NIGHTMARE

-Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into The Future-

Nightmare

-Chapter 02-

Cheviot was awakened by his vu-phone. "Cheviot," he muttered, groggily. Then he saw who was on the phone. "Dr. Duncan. What's wrong?"

"It's Bryce Lynch, sir," Dr. Duncan replied. "He was attacked. I called an ambulance. He's on his way to the hospital for surgery right now."

"Does security have any idea who attacked him?" Cheviot asked.

"None," Dr. Duncan replied. "There's no record of anyone breaking into his studio. And I doubt it was self-inflicted."

"Thank you," Cheviot replied. He disconnected the call and phoned Murray.

"Murray," he said. "Get Edison and Theora. I need you to find out who attacked Bryce."

"Yes, Mr. Cheviot," Murray replied, feeling a sudden pang of worry. Bryce was the youngest member of his team. He was definitely a genius. But there was a naiveté about him that was inexplicable. He reached for his vu-phone and punched in Edison's number.

Edison Carter didn't like being woken up in the middle of a Saturday night. "Damn it, Murray," he grumbled. "It's the middle of the night."

"Bryce was just taken to the hospital," Murray told him.

Edison was suddenly out of bed and getting dressed.

"What happened to Bryce?" he asked as he rushed into the Control Room at Network 23 several minutes later.

"According to Dr. Duncan, he was attacked by an unknown assailant," Cheviot replied. "There's no sign of an attacker. But Bryce was badly slashed across his midsection."

"I hope he'll be okay," Murray said.

"What's his current condition?" