The Brig rose stiffly. He seemed to have aged ten years during the
night.
I am Doctor Edelman. Will you come with me please?
David rose to follow them, but the doctor paused and looked to the Brig.
I am her fiance, said David.
It might be best if we spoke alone first, General. Edelman was clearly
trying to pass a warning with his eyes, and the Brig nodded. Please,
David. But- David began, and the Brig squeezed his shoulder briefly,
the first gesture of affection that had ever passed between them.
Please, my boy, and David turned back to the hard bench.
In the tiny cubicle of his office Edelman hitched himself on to the
corner of the desk and lit a cigarette. His hands were long and slim as
a girl's, and he used the lighter with a surgeon's neat economical
movements.
You don't want it with a sugar coating, I imagine? He had appraised the
Brig carefully, and went on without waiting for a reply. Neither of
your daughter's eyes are damaged, but be held up a hand to forestall the
rising expression of relief on the Brig's lips, and turned to the
scanner on which hung a set of X-ray plates. He switched on the back
light.
The eyes were untouched, there is almost no damage to her facial
features, however, the damage is here he touched a hard frosty outline
in the smoky grey swirls and patterns of the X-ray plate, - that is a
steel fragment, a tiny steel fragment, almost certainly from a grenade.
It is no larger than the tip of a lead pencil. It entered the skull
through the outer edge of the right temple, severing the large vein
which accounted for the profuse haernorrhage, and it travelled obliquely
behind the eye-balls without touching them or any other vital tissue.
Then, however, it pierced the bony surrounds of the optic chiasma, he
traced the path of the fragment through Debra's head, and it seems to
have cut through the canal and severed the chiasma, before lodging in
the bone sponge beyond. Edelman drew heavily on the cigarette while he
looked for a reaction from the Brig.
There was none.
Do you understand the implications of this, General? he asked, and the
Brig shook his head wearily. The surgeon switched off the light of the
X-ray scanner, and returned to the desk. He pulled a scrap pad towards
the Brig and took a propelling pencil from his top pocket.
Boldly he sketched an optical chart, eyeballs, brain, and optical
nerves, as seen from above.
The optical nerves, one from each eye, run back into this narrow tunnel
of bone where they fuse, and then branch again to opposite lobes of the
brain The Brig nodded, and Edelman slashed the point of his pencil
through the point where the nerves fused.
Understanding began to show on the Brig's strained and tired features.
Blind? he asked, and Edelman nodded. Both eyes? 'I'm afraid so. The
Brig bowed his head and gently massaged his own eyes with thumb and
forefinger. He spoke again without looking at Edelman.
Permanently? he asked.
