Read Online F Paul Wilson - Novel 02 by Implant (v2.1) - Free Book Online Page B

some stranger, he was one of Duncan 's patients. And who was this Lisa he'd been
talking about to Allard? It had seemed like such a non sequitur.
                 She
took the Metro Red Line up to Friendship Heights and walked the rest of the way, still
thinking, still wondering.
                 By
the time she reached the surgicenter she still didn’t have an answer.
                 "He
wanted to see me," she told Barbara as she paused at her reception desk.
                 "He
mentioned it, but right now he's conferencing with another doctor. Strict
orders not to disturb."
                "Really? Anybody we
know?"
                Barbara shrugged. "All he
tells me is to block out half an hour for Dr. V. Now you know as much as I do.
But he's very good-looking." Barbara's eyebrows oscillated as her voice
took on a Mae West tone. "This is his second visit, and I hope it's not
the last." Why so mysterious about the name? A doctor who wanted cosmetic
surgery maybe?
                 Gin
shrugged. Not her business.
                 "Let
him know I'm here."
                 "Will
do." A few minutes later she was sitting in the basement lab across the
workbench from Oliver, diffidently watching him fill the next batch of a dozen
or so implants for tomorrow's surgery. She already had a headache, and the
residual olfactory tang of solvents was conspiring with the bright overhead
fluorescents to make it worse. She should have been working with Oliver,
learning the technique, but she couldn't muster the concentration.
                 Her
chin rested on her hands and her elbows were propped on the marred black
counter. She felt leaden, as if someone had siphoned off all her energy . . .
the aftermath of the morning's events, and the certainty that Duncan was going to fire her.
                 '"He's
not going to fire you," Oliver said.
                 She
glanced up at him. He sat calmly in his white coat, his pudgy hands folded in
front of him. But she read genuine sympathy in the round, pale face and in the
blue eyes behind the thick horn-rimmed lenses. Hard to believe he and Duncan
shared the same gene pool.
                 "How
can you be so sure?"
                "He tends to fly off the
handle lately. Ever since they reconvened that darn committee."
                "What is it with him and that
committee?"
                "Well, years ago he had a bit
of trouble . . . " His voice trailed off.
                 "What
sort of trouble?"
                "Nothing. Forget I said
anything."
                Gin wasn't forgetting anything.
Especially after this morning. Another question was burning through her
brainpan.
                 "All
right then. Tell me this, Who's Lisa?"
                 "Lisa?"
                "Yes. I heard Duncan mention something about a Lisa this . . .
morning."
                 The
implant Oliver was filling suddenly burst. "I . . . I don't know. He had a
daughter named Lisa."
                 "Had?"
                "Yes, well," The phone
rang.
                 Oliver
picked it up and listened. "She's right here," he said, then handed
it across to her. Duncan 's voice, "Gin, please come to my office."
                Her mouth went dry. "Okay.
Sure." The other end clicked dead. That in itself was not indicative of anything, Duncan rarely said hello or good-bye on the phone,
but she could feel her insides coiling into knots. She handed the receiver back
to Oliver. "He wants to see me."
                Oliver smiled. "See? He's
cooled down already."
                 "I
wouldn't be too sure of that."
                 "I'll
talk to him if you want."
                 "Thanks,
but I'd better handle this myself." With the knots inside pulling even
tighter, she rose