The nurse took the sterile mask—no longer sterile now—while the doctor washed and dried his hands.
"Where are they?" he asked finally. "Out in the hall, I suppose?"
She nodded. "You'll probably have to push them out of the way to get out of Surgery."
HER PREDICTION was almost perfect. The group of men in conservative business suits, wearing conservative ties, and holding conservative, soft, felt hats in their hands were standing just outside the door. Dr. Mallon glanced at the five of them, letting his eyes stop on the face of the tallest. "He may live," the doctor said briefly.
"You don't sound very optimistic, Dr. Mallon," said the FBI man.
Mallon shook his head. "Frankly, I'm not. He was shot laterally, just above the right temple, with what looks to me like a .357 magnum pistol slug. It's in there—" He gestured back toward the room he had just left. "—you can have it, if you want. It passed completely through the brain, lodging on the other side of the head, just inside the skull. What kept him alive, I'll never know, but I can guarantee that he might as well be dead; it was a rather nasty way to lobotomize a man, but it was effective, I can assure you."
The Federal agent frowned puzzledly. "Lobotomized? Like those operations they do on psychotics?"
"Similar," said Mallon. "But no psychotic was ever butchered up like this; and what I had to do to him to save his life didn't help anything."