There was still total blackness but not quite dead silence. A sucking noise—Any sensation was most welcome. Johann shouted, “Hey! I lived through it!”Two rooms away the monitoring technician on watch jumped up so fast he knocked over his chair. “Patient’s trying to articulate! Get Dr. Brenner!”Brenner answered quietly over the voice monitor. “I’m with the patient, Cliff. Get a team in here. And notify Dr. Hedrick and Dr. Garcia.”“Right away!”Johann said, “Hey, damn it! Isn’t anybody here?” The words came out as incoherent grunts.The Doctor touched a wand speaker to the patient’s teeth, held the microphone hooked to it against his own throat. “Mr. Smith, do you hear me?”The patient mumbled again, louder and more forcefully. The Doctor answered, “Mr. Smith, I’m sorry but I cannot understand you. If you hear me, make one sound. Any sort but just one.”The patient grunted once.“Good, wonderful—you can hear me. All right, one sound by itself means Yes; two sounds mean No.
