Videodrome: Days of O'Blivion by Lee McGeorge Page B

things.
Hopefully, I’ll be back tonight and I’ll tell you what’s happening.
I’ll tell you everything.”
     
    ----- X -----
     
    The helicopter ride was
bumpy and miserable, flying through rain and choppy weather. Barry
and Brian barely spoke. Peter Fluorite was with them, his head
buried in a book called Strange Wine. Brian wondered how he could
concentrate on such a bumpy flight. By the time they landed the
rain had become a torrential downpour and the first strikes of
lightning flashed in the distance.
    Home Base was as
forlorn and miserable as he remembered. Brutalist concrete against
a lake the colour of lead. The shotgun security guards were now
covered in waterproofs but no less as menacing.
    As they made their way
into the building shaking the rain from their shoulders, Cue Ball
was there to greet them. “How was your trip in?” he asked.
    “Terrible,” Barry said.
“We had to swim the last leg.”
    Cue Ball gave a thin
smile. “Brian, I’d like to introduce you to Doctor William South,”
he motioned towards a grey haired man wearing delicate wire framed
glasses and a dark blue suit. “William is deputy director of Consec
Medical for our region. He’s going to brief you privately.”
    “Okay,” Brian said.
    William South shook his
hand then ushered him forward. “Shall we?”
    Barry and Peter
Fluorite remained with Cue Ball, but as Brian walked away with
Doctor South he was sure he heard Cue Ball tell Barry that Consec
Leader was coming to meet with him personally. “What’s happening?”
he asked the doctor. “I get the feeling this is serious.”
    Doctor South took Brian
to a meeting room with a white plastic table and two white chairs
with red cushions. “Brian, I have some difficult news for you. It
concerns the hospital results from when you were exposed to
Veraceo-Two in Pittsburgh.”
    “Go on.”
    “In the tests, fluid
was drawn off your spine to see what was causing the hallucinations
and we discovered an overload of a particular protein called
c-Myc.”
    “Sea-Mick? What’s
that?”
    “In genetics, when your
cells need to make a new protein, they find the gene for that
protein on your DNA and duplicate the relevant part, it’s a process
called transcription; c-Myc is vital for regulating
transcription.”
    Brian nodded. “I
understand genetics,” he took a breath sensing where this was
going. “So, tell me what the problem is.”
    “Your brain fluid was
overloaded with c-Myc. For some reason your production of c-Myc
became unregulated. It was the same for the lady you went to
hospital with. At first we saw this as an anomaly and began testing
the other women working on the Pittsburgh production. We’ve
discovered that everybody who has been exposed to Veraceo-Two has
been affected in the same way… Brian, these are cancer proteins.”
Doctor South stopped talking to allow the message to sink in.
    Brian nodded shallowly.
"Cancer… brain cancer?”
    “We are treating the
women from the Pittsburgh studio. They all have early stage brain
tumours and we believe they were caused by Veraceo-Two. When we
finish here we’ll take you to the clinic for an X-Ray and a few
tests to decide if treatment is necessary, but I think you should
prepare for the eventuality that what has happened to the
Pittsburgh women has probably happened to you too.”
    “What has happened to
them?” Brian asked. “What are their chances?”
    “Their chances are
good. It has been detected quickly and Consec will provide them
with the greatest medical care and expertise that money can buy,
just as they will for you; but you need to prepare yourself that
you may be facing a cancer battle.”
    Suddenly Brian laughed
out loud. He wasn’t sure why.
    He’d invented a new
type of television and it gave people brain tumours.
    It was hilarious.

----- Chapter Four -----
     
    Barry waited overnight
for his meeting with Consec Leader. They put him in a boutique
hotel and picked him up for a breakfast meeting