David tried the Geiger counter again. Immediately the needle pegged to the right. "Jesus Christ!" David said. "We couldn't get any better evidence than that." David thanked Ronnie and sent him on his way. He then explained to Angela what he thought they should do. David pulled on the lead gloves and picked up three aprons. He carried one in his hands while he tossed the other two over his shoulder. Angela picked up four in her arms.

David opened the door and went into the conference room, with Angela close behind. Traynor, who'd been interrupted in mid-sentence, glared at David. Those in attendance-Sherwood, Beaton, Cantor, Caldwell, Arnsworth, and Robeson-all turned to stare at the source of this rude interruption. As the assembled members of the board began to murmur, Traynor banged his gavel, crying for order.

Scanning the cluttered conference table, David spotted the source instantly. It was a cylinder about a foot long whose diameter matched the size of the bore in the treatment arm he'd examined only minutes ago. Several Teflon rings were embedded in its circumference. On its top was a locking pin. The cylinder was standing upright next to a model of a parking garage just as Van Slyke had indicated.

David started for the cylinder, clutching a lead apron in both hands.

"Stop!" Traynor yelled.

Before David could get to the cylinder, Caldwell leapt to his feet and grabbed David around his chest.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Caldwell demanded.

"I'm trying to save all of you if it isn't too late," David said.

"Let him go," Angela cried.

"What are you talking about?" Traynor demanded.

David nodded toward the cylinder. "I'm afraid you have been having your meeting around a cobalt-60 source."

Cantor leaped to his feet; his chair tipped over backward. "I saw that thing," he cried. "I wondered what it was." Saying no more, he turned and fled from the room.

A stunned Caldwell relaxed his grip. David immediately lunged across the table and snatched up the brass cylinder in his lead gloves. Then he rolled the cylinder in one of his lead aprons. Next he wrapped that apron in another and that one in another still. He proceeded to do the same with the aprons Angela was carrying while she stepped out of the conference room to get the others. David was anxious to cover the cylinder with as many layers of lead as possible.

As David was wrapping the last load of the aprons around the bulky parcel, Angela got the Geiger counter.

"I don't believe you," Traynor said, breaking a shocked silence. But his voice lacked conviction. Cantor's sudden departure had unnerved him.

"This is not the time for debate," David said. "Everyone better get out of here," he added. "You've all been exposed to a serious amount of radiation. I advise you to call your doctors."

Traynor and the others exchanged nervous glances. Panic soon broke out as first a few and then the remaining board members, including Traynor, ran from the room.

David finished with the last apron and took the Geiger counter. Turning it on, he was dismayed to see that it still registered a significant amount of radiation.

"Let's get out of here," David said. "That's about all we can do."

Leaving the cylinder wrapped in aprons on the table, they went out of the conference room, closing the doors behind them. David tried the Geiger counter again. As he expected, the radiation had fallen off dramatically. "As long as no one goes in the conference room, no one else will get hurt tonight," he said.

He and Angela headed toward the lobby to collect Nikki. Just before they arrived David stopped.

"Do you think Nikki will be okay for a few more minutes?" he asked.

"In front of a TV she'll be fine for a week," Angela said. "Why?"

"I think I know how the patients were irradiated," David said. He led Angela back toward the patients' rooms.

Half an hour later they collected Nikki and went out into the hospital parking lot. They took the Cherokee back to Van Slyke's so that David could get the Volvo.

"Do you think there's any chance he could hurt anybody tonight?" David asked. He motioned toward Van Slyke's house.

"No," Angela said.

"I don't think so either," David said. "And the last thing I want to do is go back in there. Let's go to my parents'. I'm exhausted."

David got out.

"I'll follow you," he said.

"Call your mother," Angela said. "I'm sure she's beside herself with worry."

David got in the Volvo and started it up. He looked at Calhoun's truck in front of him and sadly shook his head.

As soon as they got on the main road, David picked up his cellular phone. Before he called his mother he called the state police. When he got an emergency officer on the line he explained that he wanted to report a very serious problem that included murder and deadly radiation at the Bartlet Community Hospital…

EPILOGUE

David knew he was late as he pulled up to a modest house on Glenwood Avenue in Leonia, New Jersey. He jumped out of the car and ran up the front steps.

"Do you know what time it is?" Angela asked. She followed David into their bedroom. "You were supposed to be home at one and here it is two. If I could get here on time I think you could have too."

"I'm sorry," David said as he quickly changed his clothes. "I had a patient who needed extra time." He sighed. "At least now I have the freedom to spend more time with a patient when I think it's called for."

"That's all well and good," Angela said. "But we have an appointment. You even picked the time."

"Where's Nikki?" David asked.

"She's out on the sun porch," Angela said. "She went out there over an hour ago to watch the '60 Minutes' crew set up."

David slipped on a freshly laundered dress shirt and did up the buttons.

"I'm sorry," Angela said. "I suppose I'm anxious about this TV thing. Do you think we should go through with it?"

"I'm nervous, too," David said as he selected a tie. "So if you want to cancel, it's fine with me."

"Well, we've cleared it with our respective bosses," Angela said.

"And everyone has assured us that it won't hurt us," David said. "And we both feel the public ought to know."

Angela paused to think about it. "Okay," she said at last. "Let's do it."

David tied his tie, brushed his hair, and put on a jacket. Angela checked herself in the mirror. When they both felt they were ready, they descended the stairs and walked out onto the sun porch, blinking under the bright lights.

Although David and Angela were nervous, Ed Bradley quickly put them at ease. He began the interview casually, getting them to relax, knowing he would be editing heavily as usual. He began by asking them what they were currently doing.

"I'm taking a fellowship in forensic pathology," Angela said.

"I'm working with a large medical group at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center," David said. "We're contracted out with several HMO organizations."

"Are you both enjoying your work?" Bradley asked.

"We are," David said.

"We're thankful we've been able to put our lives back in some sort of order," Angela said. "For a while, it was touch and go."

"I understand you had a difficult experience in Bartlet, Vermont," Bradley said.

Both David and Angela chuckled nervously.

"It was a nightmare," Angela said.

"How did it start?" Bradley asked.

David and Angela looked at each other, unsure of who should begin.

"Why don't you start, David?" Bradley said.

"My part of it started when a number of my patients began to die unexpectedly," David said. "They were patients with histories of serious illnesses like cancer."