish without a trace. But two? Or three? Impossible!”

Salsbury opened a drawer in the cart. He took out a thick white linen towel and spread it across the top of the cart. “We won’t use anyone from your staff for the second test.”

“Where else are we going to get a test subject?”

Salsbury took surgical instruments, one at a time, from the drawer and lined them up on the linen. “I think the time has come to put together that corporation in Liechtenstein. Hire three mercenaries, give them sets of forged papers, and bring them here from Europe under their new names.”

“To this house?” Dawson asked.

“That’s right. We won’t need the walled estate in Germany or France for some time yet. We’ll give the drug to all three of them the first day they’re here. The second day, I’ll start the new key-lock program with one of them. If it works with him, if it doesn’t kill him, then I’ll use it on the other two. Eventually, we’ll be running the field test in this country. When the time comes for that, we’ll be happy to have two or three well-trained submissive men so close at hand.”

Scowling, Dawson said, “Hiring lawyers in Vaduz, establishing the corporation, buying the forged papers, hiring the mercenaries, bringing them here ... these are expenditures I didn’t want to make until we were certain the drug and subliminals will work as you say.”

“They will.”

“We aren’t yet
certain.”

Holding a scalpel to the light, studying the silhouette of its razored edge, Salsbury said, “I’m sure the money won’t come out of your pocket, Leonard. You’ll find some way to squeeze it from the corporation. ”