Descent: An Epilogue · 1 Epilogue Major Eugene Maddox composed his thoughts for a moment before...
Transcript of Descent: An Epilogue · 1 Epilogue Major Eugene Maddox composed his thoughts for a moment before...
Descent: An Epilogue
First published in 2017 by Tom Dawn
Copyright © 2017 Tom Dawn. All rights reserved.
Tom Dawn has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
Apart from any permitted use under UK copyright law, no part
of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
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system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places,
events and incidents are either the products of the author’s
imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to
actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely
coincidental
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Epilogue
Major Eugene Maddox composed his thoughts for a moment
before starting the email to his commanding officer.
Dear Colonel Hughes
Following your instructions I moved our patient,
Dr. Magnus Miller, to a more conventional program of
treatment. We observed immediate positive indications.
As you are aware, it has always been my
recommendation that the current treatment was the
preferred one. This view has now been vindicated. As
the Attending Neurologist here at Mountain View Army
Medical Center, I must point out that not only was the
experimental medication a complete failure, but also that
it was unjustified in the absence of abnormal factors and
likely detrimental to the patient’s health.
I hope that this evidence will give you pause
before countermanding the professional advice of your
staff again in future.
Eugene hovered over the Send button for a moment before
deciding to sleep on it, and saved the message as a draft
instead.
Elsewhere in the hospital, the patient lay in his recovery
room, having woken at long last. The room was bright as the
sun penetrated the closed blinds. His glassy eyes suggested
that he was not yet fully connected to the mortal world, but
he looked up when he saw a graceful, tanned and very
beautiful woman enter his room and sit down on the edge of
the bed beside him.
“Magnus, darling, the hospital called me to say you were
waking up, and I came straight over,” she said. “It’s like my
birthday and Christmas come together!”
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It was a visible effort for him to speak, and he hesitated
over her name for a moment as if he had to dredge his
memory for it.
“Izzy, my love. You look simply amazing, as ever. Where
am I? The staff all sound American.”
“We’re in Palo Alto, California, darling. Near where they
offered you a job.”
Magnus frowned intently as if peering through a fog.
“Yes, I remember now,” he said. “Thank you for coming
for me.”
“Darling, you’ve been out for the count for such an
amazing long time. Things have been happening, there’s so
much to tell you,” Izzy began, then in a hushed voice she
went on: “I got your letter about the dead man’s handle.
How your research paper was going to be published
automatically if you weren’t around to stop it. I mentioned it
to the … you know … secret service people. Then only a few
days later you’re on the mend. Isn’t that a coincidence?”
“We don’t believe in coincidences, do we?” he said.
“No, we jolly well don’t,” she said. “And the threat to
publish was an inspired idea on your part. You should have
told me about it.”
She leaned over to give him a kiss, and then rearranged the
tubes in his arm so that she could lie down beside him. A
nurse came into the room and announced the doctor would
be doing his rounds soon, and the visit would have to end.
“Darling, you’ll never believe it, but they’ve given me a
job too,” Izzy said.
“At the university?” he asked.
“No, silly. The secret services. I’m on some sort of
operational team, as a kind of foreign freelancer. A
professional international law-breaker. I can’t tell you much
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about it now, but when I write my memoirs it will make your
hair curl. Do you mind awfully?”
“Whatever you want to do is fine with me,” he said,
stroking her hair.
“I knew you’d be good about it. Now we just have to get
you mended and installed at the university. And maybe you
ought to delay that research paper before it gets prematurely
published?”
“Yes, it’s coming back to me. Can you bring in my laptop
tomorrow?” Magnus said, though his eyes were now closed.
“I’m quite tired. OK if I have a little snooze?”
“Of course darling, it’s just wonderful to have you back,”
she said, snuggling against his chest. “We’ll have you out of
here in no time. You’re going to be a star.”