Robin Cook - Fatal Cure

They pulled into the hospital parking lot and parked.

"What's the plan?" Angela asked.

"We need a Geiger counter," David said. "There has to be one in the Radiotherapy Center for their certification. I'll find a janitor to let us in. Why don't you and Nikki go to the lobby?"

David found Ronnie, one of the janitors he vaguely knew. Ronnie was only too happy to help one of the doctors, especially since it took him away from the job of mopping the basement's corridor. David neglected to mention that he'd been fired from CMV and his hospital privileges had been suspended.

With Ronnie in tow, David went up to the lobby and found Angela. Nikki had discovered a TV and was content for the moment. David told Nikki not to leave the lobby; she promised she wouldn't.

Angela and David went to the Radiotherapy Center. It only took them about fifteen minutes to find a Geiger counter.

Back in the main hospital building, they met up with Ronnie in the basement. It had taken him a few minutes to find the key to the old radiotherapy unit.

"No one goes in here very often," he explained as he let the Wilsons in.

The unit consisted of three rooms: an outer room that had served as a reception area, an inner office, and a treatment room.

David walked straight back to the treatment room. The room was empty save for the old radiotherapy unit. The machine looked like an X-ray unit with a table attached for the patient to lie on.

David put the Geiger counter on the table and turned it on. The needle barely moved on the gauge. There was no reading above background even on its most sensitive scale.

"Where's the source lodged in this thing?" Angela asked.

"I'd guess it's where the treatment arm and this supporting Column here meet," he said.

David lifted the Geiger counter and positioned it where he thought the source should reside. There was still no reading.

"The fact that there's no reading doesn't necessarily mean anything," Angela said. "I'm sure this thing is well shielded."

David nodded. He walked around to the back of the machine and tried the Geiger counter there. There was still no reading.

"Uh oh," Angela said. "David, come here and look at this."

David joined Angela by the treatment arm. She pointed to an access panel that was attached by four nob screws. Several of the screws had been loosened.

David grabbed a chair from the reception room. He put it just under the arm. Standing on the seat of the chair, David was able to reach the panel. He unscrewed all four nob screws, removed the panel, and handed it all to Ronnie.

Behind the panel he discovered a circular metal plate secured with eight lug bolts. David had Angela hand him the Geiger counter. He pushed it inside the housing and tried again for radiation. There was none.

David moved the Geiger counter aside and reached in and grasped one of the lug bolts. To his dismay, it was loose. He checked all eight. All eight were loose. He began removing them, handing them down to Angela one by one.

"Are you sure you should be doing this?" Angela asked. She was still concerned about radiation, despite the readings, as well as David's questionable handyman skills.

"We have to know for sure," David said as he removed the last bolt. He then lifted the heavy metal covering and handed it to Ronnie. David peered down a long cylindrical cavity that was about four and a half inches in diameter. It looked like the barrel of a huge gun. Without a flashlight, he could only see a short distance in.

"I'm sure I'm not supposed to be able to look into the treatment arm like this," David said. "There would have to be a plug to act as a brake to stop the source when it was being moved out to the treatment position."

Just to be one hundred percent certain, David stuck the Geiger counter into the muzzle of the treatment arm. There was no reading above background.

David stepped down from the chair. "The source is not in there," he said. "It's gone."

"What are we going to do?" Angela asked.

"What time is it?" David asked.

"Seven-fifteen," Ronnie said.

"Let's get lead aprons from radiology," David said. "Then we'll do what we can."

They left the old radiotherapy unit and headed straight for the Imaging Center. They didn't need Ronnie to open the Imaging Center since it was open for emergency X rays, but David asked him to come to help carry the lead aprons. Ronnie didn't know what was going on, but whatever it was he could tell something serious was involved. He was eager to be as helpful as possible.

The X-ray technician was suspicious of David's request for lead aprons, but he decided that since David wouldn't be taking them any farther than the hospital next door, it would be okay. Besides, he wasn't used to contradicting doctors. He gave David, Angela, and Ronnie nine lead aprons as well as one pair of lead gloves used for fluoroscopy. David still had the Geiger counter, as well.

Weighed down with their burden, the three made their way back to the hospital. They got strange looks from the staff and visitors they passed on their way to the second floor, but no one tried to stop them.

"All right," David said once they reached the door of the conference room. He was practically out of breath. "Put everything right here." He dropped the aprons he was carrying to the floor next to the closed conference room door. Angela and Ronnie did likewise.

David tried the Geiger counter again. Immediately the needle pegged to the right. "Jesus Christ!" David said. "We couldn't get any better evidence than that." David thanked Ronnie and sent him on his way. He then explained to Angela what he thought they should do. David pulled on the lead gloves and picked up three aprons. He carried one in his hands while he tossed the other two over his shoulder. Angela picked up four in her arms.

David opened the door and went into the conference room, with Angela close behind. Traynor, who'd been interrupted in mid-sentence, glared at David. Those in attendance-Sherwood, Beaton, Cantor, Caldwell, Arnsworth, and Robeson-all turned to stare at the source of this rude interruption. As the assembled members of the board began to murmur, Traynor banged his gavel, crying for order.

Scanning the cluttered conference table, David spotted the source instantly. It was a cylinder about a foot long whose diameter matched the size of the bore in the treatment arm he'd examined only minutes ago. Several Teflon rings were embedded in its circumference. On its top was a locking pin. The cylinder was standing upright next to a model of a parking garage just as Van Slyke had indicated.

David started for the cylinder, clutching a lead apron in both hands.

"Stop!" Traynor yelled.

Before David could get to the cylinder, Caldwell leapt to his feet and grabbed David around his chest.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Caldwell demanded.

"I'm trying to save all of you if it isn't too late," David said.

"Let him go," Angela cried.

"What are you talking about?" Traynor demanded.

David nodded toward the cylinder. "I'm afraid you have been having your meeting around a cobalt-60 source."

Cantor leaped to his feet; his chair tipped over backward. "I saw that thing," he cried. "I wondered what it was." Saying no more, he turned and fled from the room.

A stunned Caldwell relaxed his grip. David immediately lunged across the table and snatched up the brass cylinder in his lead gloves. Then he rolled the cylinder in one of his lead aprons. Next he wrapped that apron in another and that one in another still. He proceeded to do the same with the aprons Angela was carrying while she stepped out of the conference room to get the others. David was anxious to cover the cylinder with as many layers of lead as possible.

As David was wrapping the last load of the aprons around the bulky parcel, Angela got the Geiger counter.