Syndrome by Thomas Hoover (best ereader for pdf txt) 📕
"You picked a funny time to call."
Is that all she has to say? Four and a half frigging years she shuts me out of her life, blaming me, and then...
"Well, Ally, I figured there's gotta be a statute of limitations on being accused of something I didn't do. So I decided to take a flier that maybe four years and change was in the ballpark."
"Grant, do you know what time it is? This is Sunday and--"
"Hey, this is the hour you do your Sunday run, right? If memory serves. So I thought I might drive down and keep you company."
He didn't want to let her know that he was already there. That would seem presumptuous and probably tick her off even more. But by God he had to get to her.
Again there was a long pause. Like she was trying to collect and marshal her anger.
"You want to come to see me? Now? That's a heck of a--"
"Look, there's something really important I need to talk to you about. It's actua
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She threw the clothes into a blue gym bag and headed for the bathroom to fetch some toiletries. By the time she got back to the living room, Jennifer had a measuring cup and was shoveling Science Diet into a large plastic bag.
They delivered Jen and Knickers back to the office. After she gave them both a farewell hug, she came around and slipped into the Toyota’s driver’s seat, moving Stone across.
“I’m actually feeling better now, so I’ll drive as long as I can. And by the way, I’m famished. How about that turkey sandwich?”
“Thought you’d never remember.”
Five minutes later, they were headed up the West Side, with Ally at the wheel. She checked the gas and was relieved to see that she still had two-thirds of a tank. Stone was leaning back in the seat looking at her.
“You know, it’s easy for me to say, but trying the stem cell procedure on your heart is probably the right thing for you to do. Still, though, it makes me nervous. If there’s a medical glitch of some kind then… I mean, what the hell is going on with Kristen?”
“I’m going to confront him about that,” she said “I damned well want some answers before I just turn myself over to him.”
After they crossed the George Washington Bridge, she began feeling slightly better. Maybe, she thought, whatever it is is going to pass. As they headed north up the tree-shrouded highway, she decided to ask him a question that had been nagging at her mind.
“Stone, I know you hate to have these talks, but something about you doesn’t quite compute for me right now. There’s a kind of unnatural intensity about your pursuit of Winston Bartlett and his stem cell work. And the same goes for his reaction to you. Way back when, I never really thought I knew you, and it’s still true. I mean, is this all just about a book on stem cell technology? Or is it something more?”
The question was followed by a long moment of silence as he looked away, into the forest, and appeared to wrestle with his thoughts.
“You’re very intuitive, Ally,” he said at last “Maybe I didn’t consciously set out to write about stem cells just because I knew Bartlett’s Gerex Corporation was a leader in the field. But writing about stem cells automatically meant that I’d have to get close to him at some point. So was it an unconscious choice? If it was, then I wouldn’t be aware of it would I?”
“But why would you want to get close to Winston Bartlett?”
“I guess that was your original question, right?”
“Pretty much.”
“There are things about my past that I never told you. I could never decide exactly how to go about it. And truthfully, right now doesn’t seem exactly the right moment either. You’ve got enough on your mind”
“Want to give me a hint?” What could he mean? she wondered. It was clear that Stone Aimes and Winston Bartlett had some kind of holy war going on between them.
“I’ll tell you someday soon. But I want us both sitting down in a safe place when I do. It’s going to be hard.” He looked away again. “Someday soon I’ve got to tell my daughter, Amy, too. Maybe telling you would be a practice drill.”
“So what I’m learning is that I’m not crazy. This is about more than it’s about?” She sighed. “Nobody’s leveling with me. With Van de Vliet I have to worry whether he’s telling me the truth every time he opens his mouth. And now you’re holding out. It’s like that joke about feeling like a mushroom. Everybody keeps me in the dark and feeds me bullshit.” She was slowing down, pulling into an open space by the roadside. “Stone, I’m feeling a little dizzy. Maybe it’s this conversation, but I think it’s time you took the wheel for a while.”
“Hey, don’t pass out on me now,” he said, snapping into the moment. “I’m not sure I could actually find this place without your help.”
“Don’t worry,” she said, bringing the car to a stop. “I’m all right. I’m just a little worried about my reflexes.”
He got out and walked around, while she hoisted herself over into the other side.
The evening commute had begun in earnest, so there was a lot more traffic than there had been that morning. But Stone turned out to be an aggressive driver, right on the edge, as though he were racing the clock. She gave him directions and then closed her eyes, hoping to rest. But all she could think about was Stone’s refusal to tell her about something that loomed very large in his life.
“Tell me if I’m bothering you and I’ll shut up,” he interjected after a few minutes, “but-not to change the subject-did you actually give anybody permission to stick a needle in you this morning? I mean, are you sure you understood what was going on at the time?”
She shifted and opened her eyes, looking straight ahead.
“Truthfully, I assumed I was just giving a blood sample. That’s what his assistant said and I took her at her word. I hate needles and I never actually watch when I give blood. This morning I just sort of went along with what was happening. And nothing seemed particularly ominous till Katherine Starr showed up and started blasting away.”
“Well,” he said, “do your best to get some rest and I’ll try to get you there as soon as legally possible.”
