Chapter 7 Chapter VII

Despite going to bed late the night before, Jill took over ten minutes early.She followed Ben's advice and didn't go to see the visitor from Mars for the time being, but she always remembered that place in her heart and tried to find opportunities to get close to it.Ben might need her support. In the hallway where the visitor from Mars was, the guards were withdrawn.That night, Jill had a lot of things to do, such as fetching dishes, distributing medicines, preparing two surgeries...for a full two hours.She managed to spare some time, and only checked the movement outside the senior ward of K-12.The door was closed, as was the door to the adjacent lounge.She had planned to sneak in to have a look, but there were no guards guarding it anyway, but something happened again, so she had to give up temporarily.However, she has been closely monitoring the people who come and go to that ward.

Ben never showed up.Jill was worried, and asked the nurse at the front desk if anyone had been in the No. ward when she was off duty.No.Jill was a little confused: why didn't Ben come?He did not say when the operation would take place, but said it would be earlier in the day, so that the surprise attack would catch opponents off guard. There is no way, Jill can only look around.While resting, she suddenly knocked on the door of ward K-12, and poked her head in to have a look.There are people inside.Jill pretended to be surprised and shouted: "Good morning, doctor! I thought Dr. Ferrem was here." The doctor sitting at the table raised his head, looked at her, and said with a smile: "I didn't see him, Miss. I'm the new Dr. Brash. Can I help you?"

Seeing that the other party was courteous, Jill became bolder. "Nothing important, just ask. How is the visitor from Mars?" "Ok?" Jill smiled. "Hmm, what? It's not a big secret. Besides, I'm also an internal employee. Your patient—" she said, pointing to the door leading to the inner room. "Huh?" The doctor looked surprised, "He lived here before?" "Is he not here now?" "No, that's true. It's Mrs. Rose Bankson, Dr. Garner's patient, who came in early this morning." "Is that so? What about—the visitor from Mars?"

"I had no idea. Did you mean that Valentine Smith really lived here? I missed such a big event." "He lived here yesterday!" "Others have taken all the good luck. Look at what mess I have made!" He said, turning on the monitor above the table.Jill looked at it, and it was still a water bed, but it was a thin old lady lying on it. "What's wrong with her?" "Well...Miss Nurse, if she doesn't have so much money to burn, you can say that she has Alzheimer's disease. Since the family has so much money, then she's just hospitalized to recuperate and have an examination or something. "

After a few more perfunctory words, Jill pretended to have a call and left.When she returned to the duty room, she immediately took out the "Work Log" for that day to look it up—yes, it clearly read: Va May Smith, K-12 -- transfer out Ross Bankson (Ms.), K-12 ward——transferred (diet follows Dr. Ghana’s order—other, none—nurse on duty does not participate in nursing) Why transfer at night?Maybe it's for deception.Then where did he hide it?In normal times, Jill would have called the main service desk of the center to inquire, but now she dare not.Firstly, there was Ben's warning, and secondly, the appearance of counterfeit products in the news last night also surprised her a lot.She should be cautious.So, she decided not to take action and waited and watched.Perhaps, some situations can be captured from the gossip.

Jill went to the public phone booth on the ground floor and dialed the number for Ben Caxton's office.The other party told her that Ben was out of town.Jill was stunned and speechless.After a long time, I hurriedly asked the other party to ask him to call back when I saw Ben. She called Ben's house again, but there was no one.In desperation, she had no choice but to call Ben and ask him to call back. Ben Caxton isn't wasting time, he's on the move.First, he enlisted the notary James Oliver Cavendish.Any notary would do, but this old gentleman is so prestigious that sometimes even a lawyer is unnecessary.He has testified several times before the Federal High Court.He is said to have numerous wills in his head, involving billions of dollars.Cavendish was a researcher at the Rhine Foundation, where he studied mnemonics and hypnotism under the tutelage of the famous Dr. Samuel Renshaw.Today, his daily expenses exceed his income this week.But this job is all about inviting the best.Ben decided to charge the fee to the Post Group's account.

