Blood Music

CHAPTER TEN

Edward shaved with an old straight razor kept in his desk drawer for just such emergencies, examined himself in the mirror of the doctor’s dressing room and rubbed his cheek critically. He had used the straight razor regularly in his student years, an affectation; since then the occasions had been seldom and his face showed it: three nicks patched with tissue paper and styptic pencil. He glanced at his watch. The batteries were running low and the display was dim. He shook it angrily and the display became crystal-clear: 6:30 A.M. Gail would be up and about, preparing for school.
He slipped two quarters into the pay phone in the doctor’s lounge and fumbled with the pencils and pens in his coat pocket.
“Hello?”
“Gail, Edward I love you and I’m sorry.”
“A disembodied voice on the phone awaited me. It might have been my husband.” She had a fine phone voice, one he had always admired. He had first asked her out, sight unseen, after hearing her on a phone at the house of a mutual friend.
“Yes, well—”
“Also, Vergil Ulam called a few minutes ago. He sounded anxious. I haven’t talked to him in years.”
“Did you tell him—”
“You were still at the hospital. Of course. Your shift is at eight today?”
“Same as yesterday. Two hours with premeds in the lab and six on call.”
“Mrs. Burdett called, also. She swears little Tony or Antoinette is whistling. She can hear him/her.”
“And your diagnosis?” Edward asked, grinning.
“Gas.”
“High-pressure, I’d say,” Edward added.
“Steam, must be,” Gail said. They laughed and Edward felt the morning assume reality. Last night’s mist of fantasy lifted and he was on the phone with his wife, making jokes about musical fetuses. That was normal. That was living.
“I’m going to take you out tonight,” he said. “Another Heisenberg dinner.”
“What’s that?”
“Uncertainty,” Edward said crisply. “We know where we are going, but not what we are going to eat. Or vice versa.”
“Sounds wonderful. Which car?”
“The Quantum, of course.”
“Oh, Lord. We just had the speedometer fixed.”
“And the steering went out?”
“Shh! It’s still working. We’re cheating.”
“Are you mad at me?”
Gail hmphed. “Vergil better see you during office hours today. Why is he seeing you, anyway? Sex-change?” The thought made her giggle and start to cough. He could picture her turning the phone away and waving at the air as if to clear it. “’Scuse. Really, Edward. Why?”
“Confidential, my love. I’m not sure I know, anyway. Maybe later.”
“Got to go. Six?”
“Maybe five-thirty.”
“I’ll still be critiquing videos.”
“I’ll sweep you away.”
“Delicious Edward.”
He cupped the receiver and smooched indelicately before hanging up. Then, rubbing his cheek to ball up and remove the tissue paper, he walked to the elevator and rode up to the Frankenstein Wing.
The analyzer was still clinking merrily, running hundreds of samples bottle by bottle through the tests. Edward sat down to its terminal and called up Vergil’s results. Columns and numbers appeared on the screen. The suggested diagnosis was unusually vague. Anomalies appeared in highlighted red type.
24/c ser c/count 10,000 lymphoc./mm3
25/c ser c/count 14,500 lymphoc./mm3
26/d check re/count 15,000 lymphoc./mm3
DIAG (???) What are accompanying physical signs?
If the spleen and lymph nodes show enlargement, then:
ReDIAG: Patient (name? file? ) in late stages of severe infection.
Support: Histamine count, blood protein level (call), phagocyte count (call)
DIAG (???) (Blood sample inconclusive): if anemia, pain in joints, hemorrhage fever:,
ReDIAG: Incipient lymphocytic leukemia
Support: Not a good fit, no support but lymphocyte count.
Edward asked for a hard copy of the analysis and the printer quietly produced a tight-packed page of figures. He looked it over, frowning deeply, folded it and stuck it in his coat pocket. The urine test seemed normal enough; the blood was unlike any he had ever seen before. He didn’t need to test the stool to make up his mind on a course of action: put the man in the hospital, under observation. Edward dialed Vergil’s number on the phone in his office.
On the second ring, a noncommittal female voice answered, “Ulam’s house, Candice here.”
“Could I speak to Vergil, please?”
“Whom may I say is calling?” Her tone was almost comically formal.
“Edward. He knows me.”
“Of course. You’re the doctor. Fix him up. Fix up everybody.” A hand muffled the mouthpiece and she called out, somewhat raucously, “Vergil!”
Vergil answered with a breathless “Edward! What’s up?”
“Hello, Vergil. I have some results, not very conclusive. But I want to talk with you, here, in the hospital.”
“What do the results say?”
“That you are a very ill person.”
“Nonsense.”
“I’m just telling you what the machine says. High lymphocyte count—”
“Of course, that fits perfectly—”
“And a very weird variety of proteins and other debris floating around in your blood. Histamines. You look like a fellow dying of severe infection.”
There was silence on Vergil’s end, then, “I’m not dying.”
“I think you should come in, let others check you over. And who was that on the phone—Candice? She—”
“No. Edward, I went to you for help. Nobody else, you know how I feel about hospitals.”
