Terminal Man (2 page)

But this was something else: a nurse hanging around, just being near him, because he had a special aura of importance. Because everyone in the hospital knew what was going to happen.

Staring out the window, the nurse said, “Here he comes.”

Morris got up and looked out. A blue police van drove up toward the emergency ward, and turned around, backing into the ambulance slot. “All right,” he said. “Notify the seventh floor, and tell them we’re on our way.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

The nurse went off. Two ambulance orderlies opened the hospital doors. They knew nothing about Benson. One of them said to Morris, “You expecting this one?”

“Yes.”

“EW case?”

“No, a direct admission.”

The orderlies nodded, and watched as the police officer driving the van came around and unlocked the rear door. Two officers seated in the back emerged, blinking in the sunlight. Then Benson came out.

As always, Morris was struck by his appearance. Benson was a meek, pudgy, thirtyish man, with a bewildered air as he stood by the van, with his wrists handcuffed in front of him. When he saw Morris, he said, “Hello,” and then looked away, embarrassed.

One of the cops said, “You in charge?”

“Yes. I’m Dr. Morris.”

The cop gestured toward the interior of the hospital. “Lead the way, Doctor.”

Morris said, “Would you mind taking off his handcuffs?”

Benson’s eyes flicked up at Morris, then back down.

“We don’t have any orders about that.” The cops exchanged glances. “I guess it’s okay.”

While they took the cuffs off, the driver brought Morris a form on a clipboard: “Transfer of Suspect to Institutional Care (Medical).” He signed it.

“And again here,” the driver said.

As Morris signed again, he looked at Benson. Benson stood quietly, rubbing his wrists, staring straight ahead. The impersonality of the transaction, the forms and signatures, made Morris feel as if he were receiving a package from United Parcel.

“Okay,” the driver said. “Thanks, Doc.”

Morris led the other two policemen and Benson into the hospital. The orderlies shut the doors. A nurse came up with a wheelchair and Benson sat down in it. The cops looked confused.

“It’s hospital policy,” Morris said.

They all went to the elevators.

The elevator stopped at the lobby. A half-dozen relatives were waiting to go up to the higher floors, but they hesitated when they saw Morris, Benson in the wheelchair, and the two cops. “Please take the next car,” Morris said smoothly. The doors closed. They continued up.

“Where is Dr. Ellis?” Benson asked. “I thought he was going to be here.”

“He’s in surgery. He’ll be up shortly.”

“And Dr. Ross?”

“You’ll see her at the presentation.”

“Oh, yes.” Benson smiled. “The presentation.”

The elevator arrived at the seventh floor, and they all got out.

Seven was the Special Surgical floor, where difficult and complex cases were treated. It was essentially a research floor. The most severe cardiac, kidney, and metabolic patients recuperated here. They went down to the nurses’ station, a glasswalled area strategically located at the center of the X-shaped floor.

The nurse on duty at the station looked up. She was surprised to see the cops, but she said nothing. Morris said, “This is Mr. Benson. Have we got seven-ten ready?”

“All set for him,” the nurse said, and gave Benson a cheery smile. Benson smiled bleakly back, and glanced from the nurse to the computer console in the corner of the nursing station.

“You have a time-sharing station up here?”

“Yes,” Morris said.

“Where’s the main computer?”

“In the basement.”

“Of this building?”

“Yes. It draws a lot of power, and the power lines come to this building.”

Benson nodded. Morris was not surprised at the questions. Benson was trying to distract himself from the thought of surgery, and he was, after all, a computer expert.

The nurse handed Morris the chart on Benson. It had the usual blue plastic cover with the seal of University
Hospital. But there was also a red tag, which meant neurosurgery, and a yellow tag, which meant intensive care, and a white tag, which Morris had almost never seen on a patient’s chart. The white tag meant security precautions.

“Is that my record?” Benson asked as Morris wheeled him down the hall to 710. The cops followed along behind.

“Uh-huh.”

“I always wondered what was in it.”

“Lot of unreadable notes, mostly.” Actually, Benson’s chart was thick and very readable, with all the computer print-outs of different tests.

They came to 710. Before they entered the room, one of the cops went in and closed the door behind him. The second cop remained outside the door. “Just a precaution,” he said.

