F Wilson - Implant

Very visible people. If there were something wrong with the implants, there'd be nobody left to go to all those embassy parties."

"What if he puts something different in certain implants . . . so he can get to certain people . . . ? " "Do you hear yourself, Gerry?

Dr. Duncan Lathram is lacing his implants with some mystery substance that causes people to get drunk and wreck their car, commit suicide, fall down steps, or have seizures.

That's one hell of a versatile drug."

"Who says it has to be one drug? " '"All right. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that.

But let's take Senator Vincent today. You're saying that Duncan has such control over whatever drug he supposedly used that he can make it go into effect on command, right in the middle of a committee hearing.

Is that what you really think? " Gerry leaned back in his chair. Gin could feel the frustration pouring out of him.

He sighed. "Does sound pretty far Out, doesn't it? " He was silent for a while, then he leaned forward again. "But something doesn't smell right, Gin. I can't tell you how I know, or why, but my gut tells me something's going on here."

"I know what you mean, but it's just a string of coincidences. Duncan has his eccentricities, but he's not . . . he isn't . . . " "Look, just to shut me up, could you bring me a sample of whatever it is he puts in those implants? " "No, Gerry.

I can't. That's Oliver Lathram's concoction and it's not patentable.

What do you want to do, have it analyzed? " "Just to see if there's anything toxic in it."

"I can assure you there's nothing toxic in that solution."

"Ever hear of a binary poison? " Gerry said.

"No. I don't know much about poisons."

"They come in two parts. Neither half is toxic by itself, but when they meet in the bloodstream and bind, wham."

"Very interesting. But I'm still not getting you a sample. I couldn't.

It would be a breach of trust." He nodded slowly. "Okay. I can respect that. But keep your eyes open up there. And be careful. I don't want anything happening to you." Something happen to her?

Absurd.

Gin tried to lighten the mood by smiling and saluting him. "Aye, Captain Queeg. And how would you like your strawberries, sir? " Finally a smile broke through. "You think I'm crazy, don't you? " "No crazier than I. " '"See? We were made for each other. Have dinner with me tonight? " "Sure. How about my place? I'll cook." His eyes lit. "Really? " '"Bring Martha." A little of that light faded in his eyes. "Oh. I thought maybe you, " "Surely you've figured out by now that I only put up with you so I can see Martha." '"I can live with that, " he said. "Whatever it takes." Gin was touched. She reached across and laid her hand on his. He gripped her fingers.

And then the nachos arrived.

But as Gina watched Gerry pile his plate, she heard, Could your Dr. Lathram have it in for that committee or something?

Why had those words come back? Duncan did have it in for the Guidelines committee. He ranted against it at every opportuniry.

But at one time or another, Duncan ranted against just about everything and everyone in the government. That didn't mean he was waging war on it.

Did it?

She shuddered briefly. An absurd thought.

Not Duncan. Even if it were possible. And it wasn't. So why even consider it?

But come to think of it, Duncan had disappeared right after Senator Vincent's seizure. With no offer of help. Just like when Allard had fallen. No imagining there. Those were facts.

And they bothered her.

GINA FRIDAY GINA WAS BACK IN THE Lathram OFFICE. SHE D spent most of the morning assisting Duncan with a particularly difficult composite rhytidectomy, in which all the underlying facial tissues are lifted as one piece. Normally it would take five or six weeks for the facial swelling to resolve from such an extensive procedure. With the help of Oliver's implants, this particular sixty-two-year-old Washington doyenne would be back in the social whirl well before then.

Duncan had been in a particularly chipper mood through the surgery, humming, joking. "No jeremiads about the lamentable state of the nation today, ladies, " he'd said, sounding apologetic. No one had complained.

Later Gin wandered into Oliver's lab with a cup of coffee, looking to kill a little time before starting on her presurgical exams for next week's cases. She noticed he had a tray of large implants sitting on the counter. The empty syringe and the bottle of normal saline solution sitting next to the tray explained why the implants looked full.

Zt. , S She bent over the tray for a closer look. Were these the new model Oliver had mentioned? Looked just like the old model.

'"Hi there, Gin." She looked up. Oliver was coming through the doorway, pushing a wheeled cart ahead of him.

"What've you got there? " "An ultrasound unit." She gave it a closer look. Not the diagnostic or imaging kind used in pregnancy. This type was for deep-heating subcutaneous tissues. A big difference in power, The former measured output in megahertz, the latter in watts.

"Going into physical therapy as a sideline? " He chuckled. "No. Just testing out the latest batch of the new, improved implants. ' He'd lost her. "With ultrasound? " "Sure. Just give me a second to set up and I'll show you." He set the unit on the counter, plugged it in, adjusted a few dials, then picked up the handle.

' Watch." Oliver took the implant from the end of the row and moved it away from the rest, placing it on the counter a couple of feet from the tray. He positioned the ultrasound head over it and pressed the button on the handle. Immediately the implant began to quiver, an instant later it dissolved, leaving a spreading puddle on the counter.

He placed another implant in the puddle and held the ultrasound head farther back. The implant dissolved, the saline puddle enlarged.

He did this repeatedly, each time backing farther away with the handle, each time enlarging the puddle until finally it ran over the edge and dripped onto the floor.

Gin watched in wonder. "That's incredible, " she said.

She stepped to the counter for a closer look. Only minute shreds of the implant membranes remained floating in the puddle.

"How does it work? " '"I altered the crystal-protein matrix, " Oliver said as he unplugged the ultrasound unit. "I made it more stable, more resistant to the body's tissue enzymes, but I rigged it so that at a certain ultrasonic frequency, the crystals vibrate and dissolve the matrix. As a result, the implant membrane collapses and releases its contents."

"Brilliant."

"Duncan's idea, actually." Somewhere in the rear of Gin's mind, a bell chimed a sour note.

"Duncan's? " "Yes. He wants more control over when the implants dissolve. As he says, why leave the iming up to the vagaries of the circulatory system and the tissue enzymes? Let's develop implants that empty when we tell them to." She remembered what she'd said to Gerry after the Guidelines hearing earlier in the week. And not only can this miracle toxin do all these different things, but Duncan has such control over it that he can make it go into eMfert on command.

It had sounded so absurd then, but the means were staring her in the face.

"Is . . . is Duncan using these yet? " "Oh, no. The FDA approved us to do clinical trials with the original implants only." He flashed a smile. "The Original Recipe, you might say.

We'll have to go through the whole approval process again for the new membrane."

"Oh. So these are brand new." That's a relief, Duncan couldn't have used the new implants if they hadn't existed at the times of the surgeries.

But the relief was short-lived.

"Not really, " Oliver said. "I've been working on them for most of the year. And they're still not perfected yet." ie Gin swallowed.