Shockball (25 page)

“Patcher, I don’t understand.” He showed me one of the charts. “You put here the fractures were caused by muscle contractions. Bones cannot be broken by muscles.”

“Sure, they can.” I counted my syrinpresses and frowned; one was gone. “Alternating current passing through the body cycles, and with each cycle, the muscles contract. If you’ve got voltage higher than one kilowatt, and sufficient duration, the jolts can fracture every bone in your body. We won’t even discuss distal soft-tissue ischemia, entry- and exit-point thermal injuries, spinal cord damage, rhabdomyolysis, myoglobi-nuria, cardiac and pulmonary arrest. Both your players were hit five or six times, and at least once with maximum jolts.”

“I see.” Looking even more bewildered, he went back to studying the charts.

Reever looked interested, too. “It sounds as if they were almost electrocuted.”

“They almost were.” I recalled Reever hadn’t spent much time on Terra. “These players were all penalized during the game. The sphere they use to score points is controlled by a computer system, which monitors the plays. Whoever commits an illegal motion while in contact with it triggers the computer to register a penalty. The player then gets a nice, automatic bio-electrical shock.”

“It sounds barbaric.”

“Yeah, but it packs the arenas, I’m told.”

“I was at the game,” Hawk said suddenly. “I saw what happened to them. They knew what they were doing.”

“Which makes them idiots, as well as injured,” I said. Hawk shrugged. “The Night Horse won.” Damn men and their damn stupid games. “The Night Horse are going to end up crispy little piles of ash if they keep getting that many penalties per man.”

“I will so inform the chief,” Hawk said, then departed without another word.

Two weeks passed without incident, during which I got a lot of work done. I continued follow-up maintenance on the hybrid players, finished the last of the antibiotic therapy with the outcasts, and even got Juliet fattened up a bit.

I also spent considerable time trying to figure out how to get out of
Leyaneyaniteh
. Kegide willingly escorted me around the outer tunnels, but he refused to disarm any other traps or proximity fields. He didn’t understand any of my arguments as to why he should help me and Reever escape, so there was nothing I could do about that.

Joseph had intensified his efforts to find us, and we often heard distant, muffled sounds of glidetrucks taking off and landing on the surface. The village had been searched again, according to Hawk, and this time the inhabitants questioned at length.

I couldn’t worry about Joe. My immediate problem was Reever’s kidney, which had now completely shut down. The dialysis rig was proving only about eighty-percent effective, so he became more tired and weaker as the days passed. The toxic buildup in his blood was inevitable. So was the end of my patience.

“If I could just take you to an organ transplant center for a couple of hours, I could fix this.” I sat down by the table where he lay quietly watching the machine finish its three-hour cycle. It was late, but I preferred to do his dialysis at night, while the tribe slept, so we wouldn’t be interrupted. “A donor bank, a surgical suite, and a nurse. That’s all I’d need.”

“Don’t get upset. You’ve done all you can.”

I laughed, once. “Oh, sure. I’m the creation of the man who pioneered organ transplantation research in this century, and I can’t… even— Wait a minute.” I got up and looked at the vault of stone above us. “The lab. All we have to do is get on the subway and go back to the lab.”

“You want to go back to The Grey Veils?”

“Yeah.” To save his life, I had to do something he’d never agree to. Which meant inventing a cover plan he’d buy. “I must be brain dead, why didn’t I think of it before? Joe has an entire wall of cloned organs, growing on artificial scaffolds.”

“He may not have one that is a tissue match.” He’d picked up a little
too
much medical knowledge, hanging around me. “No problem. I’ll just get the equipment I need and bring it back here so I can clone one for you myself.”

“Do you believe the Night Horse chief or your creator will allow you to access the facility and help yourself?”

“I don’t tell Rico, and we don’t let Joe catch us. I can get us into the mansion undetected, and get what I need.” He didn’t know I could never transport all the tech necessary to clone his kidney, even with ten subway systems running. “All I have to do is convince Kegide to guide us back there.”

“You don’t need Kegide.” Reever sat up as I disconnected his leg shunt from the machine. “The outcasts will do it.”