Edward laughed grimly. “Vergil, I’m not competent to figure this out.”
“I told you what it was. Now you have to help me control it.”
“That’s crazy, that’s bullshit, Vergil!” Edward damped his hand on his knee and pinched hard. “Sorry. I’m not taking this well. I hope you understand why.”
“I hope you understand how I’m feeling, right now. I’m sort of high, Edward. And more than a little afraid. And proud. Does that make sense?”
“Vergil, I—”
“Come to the apartment. Let’s talk and figure out what to do next.”
“I’m on duty, Vergil.”
“When can you come out?”
“I’m on for the next five days. This evening, maybe. After dinner.”
“Just you, nobody else,” Vergil said.
“Okay.” He took down directions. It would take him about seventy minutes to get to La Jolla; he told Vergil he would be there by nine.
Gail was home before Edward, who offered to fix a quickie dinner for them. “Rain check the night out?”
She took the news of his trip glumly and didn’t say much as she helped chop vegetables for a salad. “I’d like to have you look at some of the videos,” she said as they ate, giving him a sidewise glance. Her nursery class had been involved in video art projects for a week; she was proud of the results.
“Is there time?” he asked diplomatically. They had weathered some rocky times before getting married, almost splitting up. When new difficulties arose, they tended to be overly delicate now, tiptoeing around the main issues.
“Probably not,” Gail admitted. She stabbed at a piece of raw zucchini. “What’s wrong with Vergil this time?”
“This time?”
“Yeah. He’s done this before. When he was working for Westinghouse and he got into that copyright mess.”
“Freelancing for them.”
“Yeah. What can you do for him now?”
“I’m not even sure what the problem is,” Edward said, being more evasive than he wanted.
“Secret?”
“No. Maybe. But weird.”
“Is he ill?”
Edward cocked his head and lifted a hand: Who knows?
“You’re not going to tell me?”
“Not right now.” Edward’s smile, an attempt to placate, obviously only irritated her more. “He asked me not to.”
“Could he get you in trouble?”
Edward hadn’t thought about that. “I don’t think so,” he said.
“Coming back what time tonight?”
“As soon as I can,” he said. He stroked her face with the tips of his fingers. “Don’t be mad,” he suggested softly.
“Oh, no,” she said emphatically. “Never that.”
Edward began the drive to La Jolla in an ambiguous mood; whenever he thought about Vergil’s condition, it was as if he entered a different universe. The rules changed, and Edward was not sure he had even the inkling of an outcome.
He took the La Jolla Village Drive exit and wandered down Torrey Pines Road into the city. Modest and very expensive homes vied for space with three and four-story apartment buildings and condominiums along curving, sloping streets. Bicyclists and the perennial joggers wore brightly colored jumpsuits to ward off the cool night air; even at this hour of the night, La Jolla was active with strollers and exercisers.
He found a parking space with little difficulty and deftly pulled the Volkswagen in. Locking the door, he sniffed the sea air and wondered if he and Gail could afford to move. The rent would be very steep, the commute would be long. He decided he wasn’t that concerned with status. Still, the neighborhood was nice—410 Pearl Street, not the best the town had to offer, but more than he could afford, now at least. It was simply Vergil’s way to fall into opportunities like the condominium. On the other hand, Edward decided as he buzzed at the ground level door, he wouldn’t want Vergil’s luck if it accompanied the rest of the package.
The elevator played bland music and displayed little hologram clips advertising condos for sale, various products and social activities for the upcoming week. On the third floor, Edward walked past imitation Louis 15th furniture and gold-marbled mirrors.
Vergil opened the door on the first ring and motioned him inside. He wore a checked robe with long sleeves and carpet slippers. His fingers twisted an unlit pipe in one hand as he walked into the living room and sat down, saying nothing.
“You have an infection,” Edward reiterated, showing him the printout.
“Oh?” Vergil looked the paper over quickly, then set it down on the glass coffee table.
“That’s what the machine says.”
“Yes, well, apparently it isn’t prepared for such odd cases.”
“Perhaps not, but I’d advise—”
“I know. Sorry to be rude, Edward, but what’s a hospital going to do for me? I’d sooner take a computer into a shop full of cavemen and ask them to fix it. These figures…they undoubtedly show something, but we aren’t able to decide what.”
Edward removed his coat. “Listen. You have me worried now.” Vergil’s expression changed slowly to a kind of frantic beatitude. He squinted at the ceiling and pursed his lips.
“Where’s Candice?”
“Out for the evening. We’re not getting along too well right now.”
“She knows?”
Vergil smirked. “How could she not know? She sees me naked every night” He turned away from Edward as he said that. He was lying.
“Are you stoned?”
He shook his head, then nodded once, very slow. “Listening,” he said.
“To what?”
“I don’t know. Sounds. Not sounds. Like music. The heart, all the blood vessels, the friction of the blood along the arteries, veins. Activity. Music in the blood.” He regarded Edward plaintively. “What excuse did you give Gail?”