Ben Caxton then hired Mark Frisby of Frisby Brothers LLP and explained to him the purpose of his trip.Then, he called the notary and informed him of his departure.Soon, Cavendish arrived.I saw him wearing a white cloak, with a dignified aura, like a Statue of Liberty.Before calling Cavendish, Ben explained his intentions to Frisby (who, Frisby pointed out, had no such authority).After the notary came to the scene, the three followed relevant regulations and no longer discussed what the notary might have seen or heard during the operation. The air taxi took them to Bethesda Ambulance, and the group went straight to the dean's office.Ben handed over his business card and asked to see the dean himself.

A domineering female secretary received them.She asked if there had been an appointment in advance, and Ben admitted no. "Then it will be difficult to see Dean Bremmer. What business do you have?" "Tell him," said Ben Caxton, loudly, so that he could be heard by those around him, "that I am a columnist for the Post's 'Lookout' column, and I am here today with lawyers and notaries. , Interview with Valentine Michael Smith, Visitor from Mars." The secretary was taken aback, but quickly returned to normal, and said coldly: "I will notify the dean, please sit down."

"Thank you, we will wait here." The wait is long.Ben Caxton was restless, Frisby folded a cigarette into several pieces, and only Cavendish, who had experienced great storms and was accustomed to justice and evil, waited patiently.Finally, the Frost Queen appeared. "Mr Burquist wants to see you." "Berquist? Keir Berquist?" "Mr. Gilbert Berquist, I'm afraid." Ben remembered—Keele, Berquist, a member of the Douglas Group, acting as "executive assistant." "I don't want Berquist. I want to see the Dean himself." Before the words finished, Berquist had already greeted him."Ben Caxton! Hello old chap! Hello! Still peddling nonsense?" he said, casting a glance at the notary.

"Still doing the same thing. Keel, what are you doing here?" "I really want to get rid of official duties. Like you, I also go to some newspaper to get a column, randomly pick up some gossip and stuff it in, and after the job is done, I can fool around freely for the rest of the day. I really envy you ,Book." "I'm asking: 'What are you doing here, Gere?' I'm here to see the dean, to meet the visitor from Mars, not to be dismissed by you!" "Come on, Ben, what's the attitude? I'm here because our press officer, Dr. Bremer, has been driven mad by your media's pursuit. Secretary Douglas sent me here to take over the burden."

