“I suppose if you two screwballs think it is safe enough, I can do it,” Stanton said reluctantly. “But you’d better read that prospectus or you’ll be hearing from some of my North End mafia friends.” Stanton took a pipette.
“Each can choose his own poison,” Edward said, motioning toward the flasks.
“Reword that or I’m backing out,” Stanton said.
Edward laughed. He was enjoying Stanton’s discomfiture. Too often it had been the other way around.
Stanton let Eleanor choose first, then he took one of the two remaining flasks. “This strikes me as a kind of pharmacological Russian roulette,” he said.
Eleanor laughed. She told Stanton he was too clever for his own good.
“Not clever enough to keep myself from getting involved with you two oddballs,” he said.
“Ladies first,” Edward said.
Eleanor filled the pipette and placed a milliliter on her tongue. Edward encouraged her to follow it with a glass of water.
The two men watched her. No one spoke. Several minutes went by. Finally Eleanor shrugged. “Nothing,” she said. “Except my pulse rate went up slightly.”
“That’s from pure terror,” Stanton said.
“You’re next,” Edward said, motioning to Stanton.
Stanton filled his pipette. “It’s a crime what I have to go through to get you on a scientific advisory board,” he complained to Edward. He deposited the tiny amount of liquid on his tongue, then chased it with a glass of water.
“It’s bitter,” he said. “But I don’t feel anything.”
“Wait another few seconds for circulation time,” Edward said. Edward filled his own pipette. He began to have doubts, wondering if there could have been some other water-soluble compound in the crude extract that had caused his psychedelic reaction.
“I think I’m feeling slightly dizzy,” Stanton said.
“Good,” Edward said. His doubts faded. He remembered dizziness had been his first symptom with the crude extract. “Anything else?”
Stanton suddenly tensed and then made a grimace as his eyes darted around the room.
“What are you seeing?” Edward asked.
“Colors!” Stanton said. “I’m seeing moving colors.” He started to describe the colors in more detail, but then he interrupted himself with a cry of fear. Leaping to his feet, he began to frantically wipe off his arms.
“What’s the matter?” Edward asked.
“I’m being bitten by insects,” Stanton said. He continued to try to brush away imaginary pests until he began to choke.
“What’s happening now?” Edward asked.
“My chest is tight!” Stanton croaked. “I can’t swallow.”
Edward reached out and gripped Stanton’s arm. Eleanor picked up the phone and started dialing, but Edward told her it was okay. Stanton had instantly calmed down. His eyes closed and a smile spread across his face. Edward backed him up a step and sat him back down in his chair.
Stanton responded to questions slowly and reluctantly. He said he was busy and didn’t want to be bothered. When asked what he was busy doing, he merely said: “Things.”
After twenty minutes Stanton’s smile waned. For a few minutes it appeared as if he were asleep, then his eyes slowly opened.
The first thing he did was swallow. “My mouth feels like the Gobi Desert,” he said. “I need a drink.”
Edward poured a glass of water and gave it to him. He drank it with gusto and had a second.
“I’d say that was a busy couple of minutes,” Stanton said. “It was also kind of fun.”
“It was more like twenty minutes,” Edward said.
“Are you serious?” Stanton questioned.
“How do you feel generally?” Edward asked.
“Wonderfully calm,” Stanton said.
“How about clairvoyant?” Edward asked.
“That’s a good way to describe it,” Stanton said. “I feel as if I can remember all sorts of things with startling clarity.”
“That’s exactly how I felt,” Edward said. “What about the choking sensation?”
“What choking sensation?” Stanton asked.
“You were complaining about a choking sensation,” Edward said. “You were also complaining about being bitten by insects.”
“I don’t remember that at all,” Stanton said.
“Well, no matter,” Edward said. “The point is we know that compound B is definitely hallucinogenic. Let’s see about the last one.”
Edward took his dose. As they did with Eleanor, they waited for several minutes. Nothing happened.