patients. You see, we've been very, very careful about that sort of thing. Now then, what else do you have to tell me?' He slipped on the rubber gloves. 'Amazing stuff, this,' he went on. 'Active if taken orally, active if just rubbed on the skin. Absolutely amazing.'
'Is that what you fed to the Colsons?'
Barber stopped momentarily. Then he smiled and shook his head.
'No good. Content decent, delivery poor. You found their remains somewhere out there in the desert, and now you're pissing into the wind and hoping you won't get soaked.' He withdrew a small spatulaful of the powder from the vial, moistened three of his gloved fingertips, and carefully spread the powder on them. 'Better try something else.'
'I'm telling you,' Nelson said, desperately clinging to his crumbling facade of control, 'too many people know. They know about you, about Donald Devine, about the little room in Devine's basement, everything.
The physician brushed the glove close to Nelson's face. Bernard closed his eyes and instinctively pulled his head away.
'I listen to you, and I still hear bluff,' Barber said.
'You had better come up with something more pithy, or, I promise you, you're in for a long-or perhaps I should say a short-afternoon.'
He glanced at his watch. 'Time's run out, Mr. Nelson. Either you have shot your wad and you don't know anything more about us, or you're not taking me seriously enough.
'Well, sir, let me tell you how this stuff works. I'm primarily a research PhD but as I said, I am an M. D. as well, and a very well trained one at that, so I know what I'm talking about At this dose, you will have about, oh, one or two hours before the air you're breathing starts to feel like molasses. After that, it's just a matter of time. Your arms and legs will go numb, and your guts will stop moving. You'll start coughing your lungs out.
Finally, your heart will slow to the point where your blood's hardly moving at all. The only thing that will be working is your brain, and that will keep working right up until near the very end. At that point, if I want to keep you around for, say, a little work in our cornfield, I can stop the process and start you on the tranquilizers we usehat is, if you even require them. Otherwise, I'll just get you a mirror and let you watch yourself terminate. Sound okay?'
'Give it up, Barber,' Nelson said. But he heard the fear in his voice, and could tell that the madman holding him could hear it too.
It was all happening too fast. He hadn't expected it to be this way.
There has to be something I can do… anything.
'Suit yourself,' Barber said.
'Yes?'
'Okay. Okay, you're right I don't know what's going on here or who- is involved beyond Donald Devine.'
'That's better, Mr. Nelson. Much better.'
'But people do know where I am.'
'As I said, we can deal with that.'
'Perhaps you can, but then again, perhaps not.
Listen to me, please. If the work you're doing here is as important as you say, I'm sure you don't want to jeopardize it. I've got friend important friends-in politics and on the police force. Tell me what's going on here and what you're doing. If you can help me understand what's at stake, I'll do everything I can to get the right people to understand.'
Barber continued pacing as he thought about the proposal. Then, quite suddenly, he kicked a folding chair close to Bernard and sat down, resting his gloved hand palm up in his lap.
'Mr. Nelson, every day thousands of people are dying unnecessarily from dozens of so-called incurable diseases-diseases like hepatitis, influenza, encephalitis, and many forms of cancer. And of course we both know that the world is on the brink of an epidemic that, in just a few years, will make the horror of the black plague seem like a cartoon. detective, what you've stumbled into here is a project which, at this moment, is this close to having an answer.'
He held up his thumb and forefinger for emphasis.
'What do you mean?'
'I mean a universal antiviral antibiotic, that's what I mean. The ultimate cure!' He nearly shouted the words, then deflated noticeably when he saw the lack of comprehension on Bernard's face.
'I'm sorry if I look confused,' Bernard said, trying not to glance at the man's hand. 'I always thought penicillin was a pretty decent antibiotic.'
Barber groaned his impatience.
'Pearls before swine,' he muttered. 'First. of all, penicillin is effective only against bacteria not viruses.
And second of all, like the dozens of other antibacterial drugs on the market, it's useless against most organisms because they become resistant about as fast as you can get the stuff home from the pharmacy.
Our drug not only kills the little beasties, but changes in the body as fast as they do. Ergo, no resistance. It will save millions of lives.'
And be worth hundreds of millions to you, Nelson thought. He tried to appear impressed with what he was hearing, but he couldn't shake the sinking feeling that Barber was prolonging this purely out of boredom and the need to assure himself of his own importance.
In the end, nothing Bernard could say or do was going to move the man one iota.
'Tell me more,' he said.
Barber smiled and stood up, shaking his head.
'I think not, Mr. Nelson,' he sang, moistening his lips with his tongue. 'I think not.'
'Please, wait,' Bernard said, gquinning in his seat. 'I have some questions I'd like to ask you ah-'
'I had hoped you'd be a little more intellectually stimulating, being from Boston and all. I don't mind telling you, you're a great disappointment in that regard. A great disappointment, sir, I suppose you win simply have to find another way to amuse and educate me.'
'Don't do it, Barber. Please listen to me-'
'This dose is roughly ten times what your friends the Colsons received. will it work ten times as fast?
Will it work the same way? Will Little Nell find true happiness? will E continue to equal MC squared?'
Continuing a stream of nonsense questions, Barber reached out, grabbed Bernard's hair viciously with one hand, and meticulously smoothed the damp powder across both his cheeks with the other. At the man's touch, Bernard felt his heart stop, and truly believed it was going to end for him right there.
Moments later, it began to beat again.
'Whether or not i'm here to see it, you're through, Barber,' he rasped.
'Will the South rise-again?' the man went on in his chilling, singsong voice. 'will there be peace in the valley someday?'
He turned, scooped up the strongbox, and left the room.
Gripped by fear unlike any he had ever known, Bernard first tried to rub his cheek against his shoulder. Then he hurled himself to the floor, attempting to scrape the powder off on the linoleum.
Some of the poison did come off, but he knew it was not nearly enough.
For a time, he could only lie there, silently praying that Barber's performance was a ruse-his version of the hideous charade that had been played with Eric Najarian. But as minutes passed and he began to feel a heaviness settling into his chest, he knew better.
'I'm sorry. Maggie,' he said softly. 'I'm sorry for being so damn stupid.'
He struggled to his feet, threw himself on the bed, and rubbed what more he could from his cheeks onto the cotton blanket. Finally, totally winded by his efforts, he stopped.
'I'm so damn sorry,' he said again.
Helpless now, Bernard closed his eyes, listened to the pounding of his heart in his ears, and waited.
Carrying Donald Devine's ledgers, Eric entered White Memorial through a little-used side door, and took the subbasement tunnel and back staircase to Haven Darden's lab. Tucked carefully in the pocket of his jeans was the loaded syringe. As the medical chief had promised, the entire floor was deserted. Through the darkness of the lab Eric could see light spilling from Darden's inner office.
He paused by the outer door, trying to solidify his composure and his resolve. He thought about Scott Enders
