papers.
Copying a patient’s notes was of course highly irregular, and she could be dismissed for it; if she was caught, and using hard paper copies made that far less likely than simply copying information to the personal file of her c-pac. She began reading the papers she had copied earlier. She flicked through the leaves, following the path her finger traced and reading at that speed. In less than five minutes she read the full notes that she had access to.
Rei had become vaguely aware that she had started to talk out loud to herself sometimes, although she tried to ignore it, or put it down to stress rather than isolation. She took a sip of tea and looked at the pile of paper on the table.
“So, from most of the medication that is being administered he has had suffered from a type of heart disease, which is unusual, unless he’s travelled somewhere odd where it could not be treated. However, his physical condition is poor and this would not suggest recent travel, but nor is it a side effect of any disorders that would fit the profile. So deduction, he has two problems. Firstly something like a myocardial infarction, however unlikely that is, has occurred and he is still being treated for that; probably because the initial treatment was a misdiagnosis or was incomplete. Secondly, he has suffered a major trauma, which has caused him to coma, or somehow become bedridden for a length of time, perhaps for over two months with minimal movement. This would be in addition to his general poor health and poor treatment. So to conclude, Mathew Lyal has been somewhere far from any decent medical attention and got sick there. Now he is a special case, and is being kept in isolation, although there appears no reason to suspect that anything contagious is active. So that means there is another reason. That could be….” She thought for a minute, turning ideas around in her head. “Well, it could be a politically sensitive area of the world, or he could be on active service, but he doesn’t seem to be fit enough for that. In fact everything about him seems ordinary, except that he had a heart condition that should be relatively easy to diagnose and reverse and yet it wasn’t, at least not until it became complicated. So why is Warwick so interested in him? Obviously the fact that I only have medical notes for the last month is relevant. He could be part of an experiment, but really a case like this has not existed in the last thirty years.” She gulped the last of her tea and moved back to the window, and carried on thinking as the animal that was London breathed and stalked beneath her.
11
Philip was late returning to the apartment. The room was small and dark and largely obscured by stacks of hard-copy, info-plates, books on history and politics and roughly scribbled notes. Philip liked to be able to see his work instantly as he produced it and found that writing was one the best ways to do this, even though it meant the laborious task of subsequently dictating it to c-pac. It had been a long day and the hangover that he had awoken with had stayed until midway through the day. He slumped into a chair and activated his c-pac. His notes from earlier appeared in front of him and he scrolled through them for the names of the two missing people from Fort Burlington. He picked a used glass from the floor, wiped it with a cloth, and poured a large measure of Jack Daniel’s into it. He gulped a mouthful then started work.
“Database 12. Search, people, history, names,” he commanded. “One: Deon Underdown; two, Nasreen Freeman.” DATES, the screen flashed back at him. He thought for a second. “From today, Wednesday the 25 th April 68, back to….” thirty years should easily cover everything he reckoned and selected the year. SELECT TYPE OF SEARCH, the unit asked him. “Birth certificate, press, awards, medical, police,” he demanded. If anything had been written on either of these characters over that time he should
Copying a patient’s notes was of course highly irregular, and she could be dismissed for it; if she was caught, and using hard paper copies made that far less likely than simply copying information to the personal file of her c-pac. She began reading the papers she had copied earlier. She flicked through the leaves, following the path her finger traced and reading at that speed. In less than five minutes she read the full notes that she had access to.
Rei had become vaguely aware that she had started to talk out loud to herself sometimes, although she tried to ignore it, or put it down to stress rather than isolation. She took a sip of tea and looked at the pile of paper on the table.
“So, from most of the medication that is being administered he has had suffered from a type of heart disease, which is unusual, unless he’s travelled somewhere odd where it could not be treated. However, his physical condition is poor and this would not suggest recent travel, but nor is it a side effect of any disorders that would fit the profile. So deduction, he has two problems. Firstly something like a myocardial infarction, however unlikely that is, has occurred and he is still being treated for that; probably because the initial treatment was a misdiagnosis or was incomplete. Secondly, he has suffered a major trauma, which has caused him to coma, or somehow become bedridden for a length of time, perhaps for over two months with minimal movement. This would be in addition to his general poor health and poor treatment. So to conclude, Mathew Lyal has been somewhere far from any decent medical attention and got sick there. Now he is a special case, and is being kept in isolation, although there appears no reason to suspect that anything contagious is active. So that means there is another reason. That could be….” She thought for a minute, turning ideas around in her head. “Well, it could be a politically sensitive area of the world, or he could be on active service, but he doesn’t seem to be fit enough for that. In fact everything about him seems ordinary, except that he had a heart condition that should be relatively easy to diagnose and reverse and yet it wasn’t, at least not until it became complicated. So why is Warwick so interested in him? Obviously the fact that I only have medical notes for the last month is relevant. He could be part of an experiment, but really a case like this has not existed in the last thirty years.” She gulped the last of her tea and moved back to the window, and carried on thinking as the animal that was London breathed and stalked beneath her.
11
Philip was late returning to the apartment. The room was small and dark and largely obscured by stacks of hard-copy, info-plates, books on history and politics and roughly scribbled notes. Philip liked to be able to see his work instantly as he produced it and found that writing was one the best ways to do this, even though it meant the laborious task of subsequently dictating it to c-pac. It had been a long day and the hangover that he had awoken with had stayed until midway through the day. He slumped into a chair and activated his c-pac. His notes from earlier appeared in front of him and he scrolled through them for the names of the two missing people from Fort Burlington. He picked a used glass from the floor, wiped it with a cloth, and poured a large measure of Jack Daniel’s into it. He gulped a mouthful then started work.
“Database 12. Search, people, history, names,” he commanded. “One: Deon Underdown; two, Nasreen Freeman.” DATES, the screen flashed back at him. He thought for a second. “From today, Wednesday the 25 th April 68, back to….” thirty years should easily cover everything he reckoned and selected the year. SELECT TYPE OF SEARCH, the unit asked him. “Birth certificate, press, awards, medical, police,” he demanded. If anything had been written on either of these characters over that time he should
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