‘Functional?’ Kraig asked.
‘By that I mean a mental or emotional disturbance without a physical basis,’ the doctor said. ‘Of course, it’s too soon to say.’
‘Could you show me?’ Kraig asked.
‘I’d rather not,’ the doctor said. ‘It wouldn’t be appropriate for anyone outside the family …’
‘Has the family seen him?’ Kraig asked.
‘Only his wife. She didn’t think it would be good for the children to –’
Agent Kraig moved closer to the doctor and spoke in a low voice.
‘I understand your concerns, Doctor. But it is important that I get a clear view of the situation right away. Would you like me to have the head of the Secret Service call you?’
The doctor sighed. ‘No, let’s get it over with. Let me see if he’s awake first.’
The doctor left Kraig to wait in the corridor and disappeared into the hospital room. After a couple of minutes he emerged.
‘Come on in.’
Kraig followed the doctor into the room. Vice President Everhardt was propped up in the hospital bed, looking at the television screen on the ceiling. Not for the first time Kraig noticed the vice president’s size. He had the bulk of a football player.
‘Mr Vice President, I’d like you to meet someone,’ Dr Isaacson said. ‘This is Agent Kraig. He’s with the Secret Service.’
Everhardt looked at Kraig. There was something wrong with the expression in his eyes. Kraig could not put it into words, but the gaze didn’t seem lucid. The eyes seemed elsewhere.
‘That’s Kraig with a ‘K,’ Mr Vice President,’ Kraig said, moving forward to extend a hand.
Everhardt ignored the outstretched hand. He kept looking at Kraig for a few seconds, then looked back at the TV screen, on which an old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie was playing.
‘You can call me Joe if you like,’ Kraig said. ‘Everybody does.’
Everhardt gave no sign of having heard the remark.
‘Mr Vice President,’ said the doctor, ‘I’d like to show Agent Kraig a couple of the things we were trying to do before. If that’s all right with you.’
Everhardt looked at the TV in silence.
‘Just to make sure there’s no mistake,’ the doctor said, ‘is your full name Daniel James Everhardt?’
No response.
The doctor took one of Everhardt’s hands. Everhardt looked down at his hand.
‘Can you just give my hand one firm squeeze?’ the doctor asked.
Everhardt stared at the clasped hands, but did not obey the command. At length he looked back up at the TV, leaving his hand in the doctor’s.
‘All right, Mr Vice President. Can you just look from the TV to Agent Kraig, and then back at the TV?’
There was no response.
The doctor gave Kraig a significant look. Then he pushed the call button on the phone beside the bed. A moment later a nurse appeared.
‘Yes, Doctor?’ she asked.
Everhardt looked at the nurse. His hand remained in the doctor’s.
‘Nothing, Nurse. My mistake,’ said the doctor.
The nurse left the room.
‘Mr Vice President, can you look at me?’ the doctor asked.
Everhardt, whose eyes had returned to the TV screen, did not react to the question.
The doctor escorted Kraig from the room.
‘You saw the essentials,’ he said.
‘He seems aware of his surroundings,’ Kraig said.
‘He is. His reflexes are normal. He reacts to new sights, to sounds. But he can’t do anything on command,’ the doctor said. ‘Nothing at all. He can look at the nurse when she walks in, but he can’t do it if I tell him to look at her.’
‘Did he walk in here under his own power?’ Kraig asked.
The doctor shook his head. ‘When they found him he was immobile. Rigid. He seemed to resist any attempt to move him.’
‘What about language?’ Kraig asked.
‘He hasn’t said a single word since they brought him in. He can’t repeat a word, or even a sound. He’s groaned a couple of times, but he hasn’t spoken. We don’t know if he can speak.’
Kraig was perplexed. ‘I’m not a doctor,’ he said, ‘but this seems very strange.’
‘It is very strange,’ the doctor said. ‘To have a paralysis of function this massive while all the vital signs are normal, and while he can obviously see and hear and react, is not something I’ve ever seen.’
‘What are you going to do?’ Kraig asked.
‘Keep him under observation. Run some more tests. Some more blood studies to look for infection or a metabolic disorder. Some more sophisticated neurological studies. An EEG and skull X-ray to rule out an atypical seizure disorder or brain tumor. Maybe an MRI.’
The doctor gave Kraig a look. ‘And, I think, a complete psychiatric workup with a thorough history.’
‘Why psychiatric?’
‘Well, his condition has some features of catatonic schizophrenia or certain types of conversion disorders. We’ll also have to rule out a factitious disorder.’
‘What’s that?’
‘The layman would call it faking,’ the doctor said. ‘I’d prefer to call it a kind of stress-related dysfunction. As you know, the vice president is under considerable stress at the moment. As is the president.’
‘You mean the calls for a special election?’ Kraig asked.
‘There could be a lot of ambivalence about a thing like that,’ the doctor said. ‘Especially in these troubled times.’
‘I see what you mean.’ Kraig knew that Dan Everhardt was a career legislator who probably would never have dreamed of running for high executive office if the president had not chosen him as his running mate five years ago. Now that the president was under attack, Dan Everhardt had to absorb the same blows from the media and from hostile forces in Congress.
‘You’re saying that he has a strong motive to be sick,’ Kraig offered. ‘Because it would get him off the hook politically.’
‘That’s correct,’ the doctor said. ‘Not that it’s a conscious decision on his part. The symptoms wouldn’t be this convincing if it was.’
There was a silence. The doctor started to say something, but stopped himself.
‘Yes, Doctor?’ Kraig asked.
‘Did you hear about that strange epidemic out in Iowa?’ the doctor asked.
‘You mean the people who can’t talk?’
‘Yes. It’s just a hunch on my part, but the vice president’s symptoms remind me of the reports about those people. I think it would be worth checking out.’
‘I’ll take care of it,’ Kraig said, making a note on a small spiral pad.
The doctor looked worried. ‘If this