"Was there anything unusual about the dosage?"
Grayson looked puzzled. "Naturally not. I gave him the prescribed
dosage, just like Dr. Stark told me. Ten cc's of nor-adrenalin,
forty-four cc's of that--what d'you call it--hypnomecholyl. Why?"
Dr. Stark paled. "I told you that?" he said. The color rushed back into
his cheeks a bright crimson. "I told you _adrenalin_, you fool. Not
nor-adrenalin! And _four_ cc's of hypnomecholyl." He looked wildly at
the men around the table. "I swear I told him!" he said.
"You didn't!" the young doctor gasped. "You told me forty-four--"
Stark jumped to his feet, his face livid. He started towards the
phonescreen as if to throttle the two-dimensional image on the glass.
"You're a liar!" he cried. "You knew it was an Anger-Emotion Show! You
knew what was required--"
"I _didn't_ know," Grayson answered, his mustache twitching. "You
didn't tell me that. I just assumed--"
"You assumed!" The Producer stood up, looking thunderclouds at Dr.
Stark. "You knew what kind of show it was, Stark. Why didn't you tell
him? We needed an Anger reaction--not Fear! That's what loused up the
whole show!"
Manford groaned. "What does _that_ matter now? Forty-four cc's of
hypnomecholyl! What kind of a doctor _are_ you, Grayson? Don't you know
you could _kill_ a man that way?"
"I--I didn't know. I never worked with these mecholyl drugs. I studied
antibiotics--"
"Better if it had killed him," the Producer said darkly. "We might have
covered _that_ up. But we can never get him past the FCC examining
officer now--"
"I swear he told me forty-four! I swear it!"
Dr. Stark made a rush at the phonescreen. Grayson backed away in
terror, despite the many miles that were between him and Stark's
intended violence. With a snarl, the older doctor reached up and turned
off the instrument.
"Now we're in for it," he told the others.
"Maybe he'll be all right," Manford said. "Maybe he'll snap out of it.
A little more anti-dope--"
"Nonsense," Stark snapped. "If it hasn't worked by now, it'll never
work. The overdose has permanently affected his nervous system. He's an
amnesiac for good--an amnesiac with a permanent case of the jitters--"