"Well, I want to see Smith." "Ben, my old chap, who wouldn't want to see him of all—reporters, correspondents, feature writers, commentators, freelance writers, and sentimental romance writers? Polly Peeps was here twenty minutes ago. Not only do people want to meet visitors from Mars, but they also want to interview Martians about their sex life." "I ask to see the visitor from Mars, is that okay or not?" "Ben, let's go have a drink and talk while we drink. Ask anything you want." "I don't want to ask you anything, I just want to see Smith. Introduce me, this is my lawyer, Mark Frisby." As usual, Ben did not introduce the notary. "We know each other," said Berquist. "Is your father all right, Mark? Does the old man still have sinus problems?" "same as usual." "It's all about the bad weather. Come on, Ben, and you too, Mark." "Wait," Ben said seriously, "On behalf of the Post Group and the 200 million Post readers, I would like to request an interview with Valentine Michael Smith. Please answer, can I meet? If No, please speak out, and explain your legal basis for rejecting me." Berquist sighed. "Mark, tell him he can't break into a patient's room, okay? Smith made an appearance last night--and I have to point out that his doctor objected to his appearance." Now, he has a right to tranquility and a chance at recovery." "But," said Ben, succinctly, "it's rumored that the one who made an appearance last night was a fake!" Berquist's face twitched and froze, and the smile disappeared. "Frisby," he said coldly, "tell your client to beware of libel." "Don't get excited, Ben." "Legal slander, I understand, Keel. But who did I slander? Martian visitor, or someone else? Name the name. I repeat," Ben declared, raising his voice deliberately, "I heard , The person who was interviewed on TV last night was not the real visitor from Mars, but a fake! Now, I want to meet and ask the visitor from Mars in person.” The tumultuous crowd in the reception hall suddenly fell silent.Berquist glanced at the notary, then controlled his facial expression, smiled and said, "Ben, if you talk like this, you may get an interview, and you may also get yourself a lawsuit. Please wait. "After speaking, he turned and left.In a blink of an eye, he came back again. "Even though you're worthless, Ben," he said wearily, "I've arranged for you. Come on—sorry, you're the only one. Sorry, Mark, there's too many people. Smith's a sick man." "No," said Ben Caxton. "how?" "Either three go together, or none go." "Ben, don't be stupid, you've already received the most special care. Well, Mark can go, but he has to stay outside the ward. As for this one, you don't need it." He then raised his head and motioned to stand Cavendish on the side pretended not to hear anything. "Maybe I need to. If you refuse my request, I will declare in the Post tonight: Federal authorities refuse to allow notary public to meet visitors from Mars." Burqvist shrugged and said reluctantly, "Then—come on. Ben, I'd like a libel suit to ruin you." In order to take care of the elderly Cavendish, the group chose to take the electric passage after getting out of the elevator.Electric tunnels carried them past laboratory after laboratory, treatment room and ward, until they were stopped by a guard.After the guards called to report, they were ushered into an intensive care unit for critically ill patients, where instruments and meters were placed everywhere to display the patient's vital signs at any time. "This is Dr. Tanner." Berquist introduced. "These two are Mr. Ben Caxton and Mr. Frisby." Naturally, he did not introduce Cavendish. Tanner looked sad. "Gentlemen, I must warn you that my patient is intolerant of any provocation, and must not be overly aggressive when he asks questions. He suffers from a severe neurosis, and is liable to fall into a state of pathological shock—in your terms. , called 'syncope'." "Epileptic?" Ben asked. "This kind of symptom is often mistaken for epilepsy by laymen, but it is actually more like catalepsy." "Are you a specialist? A psychiatrist?" Tanner looked at Berquist. "Yes." He admitted. "What school did you graduate from?" Burqvist interrupted him: "See the patient first, Ben. There's plenty of time to question Dr. Tanner later." "Ok." Tanner stared at the console for a while, found the switch, pressed it, and opened the peephole.He looked at the situation in the ward through the peephole, and then he opened the door of the ward, ushered everyone in, and put his finger on his lips, motioning for everyone to tap. It was very dark in the ward. "We kept the room dark on purpose, because his eyes can't stand the stimulation of normal light." Tanner explained in a low voice as he walked, leading everyone to the water bed in the center of the room, "Mike, I brought you some friends, They want to see you." Ben Caxton moved closer.I saw a young man lying flat on the water bed, his body