Flashback (1988) Read Online Free Page B

hospital.”
    Frank sighed audibly and bit at his lower lip, making it clear that only courtesy kept him from interrupting to contest the statement.
    “More and more, his patients—especially the poor French-Canadian ones—were being shipped to the county hospital in Clarion. Then rumors started floating around town about Guys competence and all of a sudden, all the surgical cases who could pay—those with insurance, or on Medicaid—were going to this Mainwaring. I’ve heard some of the rumors myself and, let me tell you, they are vicious. Drinking, doing unnecessary internal exams on women, taking powerful drugs because of a small stroke …”
    “Is there truth to any of them?” Zack asked.
    During the summer between his sophomore and junior years at Yale Med, he had worked as an extern at the then Davis Regional Hospital, and Beaulieu had gone out of his way to bring him into the operating room and to nurture his growing interest in surgery. It was a concern he had never forgotten.
    The Judge shook his head. “According to Guy, there have been no specific complaints from anyone. Just rumors. He says that about eighty percent of his work now is charity stuff at Clarion County, and that he hasn’t operated on a non-French-Canadian patient at Ultramed for almost a year. He says the whole thing is a conspiracy to get back at him because he was so opposed to the sale of the hospital to Ultramed in the first place.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” Frank said. “Mainwaring’s getting the cases because he’s good and he works like hell. It’s as simple as that. You know, Judge, I don’t think it’s fair for you to take Beaulieu’s side in this thing.”
    Clayton Iverson slammed his hand down on the table. “Don’t you ever dare tell me what’s fair, young man!” he snapped. “The provisional phase in our contract with Ultramed still has a month to run. I convinced the board of trustees to sell out to them in the first place, and by God, the three weeks until our meeting and vote is more than enough time for me to convince them to exercise our option and buy the damn place back.”
    He breathed deeply and calmed himself.
    Zack glanced over at Frank! Though he was staring at their father impassively, his hands were clenched and his knuckles were bone-white.
    “And let me make this clear,” the Judge went on, “I haven’t taken anyone’s side. As a matter of fact, Frank, I resented his implications that you were in any way involved with his problems, and I told him so. He apologized and backed off some, but he’s hurt, and he’s angry. I promised him I’d speak to you—both of you—about it … ask you to keep your eyes and ears open. I feel we owe it to him. You were too young to remember, Frank, but that man all but saved your life when your appendix burst.”
    Franks fists relaxed a bit, though Zack could tell that he was still smarting from the Judge’s threat. Personality clashes, power plays, and political machinations were, he knew all too well, as omnipresent and as integral a part of hospital life as IVs and bedpans. But he sensed something more to all of this—something virulent.
    “Annie!”
    Cinnie Iverson’s cry was followed instantly by the crash of dishes. With reflexes born of years of crisis, Zack was on his feet and headed toward the kitchen as Frank and the Judge were just beginning to react.
    Annie Doucette was on the floor. Her back and neck were arched, and her limbs were flailing uncontrollably in a grand mal seizure.
    As Zack knelt beside the woman, he felt
the change
sweep over him. Early on, he had heard about the phenomenon from other, older docs, but did not undergo it himself until midway through his second year of residency, when he witnessed the cardiac arrest of a patient. In that moment, his world suddenly began to move in slow motion. His voice lowered and his words became more measured; he sensed his pulse rate drop and all his senses heighten. It was unlike