She stared out the window a moment before closing her eyes again. Around them the encroaching greenery of northern New Jersey felt like an ancient forest where magical things could happen. Out here in the forest, was there a magician who had the power literally to save her life?
And what about Stone? Setting aside the troubling fact that he was harboring some mysterious connection to Winston Bartlett-and that was hard to set aside-she was feeling a sense of togetherness with him that brought back a lot of positive memories. Which was bizarre, because she knew so little about what kind of man he’d become. If people are worth their salt, they change a lot in their late twenties and early thirties. So what was he really like now? What did he love? What did he hate? What were his priorities? Did he believe in the Golden Rule?
Mulling over all this, she slowly drifted away….
Dusk was approaching by the time he pulled to a stop at the gated entrance of the Dorian Institute. Along the way he’d begun getting a sense that they were being followed by a dark-colored Lincoln Town Car, but it could have been his imagination. And he hadn’t seen it for the past fifteen minutes, after he pulled onto the leafy lakeside drive leading to the institute.
“Hey, we’re here, Ally. Rise and shine. How’re you feeling?”
There was no response when he touched her.
Wednesday, April 8
7:20 P.M.
“Jesus, Ally, are you all right?” He leaned over and shook her.
Finally she jumped, and then her eyelids fluttered open.
“Where… ?” She looked around.
“The sign says this is it. The institute.”
“Oh shit, Stone, I’m feeling really strange,” she said after a moment of getting her bearings. “Everything around me seems like it’s moving. It’s as though the space I’m in has an extra dimension. I don’t know… maybe it was totally stupid to come back out here. Maybe I should have just gone to my doctor in the city.”
“Hey, you’ve got a seriously deficient sense of timing. We’re here now. I’ve been breaking the speed limit for the last half hour.”
“I know. Shit. I really don’t know what to do. I don’t trust anybody.”
“Well, you could start by trusting me. I’m along to try to make sure nothing bad happens.” He paused. “So what do we do?”
A brass plaque on a redbrick pillar beside the gate bore a two-inch-high inscription, THE DORIAN INSTITUTE, and just below it was an intercom. She stared at it for a moment, then said, “There, give it a buzz. I think there’s a video camera around here somewhere. Last time I was here, they knew I’d arrived.”
He reached out and touched a black button.
“Yes,” came back a quick voice. She recognized it as belonging to the woman she’d spoken to on the phone.
“It’s Alexa Hampton.” She leaned over. “We talked—”
“Yes, I know, Ms. Hampton. He’s been waiting for you.”
A buzzer sounded and the two wrought-iron gates slid back, welcoming them. As they drove down the tree-lined road, an elegant three-story redbrick structure with white Doric columns across the front slowly came into view.
“From here, it’s pretty classy-looking,” Stone declared, sizing it up. “I know his big manufacturing-and-research campus is right down the road. But still, it sure feels godforsaken and lost out here in the middle of these pines. It’s like the place is hiding from the world.”
“Where better to do secret medical research,” she said. “If you want to keep everything proprietary, then the isolation gives you a big jump on security.”
She directed him to the side parking lot, where she’d left her car that morning.
“Stone, here’s what we’ll tell them. You’re next of kin, a cousin on my mother’s side.”
“Works for me,” he declared. “I’m beginning to feel part of the family anyway.” He pocketed the car keys and helped her out of the Toyota.
As they headed up the wide steps, past the white columns, Ally felt a wave of nausea sweep through her. She reached out and took Stone’s arm and sank against him.
“I’m… I’m not feeling at all well. Please let me hold—”
No sooner had she said it than the front door opened and two nurses appeared, their hair backlit from the glow of the reception area. She recognized one as Ellen O’Hara.
“Here, dear, let us help you,” she said as she strode toward them. She was dressed in white and her eyes were flooded with concern. Ally looked through the doorway to see a waiting wheelchair.
“That’s fast,” Stone said. “Looks like they were ready for you.”
My God, she thought, did they already know what kind of shape I’d be in? What else do they know? Surely Van de Vliet has heard by now that I’m aware of Kristen.
Then she saw him standing behind the nurses.
“Alexa, we need to get you downstairs as soon as possible.” He was coming forward to help her settle into the wheelchair. He appeared to take no notice of Stone Aimes.
“I’m just feeling a little dizzy.”
He smiled reassuringly. “There’s always a small percentage chance that there may be side effects from the initial inoculation.”
Huh?
“What ‘initial inoculation’?” She bolted upright in the wheelchair. “I was just supposed to be giving blood.”
“I thought Debra explained,” he said, appearing confused. “There’s always an initial… antibiotic dosage, just as a prophylactic.” He shook his head in self-blame. “I should have insisted you stay here, but after that… incident this morning I was so disoriented I let you talk me out of it. You may be having a reaction to the antibiotic, but it can’t be all that serious. I didn’t see anything about side effects in your file. We just have to get you horizontal for a while. Everything’s going to be all right. In fact, this might be a positive development. With you here now, we can begin fine-tuning your procedure immediately.”
“Dr. Van de Vliet, this is my cousin Stone. He drove me here and I’d—”
“I’d really like to stay,” Stone said reaching to shake Van de Vliet’s hand. “It would mean a lot to both of us. To the whole family.”
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