had learned of tetrodotoxin and the ways of reducing or reversing its toxicity. Depending on the dose they absorbed, they still had an hour or two before the effects of the drug began, and as much as a day before they would be helpless. If they could get free, they n-light have a chance.
Get calm, he begged himself. If you ever needed to be alert and focus in, you need to now. If you don't, you're going to die.
He turned to Anna, but before he could speak, a broad band of adhesive tape was pulled tightly across his mouth. Then the cloth that had been used as his gag was pulled over his eyes and tied briefly. For perhaps twenty minutes or half an hour he sat that way. The only sound he heard was Anna's labored breathing. Are we alone? Have we been left to die?
Carefully, he began once again to test the bonds on his arms.
'Don't bother, man,' the tall man mid from nearby. 'You're out of here now.'
With that, Eric's hands were cut free and relied behind his back.
Then his ankle ropes were severed and he was pulled roughly to his feet.
'Nod goodbye to your foxy friend, Mr. Doctor.
We're not too interested in what happens to you anymore- But we've got some high ol' times in store for her. Yes, sir, some high ol'times.'
The two men dragged him out the back way, tied his ankles together again, checked to be sure his Pockets were empty, and then shoved him onto the metal floor of a van that smelled as if it had been used for hauling rotten fish. For the next half-hour or more, they drove.
Initially, Eric tried to make some sense of the turns and straightaways, but he quickly gave up.
At last the truck jounced onto what seemed to be a dirt road and stopped, its engine still running. Eric was pulled from the back and thrown to the ground.
The bonds on his ankles were cut, but his gag and blindfold were left on, and his hands left tied behind his back.
'Just stand right there, man. Listen carefully, and don't move.
There's a nice sharp knife lying on the ground about four feet away from you. I won't tell you where. Wait until you can't hear this truck engine no more, and then go for it. could use that knife to cut your throat, Mr. Bigshot Doctor, but we're not to. You know why?
Because, man, we really don't give a shit about you. We've got the one we want.
She's business. You're sport. And whether you make it or you don't, the disbe eyers get the message we want to send.' He will Eric heard the two men laughing as they jumped into the van. It sprayed sand and gravel on him as it roared away. Moments later, the night was silent as a tomb. working blind, Eric spent what seemed an eternity finding the small folding knife, and longer still positioning it to saw through the clothesline binding his wrists. During the process he cut himself at least half a dozen times. Finally he shook his arms free. He ripped the blindfold from his eyes and the tape from his mouth, and used them to stem some of the bleeding from his hands and wrists.
He was on a dark, wooded dirt road, with no sign of a house in any direction. The cool early-morning air smelled and tasted like country.
Eric felt himself still on the edge of panic, but he was steadied a bit by the realization that at least he was no longer helpless. If the only drug on his face was tetrodotoxin, someone somewhere had to know of a way to blunt or negate its effect. The key for him now was clear thinking and aggressive action.
He knew that a paved road was not far off, and he was fairly sure of the direction the van had taken. to increase his circulation too much by running, he strode quickly that way. In less than five minutes he was walking down a deserted, two-lane country highway. He sensed that he was north of the city, but it was only a guess.
Through some trees, around a curve in the road, he could make out a dim light and a structure of some sort. He cut across the woods and found himself standing beside a small Mobile station, which was darkened for the night but obviously in current use.
There was no sign on the building that gave even a clue as to where he was. Eric scanned the narrow buildings. He peered in the window, looking for a metal desk, he spied something he needed even more at that moment envelope.
Above the desk, an STP wall clock told him that it was 2:15.
Perhaps two hours had passed since he and Anna were poisoned. He felt desperate to get the death powder off his face.
In the weeds alongside the building he found a brick. As he stood poised before the window, he noticed the thin, metallic strip of a security system. it was just as well, he thought. With any luck he could get at the envelope and summon the police with the same maneuver.
He stepped back a pace and hurled the back with all his strength. The spectacular implosion of glass was accompanied instantly by the wailing of a siren. Eric kicked away a few large shards and stepped into the office.
He grabbed the envelope and hurried to the restroom. Trying to ignore the bloody apparition in the mirror, he carefully used the small knife to scrape as much of the powder as possible from his cheek into the envelope. When he felt certain that Ivor Blunt could make an identification from a fraction of what he had saved, he scrubbed his face with soap, rinsed it, and then scrubbed it again. Still, with his eyes lost in dark hollows and his lower lip split and stiff with clotted blood, he looked very much like precisely what he was at that moment-a man who was dying.
The pay phone behind the desk required a quarter even to get a dial tone. If the wailing alarm wasn't somehow connected to the police, Eric knew there was no telling how much time he would lose waiting for someone to respond. He searched the top of the desk for a coin, but succeeded only in learning from several bills that he was in Bob Kuyper's Country Mobile in Wayland-a rural community twenty miles or so west of Boston. He huddled over the desk, using his knife to work on the lock.
'Okay, asshole, get on the floor!'
The harsh voice, from not ten feet away, drove Eric's heart into his throat. His service revolver leveled, a rugged young officer stepped through the shattered window and motioned Eric away from the desk.
Behind the policeman Eric could see a second officer, undoubtedly this man's backup.
'Wait, officer, please. I'm not a thief, I'm a doctor and-'
'Shut the fuck up and get face down!'
The man, younger than Eric, seemed quite tough but also a bit nervous.
Eric knelt in a spot away from the broken glass and then prostrated himself on the oily floor. The policeman circled him warily, finally positioning himself against a wall, safe from any attack from behind.
'Please listen to me,' Eric begged. 'It's a matter of LIFE and death, believe me it is.'
'Put your hands behind you!'
'You've got to-'
'Do it!'
Eric did as he was ordered. The policeman knelt roughly against the small of his back and expertly snapped a pair of handcuffs into place.
Pain from the knife cuts seared up Eric's arms.
'He's cuffed, Sarge,' the man called out.
'Keep him there,' the other Man responded. 'I'm going to check around out here.' The policeman stood up.
'Okay, then,' he said. 'I'm Officer Carney. That's Sergeant Clarkson out there. You're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent-'
'Please, please,' Eric begged. 'I know all that. I waive all my rights. You've got to listen to me.', 'Sit up. Slowly.'
Eric did as he was told.
'Will you listen to me now?' he asked.
The young policeman nodded. For the next three minutes he listened without saying a word. Then he helped Eric to his feet and crunched across the shattered glass to what was once the plate-glass window.
'Hey, Sarge,' he called out. 'I think you'd better get on in here.'
West Valley Regional Hospital was a tiny, fairly new facility located about five miles from the station house
