“W-what?” She managed to breathe out. She was determined to calm down. She didn’t want to have another panic attack.
“He was drinking pretty heavily last night.”
“Why didn’t you tell Zion?” Harmony demanded.
“It’s not any of my business.” Pat said simply.
Dr. Evers was oddly silent. He had stopped eating and seemed to be thinking deeply. When he realized that Harmony was looking at him he said, “I think we should tell Zion. It sounds like Arrow needs help.”
Her anxiety evaporated into sadness as the lump in her throat turned into tears in her eyes. “Oh…” Her voice shook and she couldn’t say anything else.
“I’ll go tell him.” Clive declared. He stood up with his tray, deposited it in its proper location, and rushed out of the dining hall.
Harmony took one more look at Pat’s unconcerned face and decided to follow Clive. “I’m going, too.” She stood, dropped off her tray, and hurried to keep pace with Clive.
It wasn’t too long before they found Zion walking down the hall towards them. “Good morning, Dr. Evers and Harmony. How are you both?” Clive explained to Zion what Pat had told them and Zion’s face went from jovial to concerned. He nodded solemnly when Clive had finished. “Let’s go check on him.”
It almost seemed like the two men hadn’t noticed Harmony’s presence, so she continued to trail along behind them. In a few minutes, they were facing the door to Pat and Arrow’s room. Zion pulled out his set of master keys and used one to unlock the door. As they entered, the smell of beer wafted out. She couldn’t see anything at first, but as they all walked into the dimly lit room she felt fear rising in her throat again. On the couch under the window was Arrow. A threadbare blanket covered his stomach and legs but his scarred and tattooed shoulders were exposed. On each shoulder blade was an intricately designed tattoo of folded angel wings that covered his entire back. His face was turned away but you could tell he was sleeping. A couple of bottles sat on the floor beside the couch, but there were far more piled up in the trash can. He hadn’t bothered to hide the evidence.
Clive kneeled beside his friend and checked his pulse. “It might be a good idea to get him to the hospital. His breathing is very shallow and his skin color doesn’t look good.”
Zion was already pulling out his cell phone and making the 911 call. “Harmony, please go inform Rachel.” Zion whispered.
“But…” Harmony didn’t want to leave. She wanted to make sure that Arrow would be okay. She didn’t want to lose sight of him in case this was the last time she would see him.
“Please.” Zion insisted.
Harmony didn’t want to make things worse, so she did as she was told. She had been on the fence about staying longer than a few days, but with Arrow being unwell she knew she couldn’t go home. As she took one last look at Arrow she wondered why this felt like deja vu.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CLIVE WAS BEGINNING to think that no matter how good of a person you were, people would not appreciate it. When Arrow regained consciousness, he began fighting off Clive and the paramedics like a scared animal. Clive had felt a twinge of anger as he was remembering Arrow’s foot injury on the boat. No matter what Clive did, Arrow fought him.
Once the paramedics had secured Arrow in the ambulance, Clive slipped away to change his clothes. He intended to check with Zion about possibly going to the hospital together to check on Arrow, but at the moment Clive needed to cool off. He was angry.
As Clive entered his room, he removed the wrinkly stained shirt and threw it in the hamper on the way to the sink to rinse off his hair. Once he had gotten his hair back to its perfect shape, he walked in front of the full-length mirror and looked everything over. He had always had confidence in himself. He knew he was attractive, healthy, and intelligent, but he longed for other people to affirm it.
As he pulled a borrowed shirt over his torso, his eyes caught a glimpse of his cell phone sitting on the bedside table. He had powered it off days ago for fear that he would be tracked. He was suddenly overwhelmed with the temptation to turn it on and see what was happening in the outside world. Did people miss him? Was the chip program suffering? He imagined that his phone would be full of new text messages and social media notifications from concerned family, friends, and patients.
Before he could give in to his curiosity, a knock sounded at his door. He answered it and was surprised to see Zion standing there.
“Mind if I come in?” He asked.
“Of course not.” Clive said enthusiastically as he stepped aside.
“Thank you.” Zion stepped past Clive and sat down in the nearest straight-backed chair. Clive followed suit by sitting on the cedar chest at the end of the bed. “I realized I had never asked you the nature of your fleeing the police.” His face turned serious and Clive realized that there was a hint of distrust in his tone.
Clive became defensive. “I don’t know. I didn’t do anything.”
“I’m not saying you did.” Zion said patiently.
Clive expected Zion to say more but when he didn’t Clive answered. “I was fired from my job and then informed by the hospital lawyer that I should run. I didn’t believe her but the police visited me before I escaped.”
Zion’s eyebrows knitted together in deep concern. “Did you do anything to cause them to fire you?”
“They are planning to take away the privacy of the patients in the microchip program. I didn’t like that. That’s all I can think.”
“I see.” Zion’s eyebrows were still knit together in concern.
“I’m a good person, Zion. We are commanded by Jesus Christ to serve one another. That’s what I do for my patients.” Clive insisted.
Zion did not comment but instead asked a question. “Are you aware of what’s going on now?”
A heavy weight fell into Clive’s stomach. “No…”
“The news has announced that Dr. Shepherd has become the new head of the microchip program. Are you familiar with him?”
“Yes, he was our night shift doctor. He doesn’t know the first thing about microchip implantation. He just knows enough to monitor the patients while I’m sleeping.” Clive scoffed. “That’s ridiculous. Healing Touch Hospital has always had poor management, but this…”
“He’s already given a press conference and stated that they will be utilizing the new technology to help make our world a more peaceful place but, it is the humble opinion of Rachel and I, that he is helping powerful people use the chip for some kind of societal control.” Zion rubbed the stubble on his chin. “He also stated that ‘chip technology can give us insight into the disordered brain and reorganize it’ but my concern is that he did not define ‘disordered brain’. I have a bad feeling about the future of this technology.”
“Dr. Shepherd is more like a sheep. He doesn’t have any of his own ideas.” Clive said bitterly. “It makes me wonder who is pulling the strings.”
Zion sighed. “Kimber University is involved. They claim it is to help med students and psychology students. They will be allowed to observe some of the patients who have received the chip and analyze data retrieved from it.”
“That’s where I first heard about this idea. I spoke with Preston Winston and he seemed to be heavily advocating for lack of privacy.”
“Preston is with us.” Zion said definitively. “He’s the one that told me about the university partnership with the hospital.”
