“Please keep reading, young man, if you don’t mind.”
As the jet sped on, its old engines blaring, its airframe shuddering, he returned to the document.
“The beginning of reentry was first detected as an increase in cosmic background radiation by Dimitriev in 1997. Then, precisely on December 21, 2012, as the Mayan Long Count calendar suggested, an unusual spike took place. Since then, the density of the field has continued to grow, and all indications are that this will continue, possibly for thousands of years, with unknown consequences. In fact, the solar system is headed directly into the center of the cloud. In a very short time, we will begin to actually see the core of the exploded star, and it will be flooding Earth with radiation.”
This last paragraph had changed his opinion of the document. In fact, he was eager now to know more and flipped the page—and sat staring at the back of the folder.
Mrs. Denman took it from his hands.
“Let me ask you this, David. Do you recall Herbert Acton? Bartholomew Light?”
“I want to know more about this document. Because if this last part is confirmed—”
“It’s confirmed. Please answer my question.”
“Who confirmed it? How?”
“The way you give me the space I need to address that is to answer my question.”
“I know who Mr. Acton is, certainly.”
“But you recall nothing else? No childhood memories?”
“Of Herbert Acton? Mrs. Denman, I was born in 1984. He’d been dead for—what? thirty years or more.”
“Charles Light, Bartholomew’s son?”
David was mystified. “No, I don’t remember him. Should I?”
She reached over and touched his face, drawing her fingers along his cheek. It was an oddly suggestive sort of a thing to do, and David was embarrassed.
“As far as you’re concerned, you were never at the home of Herbert Acton?”
“No.”
She regarded him. “No memory at all?”
He shook his head.
A small, sad smile came into her eyes.
“There were thirty-three families, all associated with Herbert Acton in one way or another. Your family was one of them.”
“My family?”
“Your great-grandfather sold Herbert Acton the land the estate is built on. That connects you.”
“A very tenuous connection.”
“You remember nothing of your childhood?”
“I remember my childhood perfectly well. I was raised in Bethesda. My father was a GP. He was a good doctor and I’ve been trying to be the same.”
“But you don’t remember Charles Light? Or the class? Or Caroline Light?”
“Absolutely not.”
She smiled. “You will meet Caroline, and when you do, I’m sure it’ll all come back to you. In any case, you were hired because it’s time, and you’ve been carefully prepared.”
He absorbed this last and most mysterious statement. When she had originally interviewed him, she had a list of obviously professionally written questions about medical qualifications. Frankly, she could have gotten them from any hospital personnel department, or even a book. He had thought her interview technique a poor one and had doubted her qualifications to select a physician provider for any decent sort of mental health facility. Now he really doubted those qualifications.
He’d also had the sense that his answers didn’t matter to her, and even that she didn’t understand his discussions of patient evaluation methodologies, the uses of the
No matter this document, whatever it might actually mean, he had no intention of proceeding if anything other than his professional qualifications had gone into his hiring. It was already a sticking point that she’d come to Manhattan Central and found him, even though he wasn’t looking for work. First in his class at Johns Hopkins had been the stated reason.
“If you didn’t hire me on my medical qualifications—”
“You have magnificent qualifications.”
“Who is Caroline Light? What class?”
“Doctor, you will remember.”
“No. I need to know right now or we need to turn around and go back to New York.”
“You have nothing to go back to. You’ve resigned.”
That was true enough. For everyone working just now, there were fifty ready to take his job, and his position at Manhattan Central had no doubt been filled within hours of his leaving.
“What class?”
“You were in a class as a child. On the Acton estate.”
“That’s impossible.”
“That’s what you say now, but you’ll remember.”
“Why would I forget?”
“Because if you had not been made to forget, you might have revealed something about an extremely sensitive matter. Any of you.”
“
“The class!”
“I don’t remember this class, Mrs. Denman, so I need you to explain it, please.”
“David, the class is now assembled at the clinic. They will appear to be patients.”
“
“David, when you’re at the clinic, you’ll remember more on your own, and there will be somebody coming soon who’ll help you remember everything.”
If there was one thing he could not handle and had never been able to handle, it was helplessness. He needed to be in control of his life, and that was at the core of his willingness to take this job. He wouldn’t be under control of a hospital administration, he would control one—or so he had thought.
“This is an outrage.”
“Yes, it is, David. I admit it. You were always the only candidate for the job.”
He could not turn back, that was clear. He did not relish ending up on the street just now. The world was starving and there was no recourse. Professionals were clawing for food alongside beggars.
“You’ve lied to me. In effect, kidnapped me.”
“And who’re you gonna call? The FBI?”
He waved the report. “I hope I’m not expected to deal with supply problems and survival issues, because this looks like a horrific disaster. Something way beyond the Acton Clinic.”
“You have been trained to navigate us through this. You are uniquely qualified.”
“I’ve had one class in disaster management. I treat psychiatric disease.”
“You will remember. Trust me on that.”
“Trust
“You must understand—”
“I don’t understand a thing!”
“Shut up, boy!”
“I will not shut up! I don’t understand and I need to understand because you’re dropping me into an incredibly challenging situation and at the same time telling me that I’ve somehow forgotten all the damn rules. Come on!”
The jet shuddered.
“Oh, God,” she said. “I loathe air travel.”
“It’s starting to land, that’s all. What am I supposed to remember?”
“David, let’s please just get through the landing!”
