Science fiction; Spy stories; Telepathy -- Fiction; United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation -- Fiction
Malone opened the compartment in the thick door of the car and extracted
a bottle. It was brandy instead of the bourbon he had been thinking
about, but he discovered that he didn't mind at all. It went down as
smoothly as milk.
Boyd glanced at it momentarily as Malone screwed the top back on.
"No," Malone said in answer to the unspoken question. "You're driving."
Then he settled back again and tipped his hat forward.
He didn't sleep a wink. He was perfectly sure of that. But it wasn't
over two seconds later that Boyd said: "We're here, Ken. Wake up."
"Whadyamean, wakeup," Malone said. "I wasn't asleep." He thumbed his hat
back and sat up rapidly. "Where's 'here'?"
"Bayview Neuropsychiatric Hospital," Boyd said. "This is where Dr.
Harman works, you know."
"No," Malone said. "As a matter of fact, I don't know. You didn't tell
me--remember? And who is Dr. Harman, anyhow?"
The car was moving up a long, curving driveway toward a large,
lawn-surrounded building. Boyd spoke without looking away from the road.
"Well," he said, "this Dr. Willard Harman is the man who phoned us
yesterday. One of my field agents was out here asking around about
imbeciles and so on. Found nothing, by the way. And then this Dr. Harman
called, later. Said he had someone here I might be interested in. So I
came on out myself for a look, yesterday afternoon ... after all, we had
instructions to follow up every possible lead."
"I know," Malone said. "I wrote them."
"Oh," Boyd said. "Sure. Well, anyhow, I talked to this dame. Lady."
"And?"
"And I talked to her," Boyd said. "I'm not entirely sure of anything
myself. But ... well, hell. You take a look at her."
He pulled the car up to a parking space, slid nonchalantly into a slot
marked _Reserved--Executive Director Sutton_, and slid out from under
the wheel while Malone got out the other side.
* * * * *
They marched up the broad steps, through the doorway and into the
glass-fronted office of the receptionist.
Boyd showed her his little golden badge, and got an appropriate gasp.
"FBI," he said. "Dr. Harman's expecting us."
The wait wasn't over fifteen seconds. Boyd and Malone marched down the
hall and around a couple of corners, and came to the doctor's office.
The door was opaqued glass with nothing but a room number stenciled on
it. Without ceremony, Boyd pushed the door open. Malone followed him
inside.
The office was small but sunny. Dr. Willard Harman sat behind a
blond-wood desk, a chunky little man with crew-cut blond hair and
rimless eyeglasses, who looked about thirty-two and couldn't possibly,
Malone thought, have been anywhere near that young. On a second look,
Malone noticed a better age indication in the eyes and forehead, and
revised his first guess upward between ten and fifteen years.
"Come in, gentlemen," Dr. Harman boomed. His voice was that rarity, a
really loud high tenor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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