Mindbend

“It may be impossible,” said Selma, “but Mr. Iseman’s bed is empty, and he’s nowhere in sight. I think that you’d better come down and see for yourselves.”

“That’s the patient that was operated on yesterday,” said Dr. Nachman. “Wasn’t he on a continuous Conformin drip?”

Without waiting for Mitchell’s answer, he hurried off downstairs. As they entered the ward, Selma gestured triumphantly toward the empty bed.

Dr. Mitchell picked up the IV line and looked at the catheter. It was still slowly dripping. “Well, he can’t be far.”

After exhausting all possible hiding places on the floor, Dr. Nachman and Dr. Mitchell tried the fetology floor, then the roof, and finally the garden.

“I think we’d better call out all the orderlies,” said Dr.

Nachman. “We have to find Iseman immediately.”

“This is incredible,” said Dr. Mitchell with disbelief.

“I’m surprised the man could even walk.”

“If we don’t find him right away,” asked Dr. Nachman,

“what would happen if we were to activate his implanted electrodes? Would that let us home in on him?”

Dr. Mitchell shrugged. “The patient has not started conditioning. If we activate him, the signals could cause either pain or pleasure but without any specific control on behavior. It could be dangerous.”

“Dangerous to whom?” asked Dr. Nachman. “The patient or people around him?”

“That I can’t answer,” admitted Dr. Mitchell.

“Well, that’s a worst-case scenario,” said Dr. Nachman. “I hope he’ll be found in short order. Maybe the dosage in his IV was wrong. In any case, let’s alert all the orderlies.

Tell them to carry full hypodermics of Conformin so that when he is found there’s no trouble.”

• • •

Adam was beginning to get desperate. There were plenty of cars in the parking lot opposite the main building, but no keys. Adam had assumed that with the tight security, people would be careless. But unfortunately, that was not the case.

He cursed himself again for his casual planning.

Not quite sure what he might find, he made his way down the secluded walk to the beach and over to the club. A handful of cars were in the parking lot behind the clubhouse, and Adam went from one to another without luck. Then he noticed a good-sized Ford truck parked at the delivery entrance.

The door was open and Adam swung himself into the cab. He started to search for the ignition, but before he could find it, an alarm went off with an ear-piercing wail. Adam fumbled for the door and leapt out in panic.

The club door opened and Adam ran around the building to the shelter of a stand of pines. The alarm was turned off, but the sound of approaching voices made Adam realize he would have to keep moving. Seeing the masts of the Hobie Cats, Adam raced to the beach and slid under the nearest one.

He could hear the men returning to the club. They had obviously decided it was a false alarm, but Adam knew he only had a few more hours before daylight to figure out how to get Alan out of the compound. He wondered if anyone had noticed the patient was missing.

• • •

Dr. Nachman’s face appeared more haggard than usual. His eyes seemed to have visibly sunk into their sockets.

“He has to be here,” said Dr. Mitchell.

“If he’s here, then he should have been found,” said Dr.

Nachman humorlessly.

“Perhaps he’s in the garden. It’s the only place left.”

“We have twenty orderlies searching,” snapped Dr. Nachman.

“If he were there, they would have found him by now.”

“He’ll be found,” said Mitchell, more to convince himself than anyone else. “Maybe we’ll have to wait until it gets light.”

“I’m wondering if he could have gotten out of the hospital,” said Dr. Nachman. “He’s not the kind of patient we’d like to have found on the outside.”

“He can’t have escaped, even if he’d wanted to,” said Dr.

Mitchell. “He couldn’t have opened the security doors. And besides, Ms. Parkman has been here. She said she definitely saw the patient when she made her earlier rounds.”

“She wasn’t here when she came up to the OR,” said Dr.

Nachman.

“But that was just for a few minutes,” said Selma. “And the two orderlies on duty said that everything was quiet.”

“I want the search extended to the main building,” said Dr. Nachman, ignoring Selma. “I’m beginning to fear that someone else is involved, someone with access to the ward. If that is the case, I think we should try to activate the patient’s electrodes. That might allow us to trace the man via the transmitter.”

“I don’t know if it will work,” said Dr. Mitchell. “We’ve never tried to activate from a distance.”

“Well, try it now,” ordered Dr. Nachman. “Also, call security and tell them that no one goes through the main gate.”

Dr. Mitchell went to the telephone and called Security.

Then he called the head of programming, Edgar Hofstra, telling him that there was an emergency and he was needed in the control room. Then he and Nachman went upstairs.