Michael Palmer - Flashback

"I'm sorry to do things this way, Greg, " Zack said, raising the little anesthesiologist to his feet, "but there's trouble in the ICU that only Jack can help with."

"That's crazy! " Pearl cried out. "He's crazy! Ow! You're hurting me, Iverson! Let go!"

Greg Ormesby and the surgical team watched in stunned silence as Zack pulled the little man away from his console and gestured Sara Newton into his place. "Iverson, stop this right now! " Ormesby shouted.

"You're endangering my patient."

"Nonsense. Sara, here, is an excellent anesthe ist, and you know it.

She'll take good care of your patient. I'm sorry to have to do things this way, but I just don't have time to explain right now. I will, though, Greg. I promise."

"Oh, for God's sake. Will somebody call security?

Iverson, this is madness."

Zack did not respond. The pain in his shoulder partially numbed by his own adrenaline, he dragged Pearl through the scrub room and slammed him against the bank of lockers, pinning him by the throat so that he was up on the tips of his toes. "Iverson, " Greg Ormesby hollered, "I see now that what everyone is saying about you is true. I'll get you for this!

I'll see you up on charges!"

"Okay, Jack, " Zack said, ignoring the surgeon's bellowing. "This is it.

Now tell me, There is an experimental drug, isn't there?…" He augmented his grip with his injured arm, and hoisted the anesthesiologist up another fraction of an inch. Pearl's toes came off the carpet. "Well, isn't there?"

Pearb either too frightened or too obstinate to answer, did not respond.

His face was violet. His eyes, now nearly level with Zack's, were bulging. At that moment, a security guard burst into the locker room, and without a word, struck Zack with his nightstick-a blow that glanced off the side of his head and landed squarely on his injured shoulder.

Crying out from the pain, Zack dropped heavily to the carpet, clutching his arm, as Jack Pearl slithered down the locker and, moaning, collapsed in a heap nearby. The guard knelt on the small of Zack's back and raised his stick, preparing for another blow. "Stop that! Right now!"

Startled, the guard came off Zack and whirled toward the voice. Zack reacted more slowly. He turned, and through tears of pain saw Jason Mainwaring, hands on hips, standing by the door. "Mainwaring, " he gasped, "it's Suzanne. She's in the unit, and-"

"I know. I just came from there." Mainwaring turned to the guard.

"Everything's under control here now. You can go."

"But-"

"I said, things are under control."

"Y-Yes sir." The guard backed from the room, with Mainwaring's ice-blue eyes helping him along. "Okay, Jack, " the surgeon said as the door swung shut, "give Iverson whatever he wants."

"Jason, I can't-"

"Dammit, Jack, do it!

There are two people in deep trouble in the unit up there. I may have made some mistakes in this business, but I'm no murderer. If Serenyl's responsible for their condition, then I want Iverson here to get whatever he needs to help them… Now!

Pearl stumbled to his feet. Zack tried to rise, fell heavily, and then tried again-this time with shaky success. "Thanks, Mainwaring, " he said. "I didn't think I'd gotten through to you."

"Just remember, Iverson, that just because I'm here doesn't mean I'm admitting to anything." He glanced over at the anesthesiologist, and then added in a voice too soft for the man to bear, "I'm no monster, Iverson. If Pearl's drug has hurt some people, I want to do whatever I can to help out. You remember that, now. You remember I did that."

"Yeah, sure, Mainwaring, " Zack said. "I'll remember."

Frank sat alone to one side of the Carter Conference Room and watched as Whitey Bourque, the last remaining board member, wheeled his father away for readmission to the hospital. The re-vote had been an impressive fourteen to six in favor of repurchase. As he neared the door, the Judge looked back at him and mouthed the words, "I'm sorry, Frank."

Across from Frank, Leigh Baron shared a final exchange with her lawyers and sent them off. Then she turned and surveyed the near empty room and the vestiges of the meeting just past. "Well, he beat you, " she said finally. "He beat you, too, " Frank retorted. "He's one of the hardest men I've ever dealt with."

"Tell me about it."

Leigh paced to one side of the room and then back. "Unfortunately, " she said, "that is, unfortunately for you, your father's actions have placed me in a rather ticklish position."

"You see, Frank, three years ago you did a very stupid, very amateurish thing. You took money from us. A good deal of money." Shocked, Frank stared up at her. "I… I don't know what you're talking about, " he managed. "Oh, Frank, " she said sardonically, "you disappoint me so."

She crossed the room and laid the accountant's report in front of him.

"We were a little worried about this vote today, " she explained, "so last night I visited with your father."

"You what?"

"I shared the contents of that folder with him, and promised that it would be incinerated as soon as the sale of the hospital was complete."

"That's insane."

"No, Frank, " she said calmly, "that's business."

"What kind of person are you? Do you know that you probably were the cause of his accident?"

"I know nothing of the kind. But what I do know is that your father made his choice, and now we must make ours. You can expect charges of embezzlement to be brought against you first thing next week."

"You can't do that."

"Can, and will, " she said. "I… I was about to put that money back. I have the cash. Right now. Right in the bank."

"Too late."

"You're an insensitive bitch."

"Oh, that's wonderful, Frank. So witty, so articulate."

"I'll… I'll double what I took, " he said. "Five hundred thousand. I can have it in your hands this afternoon."

"Frank, you don't understand. If it was the money, you would have been buried three years ago, when we first became aware of what you had done."

"In that case, " he said, suddenly seeing a crack of daylight and racing toward it, "if I go down, your company goes down with me, big time."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about some work that has been going on at this hospital-at your hospital. The testing of a new and unapproved anesthe ic. It's work involving your administrator, and one of your surgeons, and one of your anesthesiologists, and it hasn't come out too well. If you need proof, stop by the ICU and check out a kid named Nelms. And I promise you that if I get charged with anything, I'll smear Ultramed's name until your stock isn't worth using as toilet paper."

"I don't believe you, " she said. But Frank could tell that she did.

"Like I said, just stop by the unit. I'm sure the child's parents and their lawyers would love to know that a multibillion-dollar company was responsible for their son's condition."

"You've been allowing this to go on without our knowledge? " Frank felt the shift in momentum. "Allowing it? Hell, I've been in charge of it.

How do you think I was planning on coming up with that much money? In fact, the work is already done. I've been paid off. And fortunately-for all of us-only I know that it hasn't come out all that well… Now, do we have a Mexican standoff or not?"

Leigh Baron spent several seconds sizing him up, but he knew that he had won. "How many patients? " she asked. "Oh, five hundred, " he said,

"give or take."

"I intend to check up on what you've told me."

"Feel free. Just be careful when you do. If this blows, it blows in your face."

"Frank, you're pathetic."

"Ah, ah. Now who's being articulate?"

"One word, Frank, if so much as one word about this… this stupidity touches Ultramed, I swear I'll bury you. What you've done is horrible."