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handed him the clipboard and he arranged the question card on the board, then began to answer the questions. He read them aloud:
    “Would you rather be an elephant or a baboon? Baboon. Elephants live too long.”
    With the metal probe, he punched out the chosen answer on the card.
    “If you were a color, would you rather be green or yellow? Yellow. I’m feeling very yellow right now.” He laughed, and punched the answer.
    She waited until he had done all thirty questions and punched his answers. He handed the clipboard back to her, and his mood seemed to shift again. “Are you going to be there? Tomorrow?”
    “Yes.”
    “Will I be awake enough to recognize you?”
    “I imagine so.”
    “And when will I come out of it?”
    “Tomorrow afternoon or evening.”
    “That soon?”
    “It’s really a minor procedure,” she said again. He nodded. She asked him if she could get him anything,and he said some ginger ale, and she replied that he was NPO, nothing
per ora,
for twelve hours before the operation. She said he’d be getting shots to help him sleep, and shots in the morning before he went to surgery. She said she hoped he’d sleep well.
    As she left, she heard a hum as the television went back on, and a metallic voice said, “Look, Lieutenant, I’ve got a murderer out there, somewhere in a city of three million people.…”
    She closed the door.
    Before leaving the floor, she put a brief note in the chart. She drew a red line around it, so that the nurses would be sure to see it:
    ADMITTING PSYCHIATRIC SUMMARY:
    This 34-year-old man has documented ADL syndrome of 2 years’ duration. The etiology is presumably traumatic, following an automobile accident. This patient has already tried to kill two people, and has been involved in fights with several others. Any statement by him to hospital staff that he “feels funny” or “smells something bad” should be respected as indicating the start of a seizure. Under such circumstances, notify the NPS and Hospital Security at once.
    The patient has an accompanying personality disorder which is part of his disease. He is convinced that machines are conspiring to take over the world. These beliefs are strongly held and attempts to dissuade him from them will only draw his enmity and suspicion. One should also remember that he is ahighly intelligent and sensitive man. The patient can be quite demanding at times, but he should be treated with firmness and respect.
    His intelligent and articulate manner may lead one to forget that his attitudes are not willful. He suffers an organic disease which has affected his mental state. Beneath it all he is frightened and concerned about what is happening to him.
    Janet Ross, M.D.
NPS

4
    “I DON’T UNDERSTAND,” THE PUBLIC RELATIONS man said.
    Ellis sighed. McPherson smiled patiently. “This is an organic cause of violent behavior,” he said. “That’s the way to look at it.”
    The three of them were sitting in the Four Kings Restaurant, adjacent to the hospital. The early dinner had been McPherson’s idea; McPherson said he wanted Ellis present, so Ellis was present. That was how Ellis thought about it.
    Ellis raised his hand, beckoning the waiter for more coffee. As he did so, he thought it might keep him awake. But it didn’t matter: he wouldn’t sleep muchtonight anyway. Not on the eve of his first stage three on a human subject.
    He knew he would toss and turn in bed, going over the operative procedure. Over and over again, reviewing the pattern he already knew so well. He’d done a lot of monkeys as stage-three procedures. One hundred and fifty-four monkeys, to be exact. Monkeys were difficult. They pulled out their stitches, they tugged at the wires, they screeched and fought you and bit you—
    “Cognac?” McPherson asked.
    “Fine,” the PR man said.
    McPherson glanced questioningly at Ellis. Ellis shook his head. He put cream in his coffee, and sat back suppressing a yawn. Actually, the PR man looked a