Benson glanced up at Morris. “They’re very careful about me,” he said.

The first cop came out. “It’s okay,” he said.

Morris wheeled Benson into the room. It was a large room, on the south side of the hospital, so that it was sunny in the afternoon. Benson looked around and nodded approvingly. Morris said, “This is one of the best rooms in the hospital.”

“Can I get up now?”

“Of course.”

Benson got out of the wheelchair and sat on the bed. He bounced on the mattress. He pressed the buttons that made the bed move up and down, then bent over to look at the motorized mechanism beneath the bed. Morris went to the window and drew the blinds, reducing the direct light. “Simple,” Benson said.

“What’s that?”

“This bed mechanism. Remarkably simple. You should really have a feedback unit so that body movements by the person in the bed are automatically compensated for.…” His voice trailed off. He opened the closet doors, looked in, checked the bathroom, came back. Morris thought that he wasn’t acting like an ordinary patient. Most patients were intimidated by the hospital, but Benson acted as if he were renting a hotel room.

“I’ll take it,” Benson said, and laughed. He sat down on the bed and looked at Morris, then at the cops. “Do they have to be here?”

“I think they can wait outside,” Morris said.

The cops nodded and went out, closing the door behind them.

“I meant,” Benson said, “do they have to be here at all?”

“Yes, they do.”

“All the time?”

“Yes. Unless we can get charges against you dropped.”

Benson frowned. “Was it … I mean, did I … Was it bad?”

“You gave him a black eye and you fractured one rib.”

“But he’s all right?”

“Yes. He’s all right.”

“I don’t remember any of it,” Benson said. “All my memory cores are erased.”

“I know that.”

“But I’m glad he’s all right.”

Morris nodded. “Did you bring anything with you? Pajamas, anything like that?”

Benson said, “No. But I can arrange for it.”

“All right. I’ll get you some hospital clothing in the meantime. Are you all right for now?”

“Yes. Sure.” And he grinned. “I could do with a quick shot, maybe.”

“That,” Morris said, “is something you’ll have to do without.” He went out of the room.

The cops had brought a chair up to the door. One of them sat on it, the other stood alongside. Morris flipped open his notebook.

“You’ll want to know the schedule,” he said. “An admitting person will show up in the next half hour with financial waivers for Benson to sign. Then, at three-thirty he goes downstairs to the main amphitheater for Surgical Rounds. He comes back after about twenty minutes. His head will be shaved tonight. The operation is scheduled for six a.m. tomorrow morning. Do you have questions?”

“Can someone get us meals?” one of them asked.

“I’ll have the nurse order extras. Will there be two of you, or just one?”

“Just one. We’re working eight-hour shifts.”

Morris said, “I’ll tell the nurses. It’d help if you check in and out with them. They like to know who’s on the floor.”

The cops nodded. There was a moment of silence. Finally, one of them said, “What’s wrong with him, anyway?”

“He has a special kind of brain damage. It gives him seizures.”

“I saw the guy he beat up,” one of the cops said. “Big strong guy, looked like a truck driver. You’d never think a little guy like that”—he jerked his arm toward Benson’s room—“could do it.”

“When he has seizures, he’s violent.”

They nodded. “What’s this operation he’s getting?”

“It’s a kind of surgery we call a stage-three procedure,” Morris said. He didn’t bother to explain further. The policemen wouldn’t understand. And, he thought, even if they understood, they wouldn’t believe it.

N
EUROSURGICAL
G
RAND
R
OUNDS, WHERE UNUSUAL
cases were presented and discussed by all the surgeons of the hospital, were normally scheduled for Thursdays at nine. Special rounds were hardly ever called; it was too difficult for the staff to get together. But now the amphitheater was packed, tier after tier of white jackets and pale faces staring down at Ellis, who pushed his glasses up on his nose and said, “As many of you know, tomorrow morning the Neuropsychiatric Research Unit will perform a limbic pacing procedure—what we call a stage three—on a human patient.”

There was no sound, no movement, from the audience. Janet Ross stood in the corner of the amphitheater
near the doors and watched. She found it odd that there should be so little reaction. But then it was hardly a surprise. Everyone in the hospital knew that the Neuropsychiatric Service, or NPS, had been waiting for a good stage-three subject.

