Michael Palmer - Extreme Measures

He entered the office and shut the door. In almost a fugue state, he pulled the envelope from the lower drawer of his desk and held the fine caduceus pin in his hand.

From beyond the door he heard the sounds of the hospital. He deserved the promotion. The events in Trauma Two merely underscored that truth.

He deserved it, and yet it seemed more than likely that in a matter of days, he would be looking for work.

He ran his finger over the pin. Putting it on would obligate him to nothing. If the work Caduceus was doing was unacceptable, he could simply refuse to participate.

Eric's pulse was raging in his ears as he ignored persistent pangs of uncertainty and fastened the caduceus to the lapel of his clinic coat.

Between diving once or twice a day and running five miles several times a week, Laura Enders was in the best shape of her life.

Even so, every muscle in her legs ached as she left the subway and climbed the stairs from the Charles Street station to the White Memorial overpass.

She had spent her first full day in the city-two days ago-making countless lists of the places she would go, and locating those places on her map. Then, late that evening, she had picked up the fliers at the printer and begun her search in earnest, planning to work her way, one at a time, through the grids she had drawn on her map. By eleven the next night she had walked at least twenty miles and had left posters with two hundred bartenders, policemen, hotel workers, hospital clerks, and receptionists.

The fliers, standard 81/2 by 11, black-on-white, had come out reasonably well, although the blowup of Scott's face was grainy, and flatter than she would have liked. She had stopped by Bernard Nelson's office and left half a dozen with his frowzy receptionist, who accepted them while barely missing a stroke in filing her nails.

It was nearing nine in the morning, and for the first time since her arrival in Boston three days before, the sun was shining. Charles Circle was alive with traffic, ambulances, joggers, and streams of pedestrians headed from several directions toward the hospital. On a whim, Laura stopped in at the Charles Street jail and left off a flier.

Then she fell in with the crowd and followed a stretcher through the emergency doors into White Memorial.

She had been to the emergency rooms of two hospitals the previous day and was impressed by how busy each had been. But compared to White Memorial, they were serene. Everything and everyone in the broad, fluorescently lit receiving area seemed to be in motion. The scene reminded her of the teeming life above a coral reef.

Three stretchers, each with a patient and two ambulance attendants, were lined up along one wall.

A group of what looked like medical students were clustered in a doorway, listening intently to an older physician. Nurses and doctors in scrub suits crisscrossed to and from the broad semicircular reception counter, dropping off charts, picking up laboratory slips, or just pausing to talk. Behind the counter two women and two men jockeyed past one another, answering phones, responding to questions, and logging patients in and out of rooms diagrammed on a huge white acrylic tote board.

Laura took a minute to gauge which of the four seemed the least harried.

She settled on a slight, pale man with. ming sideburns and an easy manner that suggested he was a veteran at his job. Then she timed her approach to coincide with his rotation from the tote board to the counter.

"Help you?" he asked.

"I hope so." Laura pulled two fliers from her shoulder bag and set them in front of the man. -my name is Laura Enders. I'm trying to find my brother, Scott. I was hoping there might be a place where I could put up one or two of these."

"Have you checked to see if he's been a patient here?" the man said, scanning the sheet with no sign of recognition.

"No. No, I haven't."

Laura cursed herself for neglecting to do that at the two previous hospitals she had visited. At the same time, she pictured the posters she had left off crumpled in wastebaskets beneath counters similar to this one.

"Well, why don't you let me call the record room and see if they have anything. Have a seat over there and take in the show."

Relieved, Laura settled in a blue molded-plastic chair off to one side.

At first she focused on the patients, some clutching wounded or aching parts, some strapped to wheelchairs, and some, it seemed, just hanging around. Gradually, though, her attention shifted to the doctors. Most of them, especially those in scrubs, were her age or younger. And all of them, men and women alike, looked exhausted and harried.

Still, many paused for brief gestures of caring toward the patients-a touch or a word. And within the shadows surrounding their eyes was a snap and intelligence that made Laura feel she would enjoy working with these people. Several of the letters of inquiry she had sent out were to programs in physical therapy and rehabilitation. At that moment, heading her life in that direction felt right. Perhaps after she had found Scott…

"No luck."

"Huh?" The emergency ward clerk was standing beside her. "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess my mind was wandering."

"I understand," the man said. "I've been working here almost twenty years now, and sometimes I still find myself hypnotized by the whole thing. But I'm afraid there's no record of your brother ever having been here-inpatient or out. I checked both names on that poster of yours."

Laura stood.

"I really appreciate your help," she said. "Do you think you could put up the posters anyhow? I'm pretty desperate to find him."

"I can show the picture around. But posting things out here is against hospital regs unless they're approved by- Wait a minute. The place you really want to put this up is in the residents' lounge. If anyone would remember seeing him, it would probably be one of the residents." He turned and called across to one of the doctors. "Eric.

Hey, Eric. Got a second?"

The doctor seated at a desk near the triage nurse turned and looked over at them. Of aD those Laura had been watching, he was perhaps the most interesting, and, she acknowledged as he rose and came toward them, the handsomest as well. He was tallsix feet or a bit more. His face was dark and sharpfeatured, reminding her a bit of Omar Sharif.

And although Laura usually disliked moustaches, his seemed right. But what had impressed her most about the man were the little things she had watched him do with the patients-the warm smiles and reassuring touches.

"Eric," the clerk said. "I think you might be able to help this woman here. Miss..

"Enders," Laura spoke up. "Laira Enders."

"This here's Dr. Najarian. He's our chief resident, and the best doc I've seen come through this place.

I'll leave you with him."

"Thank you," Laura said.

The clerk looked from one to the other of them.

Then his mouth turned up in a quick, knowing smile before he headed back to his post.

Eric Najazian reached out and shook her hand.

"Pleased to meet you," he said.

Laura was staring at his face, and actually missed a beat in her response. His eyes were wide and dark and held a special attraction for her. And in the moments that followed, she realized why. They were like Scott's,eyes, at once sensitive and intense; eyes that spoke of caring and of wanting to know.

"I… um… I'm looking for my brother," she managed to say.

"Is he lost?" Eric asked.

"What. I mean yes. I mean he's missing." Sensing her cheeks beginning to redden, she quickly thrust a poster at him. "I flew up here three days ago to try and find him."

"From where?"

Eric continued studying the photo of Scott. For a moment Laura thought she saw something in his eyes-a flicker of recognition. Then, just as quickly, the look disappeared.