page8 (2/2)

And I quit my job in Columbus and moved with my dad so he could enter a clinical trial at Duke

Hoping beyond hopeagainst all oddsfor a cure

Chapter 5

Hawke

It's a standard power-play drill, me stationed point at the blue line

The puck gets passed back and forth Garrett tothe biscuit back and forth Winds upreconsiders, passes back to me

My stick reaches out to connect, and the puck slides right under it, crosses the blue line, and kills the play

Coach blows his whistle and I slam the blade of my stick on the ice in frustration

"You're out, Therrien," he says "Camdentake his place"

I skate off the ice, ripping my helmet off The minute I hit the bench, I sit my ass down and slouch back

Been off ether It's a good thing this is only the second full day of practice, or else I'd be worried as shit about my ability to ht?

Poor goddamned soul, Dave Campbell, lives in a perpetual off day now, and I can't see very soon

When he opened the door yesterday to the apart was seriously wrong His face ollen, his skin pale

He took one look athim like that

Fifteen minutes later, I had the entire story, and it's some crazy, whacked-out sci-fi shit too

Apparently Duke is running a phase-one clinical trial--whatever the fuck that means--to try to eradicate a disease that is essentially terlio-whatever-the-fuck-he-called-it is fatal No cure Nada You're going to die

Except apparently Duke engineered sos, o, a half-teaspoon cocktail injected right into the center of his recurrent brain tumor

I didn't understand all of the technicalities, but Dave was very educated on as going on Apparently the virus breaks down the cancer so that it's not invisible to the body's own immune system The theory is that then the immune system will in turn attack the tumor and kill it

Hocus fucking pocus, but apparently the clinical trials have been working

Somewhat

About 50 percent of the patients have done well, while 50 percent have died

Still, as Dave says, "What did I have to lose? Fifty-fifty odds are pretty da at zero percent chance of survival"

The shitter was, those patients that died were probably due to overdosing of the drug In a phase-one clinical, as he described it, the ure out thethe patient

So far, it appeared to be working for Dave Perhaps a little too well, because once the virus started working on the tu it to triple in size and put pressure on his brain Dave had to go in for an ened to reduce the swelling

And aood now that the inflammation is under control He's just under watch and will have another MRI to check the tu ame

"Vale never hesitated," Dave told uilt "Quit her job without even discussing it with ot accepted into the trial"

"Lucked out getting on with the Cold Fury," I observed

"Not luck," Dave said slyly "Called in a favor to Brian Brannon We went to college together"

"What did he owe you for?" I asked curiously

"He didn't," Dave toldThere wasn't an opening on the staff, so he talked to Gray and they created that position so

Vale could have a job"

And I thought that was a fucking nice thing to do, because you don't just add on a salary all willy-nilly within an organization like this Made me even more proud to be part of this tearatitude I felt like I really owed the Brannons now, on Dave's behalf