Chapter 3 - LIGHT PERCEPTION
Voss refused to promise anything.
She brought portable imaging equipment to the mansion before dawn and converted a guest suite into an examination room.
"No Hale drops for forty-eight hours," she said.
"And if they were preventing damage?"
"Then the scans will tell us."
Hannah stayed near the door with Lucy asleep against her shoulder.
Grant hated that the child who started this was now part of the secret, but sending Hannah away felt worse.
Voss examined his retinas, optic nerves, and pupil responses.
The silence stretched.
Grant finally snapped, "Say something."
"Your left optic nerve is badly damaged."
His stomach dropped.
"And the right?"
"Damaged. Not destroyed."
The room became very still.
Grant gripped the chair.
"Can I see?"
"I don't know yet."
She turned off every lamp.
"I'm going to use a controlled light source. Tell me if anything changes. Do not guess."
Nothing.
Then pressure.
A faint grayness.
Grant swallowed.
"Again."
The grayness vanished.
Returned.
His hand began to shake.
"There's something."
Hannah covered her mouth.
Voss remained clinical.
"Where?"
Grant pointed badly.
She moved the source.
He tracked it twice.
Daniel whispered, "Jesus."
Grant took off his glasses even though there was still nothing recognizable around him.
"Five years."
Voss said, "Do not jump ahead. The pathway is weak. Your corneas are inflamed. Your pupils have been chemically manipulated for a long time. Recovery may be limited."
"Limited means not zero."
"Correct."
That one word hurt more than permanent ever had.
Daniel paced to the window.
"Why would Hale do this?"
Voss looked toward the old vial.
"I can tell you why he might use the drug. I can't tell you why he used it on Grant."
Then her tablet chimed.
She stared at the new scan.
"What?" Grant asked.
Voss enlarged an image.
"Your surgical record says both optic nerves were severed by blast trauma."
"Yes."
"They weren't."
Daniel stopped moving.
May you like
Voss lowered the tablet.
"Somebody lied in your original operative report."