sunk in the water mattress, and his body was covered by a blanket.Seeing someone coming, he just stared at him without speaking, and there was no expression on his smooth face. It seemed to Ben that the man in front of him was the same man who had appeared on the TV last night.He groaned secretly in his heart: Jill really put a pulled-string grenade in his hand.This time, he had to go to court.Libel would bankrupt him. "Are you Valentine Michael Smith?" "yes." "Visitor from Mars?" "yes." "You were on TV last night?" The man didn't answer. "He probably didn't understand," Tanner explained to Ben, turning to the person on the bed, "Mike, you were with Mr. Douglas last night, don't you remember?" "Bright light—pain." "Yes, the light hurt your eyes. Mr. Douglas asked you to say hello to everyone." The patient smiled softly, "Sitting on a chair for a long time." "Yeah," said Ben, "I've seen it all. Mike, are they taking good care of you?" "it is good." "You don't have to stay here. Can you walk?" Without waiting for the person on the bed to answer, Tanner hurriedly said: "This—look, Mr. Caxton—" Burqvist touched his arm suddenly, and Tanner fell silent. "I can walk...a little bit, tired." "I'll find you a wheelchair. If you don't want to be here, Mike, I can take you anywhere you want." Tanner shook off Berquist's hand and said, "I can't let you disturb my patient like this!" "Tell me," retorted Ben, "is he a free man or a prisoner?" Berquist answered first: "Of course he is free! Take it easy, doctor, and let the fool dig his own grave." "Thanks, Keir Mike, you heard me, you can go anywhere." The patient gave Tanner a terrified look and exclaimed, "No! No no no!" "Okay, don't go, don't go." Tanner snapped: "Mr. Berquist, this is too much!" "Yes, doc. Ben, let's call it a day." "Um... one last question." Ben racked his brains desperately.Clearly Jill was mistaken.But she never made a mistake!At least until last night, she never seemed to miss it. "Okay, last one," Burquist urged reluctantly. "Thank you. Well...Mike, Mr. Douglas asked you a lot of questions last night." The patient didn't respond.Ben continued, "Let's go back, oh, come to think of it, he asked what you thought of Earth girls, didn't he?" "Wow, wow!" The patient's face burst into a smile. "Yeah, Mike... when and where did you meet the Earth girl?" The smile on the man's face disappeared instantly, and he just turned his head to look at Tanner in a daze.Suddenly, he rolled his eyes, bent his body, and fell ill again.I saw his head tilted to one side, his body curled up into a fetal shape, his arms folded in front of his chest, his appearance was very strange. Tanner yelled, "Get out!" He hurried over to take the patient's pulse. Berquist also yelled roughly: "Enough! Mr. Caxton, please get out! Otherwise I'll call the guards!" "Okay, let's go." Ben had to give in.Except for Tanner, a group of people came out one after another, and Berquist closed the door behind him. "There's one thing I don't understand, Keel," Ben demanded. "You've got him stuck in here with nowhere to go . . . Where is he going to meet the so-called girls?" "Huh? Don't be a fool. He's seen a lot of girls, nurses, and, you know, lab technicians and all." "That is. But as far as I know, his nurses are all men, no women; at the same time, all female visitors are prohibited." "Huh? Don't be too foolish." Burqvist looked impatient.Suddenly his eyes rolled, and he grinned again, "In the news last night, there was a female nurse beside him, didn't you see?" "Oh, I see." Ben fell silent. The three of them were silent all the way and came outside.Frisby said: "Ben, I think it is unlikely that the Secretary-General will prosecute you. Of course, if you do have inside information, you'd better keep the evidence properly. "Come on, Mark, he won't sue," Ben said angrily, staring at the floor. "But why should we assume that man is a visitor from Mars?" "Oh! Come on, Ben." "How can we be sure? What we saw was a man of about the same age, lying in a hospital bed. That's all. Berquist said he was a visitor from Mars, and who was Berquist A crook who made his way into politics by lying and slandering! We also saw a stranger named 'Tanner', let's say he was a psychiatrist - but I was interrupted when I asked where he graduated Open. Mr. Cavendish, have you seen any convincing evidence? Evidence that the kid is a visitor from Mars?" "It's not my job to give an opinion. I come, I see, I listen - that's all," Cavendish replied. "Sorry." "My mission as a notary, is this over?" "Huh? Oh, of course. Thank you, Mr. Cavendish." "Thank you too, Mr. Ben Caxton, this is an interesting errand." Then, the old gentleman took off the silver and white cloak that made him stand out from ordinary people, and heaved a sigh of relief. Also take it easy. "If you invite several members of the 'Victor' expedition team to come together," Ben said unconvinced, "the