“I must ask you,” Ellis said, “to restrain your questions when the patient is introduced. He is a sensitive man, and his disturbance is quite severe. We thought you should have the psychiatric background before we bring him in. The attending psychiatrist, Dr. Ross, will give you a summary.” Ellis nodded to Ross. She came forward to the center of the room.

She stared up at the steeply banked rows of faces and felt a momentary hesitation. Janet Ross was good-looking in a lean, dark-blond way. She herself felt she was too bony and angular, and she often wished she were more softly feminine. But she knew her appearance was striking, and at thirty, after a decade of training in a predominantly masculine profession, she had learned to use it.

She clasped her hands behind her back, took a breath, and launched into the summary, delivering it in the rapid, stylized method that was standard for grand rounds.

“Harold Franklin Benson,” she said, “is a thirty-four-year-old divorced computer scientist who was healthy until two years ago, when he was involved in an automobile accident on the Santa Monica Freeway. Following the accident, he was unconscious for an unknown period of time. He was taken to a local hospital for overnight observation and discharged the next day in good health. He was fine for six months, until he began to experience what he called ‘blackouts.’ ”

The audience was silent, faces staring down at her, listening.

“These blackouts lasted several minutes, and occurred about once a month. They were often preceded by the sensation of peculiar, unpleasant odors. The blackouts frequently occurred after drinking alcohol. The patient consulted his local physician, who told him he was working too hard, and recommended he reduce his alcohol intake. Benson did this, but the blackouts continued.

“One year ago—a year after the accident—he realized that the blackouts were becoming more frequent and lasting longer. He often regained consciousness to find himself in unfamiliar surroundings. On several occasions, he had cuts and bruises or torn clothing which suggested that he had been fighting. However, he never remembered what occurred during the blackout periods.”

Heads in the audience nodded. They understood what she was telling them; it was a straightforward history for an epileptiform syndrome which might be treated with surgery. But there were complexities.

“The patient’s friends,” she continued, “told him that he was acting differently, but he discounted their opinion. Gradually he has lost contact with most of his former friends. Around this time—one year ago—he also made what he called a monumental discovery in his work. Benson is a computer scientist specializing in artificial life, or machine intelligence. In the course of this work, he says he discovered that machines were competing with human beings, and that ultimately machines would take over the world.”

Now there were whispers in the audience. This interested
them, particularly the psychiatrists. She could see her old teacher Manon sitting in the top row holding his head in his hands. Manon knew.

“Benson communicated his discovery to his remaining friends. They suggested that he see a psychiatrist, which angered him. In the last year, he has become increasingly certain that machines are conspiring to take over the world.

“Then, six months ago, the patient was arrested by police on suspicion of beating up an airplane mechanic. Positive identification could not be made, and charges were dropped. But the episode unnerved Benson and led him to seek psychiatric help. He had the vague suspicion that somehow he
had
been the man who had beaten the mechanic so severely. That was unthinkable to him, but the nagging suspicion remained.

“He was referred to the University Hospital Neuropsychiatric Research Unit four months ago, in November, 1970. On the basis of his history—head injury, episodic violence preceded by strange smells—he was considered a probable case of what is now called ADL: Acute Disinhibitory Lesion syndrome, an organic illness in which the patient periodically loses his inhibitions against violent acts. As you know, the NPS now accepts only patients with organically treatable behavioral disturbances.

“A neurological examination was fully normal. An electroencephalogram was fully normal; brainwave activity showed no pathology. It was repeated after alcohol ingestion and an abnormal tracing was obtained. The EEG showed seizure activity in the right temporal lobe of the brain. Benson was therefore considered a stage-one patient—firm diagnosis of ADL syndrome.”

She paused to get her breath and let the audience absorb what she had told them. “The patient is an intelligent man,” she said, “and his illness was explained to him. He was told he had injured his brain in the automobile accident and, as a result, had an illness that produced ‘thought seizures’—seizures of the mind, not the body, leading to loss of inhibitions and violent acts. He was told that the syndrome was well-studied and could be controlled. He was started on a series of drug trials.