He sighed, like a teacher wearying of a particularly slow pupil. “Mrs. Lloyd, this will all make perfect sense later. But it’s not a question of permission. It’s a government requirement.”

“A government requirement?”

“Mrs. Lloyd, I know this is all a bit of a shock, but we don’t have time to go through all that now. We have a problem with your youngest daughter.”

“Becky?” she cried. “What’s wrong?”

“No, no,” he said hastily. “It’s nothing serious. We just, well, we have a problem. She threw up her lunch—” He managed a brief smile, meant to show his fatherly concern, but which filled Madeline with revulsion. “Too much hamburger and ice cream soda, I guess. Anyway, she came out of the sedation too early.”

“Sedation?” Madeline shook her head, her mind reeling.

“Yes, you were all given a sedative with your lunch today. You’ve been asleep for about four hours. We find it’s much easier on both you and us.”

It came back to her then, the growing weariness during Travis’s lecture, the dull sense of alarm as she slipped into unconsciousness. The sickness and the revulsion and the horror were turning now, swiftly changing to a burning rage. “It?” she nearly shouted. “What do you mean it? It makes what easier?”

A searing pain wrenched her stomach, causing her to gasp sharply. She tried to ignore it as the rage against this awful man engulfed her. “What are you saying?” she cried, leaping up to confront him. “Who are you? What right do you have—?” But a scream of agony cut her off, doubling her over.

Dr. Gould watched, his eyes expressionless as she finally straightened, biting back the pain, her face white. “Mrs. Lloyd,” he said, shaking his head sadly, “anger will only hurt you. It will not help your daughter. Do you want to help your daughter or not?”

Madeline was dazed and shaken, not sure what was happening. The pain. His hammering words. But his final question registered, and she heard herself answering, “Yes, I do. Where is she?”

“Normally we use only a local anesthetic when we do implantations, but the patient must hold absolutely still. That’s why we sedated all of you. But Becky’s sedation has worn off, and the anesthesiologist would rather not put her under a general anesthesia when she has been throwing up. That presents a problem, for she must be perfectly motionless while we do the implantation, and Becky has been hysterical for the last hour and a half. She’s terribly frightened and wants her mother.”

“Oh, Becky,” Madeline whispered, still unable to shake off the horrifying dreamlike quality of what was happening.