to describe a circle around you, focused on the spot where all the
trouble is. We are going to find out everything that's going on in that
pretty head of yours, I hope it doesn't shock you too much, doctor,
Debra told him, and he looked stunned for a moment, then let out a
delighted guffaw, and later David heard him repeating it to the sister
with gusto.
It was a long tedious business, and afterwards when they drove back to
the hotel, Debra leaned close to him and said, Let's go home, David.
Soon as we can? 'Soon as we can, he agreed.
David did not want it that way, but the Brig insisted on accompanying
David on his visit to Ruby Friedman the following morning. For one of
the very few times in his life David had lied to Debra, telling her he
was meeting with the Morgan Trust accountants, and he had left her in a
lime-green bikini lying beside the hotel swimming pool, brown and slim
and lovely in the sunlight.
Ruby Friedman was brusque and businesslike. He seated them opposite his
desk and came swiftly to the core of the business.
Gentlemen, he said. We have a problem, a hell of a problem. I am going
to show you the X-ray plates first to illustrate what I have to tell you
- Ruby swivelled his chair to the scanner and switched on the book-light
to bring the prints into high relief. On this side are the plates that
Edelman sent me from Jerusalem. You can see the grenade fragment. It
was stark and hard edged, a small triangular shard of steel lying in the
cloudy bone structure. And here you can see the track through, the
optic chiasma, the disruption and shattering of the bone is quite
evident. Edelman's original diagnosis, based on these plates, and on
the complete inability to define light or shape, seems to be confirmed.
The optic nerve is severed, and that's the end of it. Quickly he
unclipped the plates, and fitted others to the scanner. All right.
Now here are the second set of plates, taken yesterday.
Immediately notice how the grenade fragment has been consolidated and
encysted. The stark outline was softened by the new growth of bone
around it. That is good, and expected. But here in the channel of the
chiasma we find the growth of some sort that leaves itself open to a
number of interpretations. It could be scarring, the growth of bone
chips, or some other type of growth either benign or malignant. Ruby
arranged another set of plates upon the scanner. Finally, this is the
plate exposed by the technique of tomography, to establish the contours
of this excrescence. It seems to conform to the shape of the bony
channel of the chiasma, except here, Ruby touched a small half-round
notch which was cut into the upper edge of the growth, - this little
spot runs through the main axis of the skull, but is bent upwards in the
shape of an inverted U. It is just possible that this may be the most
significant discovery of our whole examination. Ruby switched off the
light of the scanner.
I don't understand any of this, the Brig's voice was sharp. He did not
like being bludgeoned by another man's special knowledge.
No, of course. Ruby was smooth. I am merely setting the background for
the explanations that will follow. He turned back to the desk, and his
