The Nirvana Plague Read Online Free PDF Page B

it,” Marley said. “It’ll take me a little while to get there. Sit tight.”

    Marley called her back an hour later. “I’m almost there now. What does your car look like?”
    “Don’t worry, I’m sure I’m the only car anywhere near these coordinates.”
    A minute later she saw in her foggy mirror a blob of light rolling up behind her. The thump of a door, and a shadowy figure walked up to her door and knocked on the glass. She threw off the silver blanket, popped the door, and rolled out.
    “Sorry it took me so long,” Marley said. “It’s hard to find your way around when it’s so dark. — No word, I guess?”
    “No. I’ve been calling home every five minutes or so. Nothing.” Karen threw her bag into the backseat of Marley’s car.
    Marley clicked a couple of buttons on his console computer. “Where do you live?”
    A heads-up display appeared on the windshield in front of him — a local street map traced in colored lines. A pointer showed their current position.
    She looked at the insignia on the steering wheel — Mercedes. “Nice car.”
    He smiled. “At least it’s warm. You looked like you were getting pretty chilly.”
    “I was all right. I had a blanket. — My apartment is not far from the campus. Seven-oh-three Hamlin.”
    “Oh, I know where that is,” he said. “That’s not far from my wife’s coffee shop. Do you know it? Coffee Alley?”
    “Ally is your wife?”
    “I believe this is the point where one of us is supposed to say small world. ”
    “Well, you just did.”
    He turned into a bigger street and kicked the car up to speed. “So you know Ally?”
    “I’ve met her. I go there all the time for breakfast. Latte and croissant. But I don’t really know her. She’s very nice. Good coffee.”
    “I’ll tell her we met. Maybe she’ll give you a free latte next time you’re in. My influence and a Lincoln will get you a cup of coffee in this town.”
    “It’s only four fifty.”
    “But now you’ll have to pay the friend-of-husband surcharge. That’s another ten percent.”
    “Four ninety-five.”
    “Plus tax.”
    Marley followed his windshield map back to the main road, then clicked it off and headed north.
    He told her he was very sorry about the situation with her husband, but that Roger had given the staff no options. Absent explicit terms of commitment or compelling medical justification, they had no legal authority to physically restrain him, and that appeared to be the only way they could have kept him in the hospital.
    “Well, that’s just it, doctor. Considering the shape he was in when he was admitted, don’t you think you had compelling medical justification to hold him?”
    “Two weeks ago, we would have had, yes. But your husband’s condition has been improving since then, and in the past twenty-four, thirty-six hours his condition has changed dramatically. That’s what I’ve been wanting to talk to you about today.”
    “What’s happened?”
    “I talked with Roger first thing this morning. I’ve been his doctor now for ten years, and I’ve seen his condition in many phases, in and out of psychotic episodes. But he’s never shown any significant progress overall. Even during his most high-functioning periods, he has been very obviously ill. It’s only because of you that he is able to live anything like a normal life outside an institutional setting. You’ve done a wonderful job with him, Mrs. Hanover.”
    “Let’s drop this ‘Mrs. Hanover’ business, OK? How about you call me Karen and I’ll call you — whatever you like.”
    “Carl will do fine.” He flashed her a smile. “When’s the last time you spoke with Roger?”
    “Yesterday morning before I left the apartment to go to my office.”
    “How did he seem?”
    “I didn’t notice much difference. He seemed distant and cold, just as he has been for the past week. I asked him if he’d had his morning meds, and he said yes.”
    “That was the last round of medication he