problem must have been cleared up." "There is one detail that you overlooked." Cavendish said, "You actually made such a mistake, I have to say, it's really beyond my expectation." "Huh? What did I overlook?" "Calluses." "Calluses?" "Yes. A man's history can be clearly deciphered from his cocooned tissue. I have published a paper in the "Notarial Quarterly" on this matter. This young man from Mars has been living in only as long as In a low-gravity environment of one-third of the earth, and has never worn our shoes, the calluses on the soles of his feet should be consistent with the environment he lives in, and there will be no calluses like ours." "Damn! Why didn't you remind me, Mr. Cavendish?" "What?" The old man straightened his back, his nostrils flaring with anger, "I am a notary, not a client!" "I'm sorry." Ben Caxton frowned. "Let's go back! I have to check those feet. If they try to hide him, I'm going to turn the place upside down!" "Then you have to hire another notary—because I accidentally participated in the discussion of the parties." "Oh, yes, that's right," Ben scowled. "Calm down, Ben." Frisby reminded from the side, "You're already in big enough trouble. From my point of view, that person is definitely a visitor from Mars." Ben asked the air taxi to put down the two companions, then reset the car, put it into a waiting state, hovered aimlessly in the air, and thought over and over again the ins and outs of the whole incident.He went in, with a lawyer and a notary.It seems that there is no reason to ask for an interview again on the same day, and I am afraid that I will be rejected. But he was able to write a column in the newspaper group, not by being rejected.He must go in. How to get in?He already knew the hiding place of the so-called "guest from Mars".Can I pretend to be an electrician and get in there?This method is too obvious, and he can't even pass the level of "Doctor Tanner". Is that "Tanner" really a doctor?A real doctor has a set of principles of self-discipline and will not join forces with scammers and brokers.Such as Dr. Nelson, the random doctor of the space shuttle, who chooses to resign, chooses to leave-wait for it!Dr. Nelson could tell at a glance whether the young man was a real visitor from Mars, without any calluses.Ben didn't know Dr. Nelson's phone number.Nevermind, just ask Ben's assistant, Osbert Kilgallen.Oh, and Kilgallen didn't know either.Nothing, there's Who's Who in the archives of the Post Group. Check it out.Sure enough, Dr. Nelson's contact number was found in it.Dial, it's his office, please... A few minutes later, Ben was already on the phone with Dr. Nelson. Dr. Nelson hadn't read the news.Yes, he heard.No, he had no reason to suspect that the Visitor from Mars was a fake.Has Dr. Nelson heard of attempts to cajole Smith into giving up his Larkin rights?No, even if true, not interested.It's ridiculous that one person "owns" Mars.Mars is naturally Martian.Is that right?I ask a hypothetical question, if anyone tries to... "Crack!" Nelson hung up the phone.When I dialed again, it was a recording: "The user you called is temporarily interrupted, please leave a message—" Ben Caxton cursed and greeted Dr. Nelson's parents.It's stupid to do that.But what he did next was even more stupid: he called the residence of the Federal Secretary-General and asked to speak to the Secretary-General himself. In the process of scouting for news for many years, Ben Caxton understood a truth: If you want to pry out the secrets, you often have to go straight to the upper level and stay there, and the upper level hates you so much that you can't stand it anymore.He also knows that twisting a tiger's tail is very dangerous; Jill knows nothing about power, but he has deeply dissected the secrets of power.However, he is a reporter, and no power dares to challenge the power he represents. But he forgot one thing.His calls to the Secretary-General's residence were made in a taxi, not in a more public setting. Ben Caxton, speaking to half a dozen of the Secretary General's staff, grew more and more irritable, not noticing that the air taxis had come out of hold. By the time he understood, it was too late.The car no longer accepts his commands.Ben realized with a bitter heart that he had fallen into a trap, and a poor trap at that, which no punk would fall into.They tracked down his phone, locked on to the taxi he was in, and then took control of the air taxi's robot pilot by sending commands on a priority channel dedicated to police.Just like that, without anyone noticing, the taxi became a prison car for arresting people. Ben desperately called his lawyer. The air taxi landed in a courtyard, and Ben continued to call, but the signal was blocked by the high wall of the courtyard.He wanted to get out of the car, but the door wouldn't open.Soon, he was unconscious - an outcome that did not come as a surprise to him.