"Everything's ready." Jewel seated herself at the console and pressed a button. A deep hum, like the sound of a distant swarm of impossibly huge bees ...illed the room. It rose in pitch, dwindling in volume until its faint whine faded into silence. The framework of the portal, an ovoid some two meters wide by three high, filmed over with a wash of pale blue light. By the time the hum faded completely, the ovoid was a solid sheet of blue that hid the painted concrete of the cubicle's wall.Jewel. " she said. "Why, he's not contagious or anything." "Talking about it is one thing, but now we're here and it's something else entirely. "Ok if you want out just...just go." Amber turned to the exit then stopped. "Tamara?" she said. "I think you need to ask yourself why you care so much for this patient. You were willing to hire him a hooker." I stood there long after she had left, mulling over her words. I had heard of the Florence Nightingale effect, of nurses who fall in love with patients. Just a few tears. ‘You do understand that this investigational activity involves both hypnosis and sex?’ ‘Yes, I do.’ ‘Why are you skeptical about hypnosis?’ ‘I just don’t think that one person can control another through words.’ ‘Pamela, I have some papers you must sign before we can even consider using you for this investigation.’ I handed her the release papers. She signed them without reading them. ‘Pamela, it is important that you listen to every word I speak without thinking of anything. ' I think they found him ... interesting." I see," Dr. Payton said with a small smile. "Alright," she continued, "then what's the last thing you remember before you woke up in the hospital?" Hey, that's supposed to be my line," protested Officer Kevin McConnell as he came in the door. He was wearing blue jeans and a University of South Carolina sweatshirt instead of his police uniform."Good morning," Dr. Payton said cordially as she rose to shake his hand."I'm the cop assigned to Mark's assault.