"Well, let me tell you what is my business. Ally Hampton is a particular friend of mine. I damned well want to know whether she's scheduled to undergo the same procedure as Kristen. I don't know what you and Van de Vliet did to Kristen, but if you turn Ally into a zombie too, I'll personally—"
"I think we'll continue this discussion later." He pulled his cell phone out of a jacket pocket, flipped it open, and punched a memory number.
"Ken, could you and Jake please come in. We have the problem I was afraid we had." He flipped the phone shut and turned back to Stone. "Karl entered Ms. Hampton and her mother into the clinical trials at the last minute, as a special favor. She's in no danger."
Now Stone saw two men come through the front door. One was the tall Japanese man who had slugged him the day before.
Shit. I need this? Is he going to work me over again?
The other guy was dressed in white, as though he were an orderly or nurse. Stone noticed he had a plastic syringe in his right hand.
"Ken, could you and Jake please take care of this. He'll be going with us."
Stone examined the three of them. Well, he thought, / guess I'm going to be back inside the Dorian Institute after all.
"Look, there's no need for excessive violence here. We could just set some ground rules for this situation."
The Japanese man named Ken walked over and seized him around the neck, while at the same time pulling his right arm around behind him, a decisive hammerlock.