“How do you know they can? Or will?” He gave me a mild look. “They told me all the Night Horse know how to operate the subway. They are also very grateful for what you’ve done for them.”

“Then by all means, let’s capitalize on their gratitude.”

Reever was weaker than I thought, and had to lean on me to make it the last hundred yards into the sewer pipe. Before we reached the shack, one of the men came out.

“We heard your footsteps.” He stared at Reever. “
Nilch’i’
, you are ill. What is wrong?”

“
Nilch’i’
needs help,” I said, and explained the situation.

The outcast stroked his chin. “If the chief discovers we have done this, he will kill us all.”

“Then we’d better be quiet, and hurry, don’t you think?”

The man disappeared into the shack without another word. Just as I was getting ready to give up hope, he emerged with three more men and a makeshift litter.

“Put him on here. We will carry him for you.”

I helped Reever stretch out, and wrapped a blanket one of the men handed me around him. “I need to get into the underground research facility, where Rico found us. Can you take us on the subway, and guide us there?”

“Yes. But you must return to the tunnels before morning comes.”

“I can do that.” I was starting to believe my own story.

The outcasts carried Reever through the sewer system up to the subway platform. From there, only two of the men went with us on the old transport. We had to travel nearly an hour before we reached the sewer system beneath my creator’s estate.

The men carried Reever to the same access panel Milass had brought us through, and helped me get him in. I refused to let them accompany us inside.

“Is there another place you and the other hybrids can go to, where Rico won’t find you?”

The outcasts nodded. “You are not coming back, are you?”

I couldn’t keep them in the dark any longer. “No. He’ll die without this surgery tonight. I’m sorry.”

The hybrid smiled slightly. “You lie for him, not yourself. We will make ourselves safe. Walk the rainbow, patcher.”

I figured Joseph hadn’t reprogrammed the lab and maintenance drones to deal with me voluntarily returning to the facility, so when the first one approached, I tried using the old medical priority access command imperative.

“Unable to comply. That command series has been deleted.”

Well, he’d been smart enough to figure out how I’d overridden the system the last time. I was prepared for that, though, and squeezed Reever’s arm.

“Emergency surgical procedure, initiate assistance to surgeon Dr. Cherijo. This file supersedes all contradictory submenu commands,” he said, exactly the way we’d rehearsed it.

“Identify for voice analysis.”

I’d scored another point; Joseph hadn’t bothered to create a voice-print file for Reever in the facility database.

“Identity: Duncan Reever, chief of Surgical Services, New Angeles Medical Center.”

What Reever had done was make himself, in essence, my creator’s old boss. The old hospital hierarchy files kicked in, and the drone responded exactly as I’d hoped.

“Thank you, Dr. Reever. Emergency surgical procedure file does not exist. Create, or cancel?”

“Create.”

The drones were now under Reever’s complete voice control.

“Emergency surgical procedure new directive: All commands issued by Dr. Cherijo equal commands issued by Dr. Reever. Supersede all contradictory submenu command directives and acknowledge.”

“New directive acknowledged.”

At last I could say something. “Prepare for organ transplantation procedure in Development and Engineering.” Reever started to sag, and I tucked his arm over my shoulders. “Move your rollers!”

I managed to support most of his weight and helped him over to the berth nearest the organ specimen wall. He collapsed and slipped into unconsciousness. After I checked his vitals, which were terrible, I ran to the console. Since the new commands enabled me access to Joe’s full database, I keyed up the organ stock inventory in a few seconds.

“Okay, colon, heart, intestine large, intestine small— There, kidney stock available.” I ran my finger down the screen, following the column of tissue types. Then I input an inquiry, and got the final answer.

No match available.

I ground a few molars together. “Always has to be a challenge, doesn’t it?”

I input another inquiry, this time for the cellular sample stock inventory. I got lucky. Joseph had stored a sample of kidney cells that matched Reever’s tissue type.

I pulled the sample, examined it, and loaded it onto an organ scaffold. “Begin whole kidney formation process. Extrapolate approximate length of time for cloning full organ for transplantation purposes, and display.”

“It takes four weeks,” Joseph said behind me.

I went motionless.

“Where have you been, daughter?”