“None, really. Just that you were in trouble and I had to come see you.”
“Can you stay?”
“No.” He glanced around the apartment suspiciously, looking for ashtrays, packs of papers.
“I’m not stoned, Edward,” Vergil said. “I may be wrong, but I think something big is happening. I think they’re finding out who I am.”
Edward sat down across from Vergil, staring at him intently. Vergil didn’t seem to notice. Some inner process was absorbing him.
“Is there any coffee?” Edward asked. Vergil motioned to the kitchen. Edward filled a pot of water to boil and took a jar of instant from the fourth cabinet he looked into. Cup in hand, he returned to the seat. Vergil twisted his head back and forth, eyes wide open.
“You always knew what you wanted to be, didn’t you?” he asked Edward.
“More or less.”
“Smart moves. A gynecologist. Never false moves. I was different I had goals, but no direction. Like a map without roads, just places to be. I didn’t give a shit for anything or anybody but myself. Even science. Just a means. I’m surprised I got so far.” He gripped his chair arms. “As for Mother…” The tension in his hand was clear. “Witch. Witch and spook for parents. Changeling child. Where small things make big changes.”
“Something wrong?”
They’re talking to me, Edward.” He shut his eyes.
“Jesus.” There was nothing else he could think of to say. He thought wildly of hoaxes and being made a fool of and Vergil’s unreliability in the past, but he could not get away from the hard facts the diagnostic equipment had shown him.
For a quarter-hour Vergil seemed to be asleep. Edward checked his pulse, which was strong and steady; felt his forehead—slightly cool—and made himself more coffee. He was about to pick up the phone, undecided whether to call a hospital or Gail, when Vergil’s eyelids flickered open and he shifted his gaze to meet Edward’s.
“Hard to understand exactly what time is like for them,” he said. “It’s taken them maybe three, four days to figure out language, key human concepts. Can you imagine, Edward? They didn’t even know. They thought I was the universe. But now they’re on to it On to me. Right now.” He stood and walked across the beige carpet to the curtained plate glass window, clumsily reaching behind the drapes to find the cord and pull it A few apartment and house lights descended to the abyss of the night ocean. “They must have thousands of researchers hooked up to my neurons. They’re damned efficient you know, not to have screwed me up. So delicate in there. Making changes.”
“The hospital,” Edward said hoarsely. He cleared his throat “Please, Vergil. Now.”
“What in hell can a hospital do? Did you figure out any way to control the cells? I mean, they’re my own. Hurt them, hurt me.”
“I’ve been thinking.” Actually, the idea had just popped into his head—a sure sign that he was starting to believe Vergil. “Actinomycin can bind to DNA and stop transcription. We could slow them down that way—surely that would screw up this biologic you’ve described.”
I’m allergic to actinomycin. It would kill me.”
Edward looked down at his hands. That had been his best shot, he was sure of it. “We could do some experiments, see how they metabolize, differ from other cells. If we could isolate a nutrient they require more of, we could starve them. Maybe even radiation treatments—”
“Hurt them,” Vergil said, turning toward Edward, “hurt me.” He stood in the middle of the Irving room and held out his arms. The robe fell open and revealed Vergil’s legs and torso. Shadow obscured any visible detail. “I’m not sure I want to be rid of them. They’re not doing any harm.”
Edward swallowed back his frustration and tried to control a flush of anger, only making it worse. “How do you know?”
Vergil shook his head and held up one finger. They’re trying to understand what space is. That’s tough for them. They break distances down into concentrations of chemicals. For them, space is a range of taste intensities.”
“Vergil—”
“Listen, think, Edward!” His tone was excited but even. “Something is happening inside me. They talk to each other with proteins and nucleic acids, through the fluids, through membranes. They tailor something—viruses, maybe—to carry long messages or personality traits or biologic. Plasmid-like structures. That makes sense. Those are some of the ways I programmed them. Maybe that’s what your machine calls infection—all the new information in my blood. Chatter. Tastes of other individuals. Peers. Superiors. Subordinates.”
“Vergil, I’m listening, but I—”
“This is my show, Edward. I’m their universe. They’re amazed by the new scale.” He sat down and was quiet again for a time. Edward squatted by his chair and pulled up the sleeve of Vergil’s robe. His arm was criss-crossed with white lines.
“I’m calling an ambulance,” Edward said, reaching for the table phone.
“No!” Vergil cried, sitting up. “I told you, I’m not sick, this is my show. What can they do for me? It would be a farce.”
Then what in hell am I doing here?” Edward asked, becoming angry. “I can’t do anything. I’m one of the cavemen and you came to me—”
“You’re a friend,” Vergil said, fixing his eyes on him. Edward had the unnerving suspicion he was being watched by more than just Vergil. “I wanted you here to keep me company.” He laughed. “But I’m not exactly alone, am I?”
“I have to call Gail,” Edward said, dialing the number.
“Gail, yeah. But don’t tell her anything.”
“Oh, no. Absolutely.”