Silent Treatment

The intense noise began to fade.

Time passed. A minute? An hour?

Then suddenly, the grate by Harry's facebegan to move. He opened his eyes and through a gray haze saw Perchek's fingerswrapped around the metal, thrusting upward in short bursts again and again.With the outflow closed, the rising water had floated him upward. His leveragewas poor, but he was easily powerful enough to move the grate aside. In just afew seconds he would be out. Battling the darkness and the pain, Harry forcedhimself to one elbow. Then, with agonizing slowness, he toppled over on to hisback, across the grate. Unable to move, he lay there, arms spread, as Perchek'sfingers tore frantically at his scalp and his neck, and pulled at his shirt.

'Corbett, get off! Get off!'

'Go … to … hell. .'

'Corbett

The Doctor's panicked words were cut off.His movements grew more feeble.

Harry felt the soothing coolness of waterwelling up around him, flowing out over the floor. The fingers clutching themetal beneath his head slipped away. Minutes passed. The water continued risingaround him, now touching his neck, now his ears.

All at once, the cacophony of machines andsteam stopped.

Dead, Harry thought. At last, I'mdead. . But so is Perchek, Ray. . So is The Doctor. .

A hand gently shook his shoulder. Hepeered up through the haze. The engineer knelt beside him — yellow hard hat,kind brown eyes behind protective glasses. .

'Are you crazy being down here like this,fella?' he said. 'Why, it's a wonder you didn't get yourself killed.'

Epilogue

September2

The block print on the single day calendardirectly opposite his bed was the first thing Harry saw when he opened hiseyes. September 2nd. Corbett Curse Plus One. He had been awake sometimeearlier and remembered being spoken to by nurses and doctors just before theytook him off the ventilator. But he recalled little else except that he had hadsurgery. He was going to be a cardiac patient for the rest of his life, perhapseven a cardiac cripple. But at least he had a rest of his life.

He was back in an ICU room, though not theone he had been in before. He had on an oxygen mask and was hooked up with theusual array of lines, wires, and tubes. But he felt remarkably well. Dr. CaroleZane was standing at his bedside.

'Take a deep breath, Dr. Corbett,' shesaid. 'You must take deep breaths.'

Harry had cared for enough of his patientsafter their coronary bypass surgeries to know that for two or three days, thepain from the sternum being split and wired back together, was intense. Still,deep lung-clearing breaths were essential. He did as his doctor asked. Therewas a sharp jab in his left side, but no discomfort in his sternum. None atall. He moved his legs. There was no pain in either of them. One of them had tohave been operated on to remove the vein for his bypass. He ran his hand overthe inside of his thighs. No bandages. Then he touched his chest. The skin overhis sternum was shaved, but intact.

'What's going on?' he asked.

'What do you mean?'

'The bypass — how did you do it without anincision here?'

She looked at him curiously, thenunderstood.

'Dr. Corbett, I'm afraid we might have gonea little too heavy on the anesthesia and pain meds. I've told you what happenedseveral times. You didn't have a bypass. And if your coronary arteriograms areany indication, you never will. Don't you remember seeing them?'

Harry shook his head. Carole Zane smiledher patient smile and turned to someone else in the room. Suddenly Mauraappeared beside her. She had a blackened left eye and small bandages by herbrow and on her cheek. But she still looked radiant.

'Hi, Doc,' she said. 'Remember me?'

'Hey, I think so. The one who saved mylife in the Winnebago, right? I'm glad you're okay.'

'Discharged early this morning. Tenstitches, but not much else. Harry, you didn't have a bypass operation. There'snothing wrong with your heart. Nothing at all.'

He stared up at her, confused.

'I don't understand. The pain, the EKG-'

She held up a clear plastic baggie. Insidewas a reddish brown spike, four inches long.

'They took this out of you, Harry,' shesaid. 'It's bamboo, so it never showed up on any X rays. It's been deep in yourback since the war, gradually working its way forward. The point was right upagainst the back side of your heart.'

'Once we saw the perfectly normalarteriograms we did a CT scan,' Carole Zane explained. 'And there it was.Taking it out was relatively easy.'

'So much for the curse,' Maura said.

'Except that being terminally dumb is acurse, too. So I still have one to worry about.'

'I spoke with your brother and with mine,too. Tom's at Atwater's place right now, and so is your lawyer. Tom saysthey've found a whole roomful of stuff from The Roundtable, including tapes andfinancial records.'

'Perchek has a place in Manhattansomewhere,' Harry said. 'I think that's where he keeps the disguises and IDbadges, and the poisons he used. If we can find that place, maybe we'll turn upthe Aramine he used on Evie.'

'Is this Perchek the man who killed thepoliceman in the elevator?' Dr. Zane asked.

'And the nurse.'

'No. Not the nurse. She spent most of thenight in surgery, but she's doing fairly well right now. I hear she's going tobe okay.'

'God, that's good news.'

'They found a man floating directlybeneath you in the power plant,' Zane said. 'Was that him?'

Harry nodded and smiled beneath his oxygenmask. He was thinking about Ray Santana.

'I think we'd better let him rest for awhile,' Zane said.

She squeezed his hand reassuringly,adjusted his monitor leads, and then left the room.

Maura lifted up the mask and kissed him onthe lips.

'Bamboo,' he said.

'Bamboo,' she echoed. She stroked his foreheadand kissed him again. 'Hey,' she exclaimed, 'Anybody ever tell you that youlook like Gene Hackman?'