“We took a long walk through the mountains.” I took a deep breath. “He doesn’t have four weeks. He doesn’t have four hours.”

“You should have taken that into consideration before attempting this larceny.”

He was calling
me
a thief. If that didn’t ice the cake. “Transplantation isn’t my specialty.”

Reever, who’d suddenly woken up, jerked into a sitting position. “Run!”

“I can’t.” I went over to the table and made him recline, then saw his eyes. Icebergs were warmer. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“You knew. You knew he wouldn’t catch us here.”

“I was pretty sure he still kept the floor sensors armed. That’s how he caught me sneaking out a few times during secondary school.” I turned to my creator, who was recoding the door panel. “Don’t bother. We’re not going anywhere. We need your help.”

Joe smiled slowly. “You must allow me time to properly appreciate this moment.”

“Gloat next week. He’s in critical condition.” I put a hand on Reever’s forearm when he tried to sit up again. “Stay put and act like you’re in critical condition, please.”

My creator made a leisurely survey, then started curling his upper lip again. “Why should I help you? He means nothing to me.”

“Because if you do save him, and release him when he’s healed, you get me.” I wondered if I should have him sign something. “Along with my full and voluntary cooperation, and use of my body for whatever twisted, sick experiments you can think up, for the remainder of my existence.”

Reever made a harsh sound. “No. I won’t let you.”

“Lay back down, or I’ll sedate you.” I turned to my creator. “Well?”

Joe’s smile got wider. “I agree.”

Reever argued with me until the very last moment before we started, when I infused him with Valumine. “You could have escaped. You don’t have to sacrifice yourself for me.”

I snapped on my gloves and peered over the edge of my mask at him. “Too late.”

He fought to keep his eyes open. “Cherijo, you despise him. Don’t trade your soul for my life.”

“What if it were me on the table, dying, and you were the one he wanted? Wouldn’t you do the same thing?”

“Yes.” He closed his eyes. “But—”

“No buts.”

I’d never operated side by side with Joseph. He’d observed many of the procedures I’d performed as a medical student, but only so he could tear apart my technique once I got off shift and came home. Now we stood on opposite sides of our patient. The man I loved. The rival he hated.

Joe leaned over the table. “Are you ready?”

“Wait.” I went to the monitors and double-checked the leads. “I want to make this crystal clear before we start. If you try anything, mess up anything while we’re working on him, I’ll know.”

“Obviously, you will.”

“I’ll also have a laser and several sharp instruments close at hand.” I nodded toward the setup trays. “You’ve seen me perform an emergency colostomy, haven’t you? Imagine how it would feel without anesthetic.”

“I took the same oath you did. I also gave you my word. I will not harm him.”

“Good. I hate eviscerating people. So much noise, so much mess.” I checked Reever’s brain waves. He was sleeping peacefully. “Since we don’t have a donor organ, and we can’t clone a new one in time, what are you going to do?”

“You should have kept up with your research journals.” Joseph powered up the laser rig. “I’ve developed new procedures since you left Terra.”

“Gee, I thought you were too busy chasing me around the galaxy to get any serious research done.” I held out my hand. “I’ll open him up.”

He held on to the lascalpel. He really was afraid of me. I enjoyed seeing that.

“Don’t get your gown in a knot. I gave you my word.”

“You’ve lived with alien barbarians for three years. I’m not convinced I can trust you.”

“The aliens use swords, not lasers. Just relax.”

“Why do you want to open him up?”

Now he was starting to get on my nerves. “Look, the repair work is yours, the grunt work is mine. Hand it over.”

He reluctantly gave the instrument to me. “Very well.”

I waved it in front of me. “See? I’m not burning your face off with it. Much as I’m tempted.”

I made the initial incision, over the freshly healed scar of his previous operation, and clamped back the tissues to reveal a kidney that was, for all intents and purposes, dead.

“Damn. How bad?”

He scanned the organ. “It’s eighty-one-percent nonfunctional. Necrotic tissue is present, though the amount is negligible. You’re fortunate you decided to return when you did. Another couple of hours and the organ would have been unsalvageable.” He paused for a moment, lining up the scope. “How did you get out of the lab?”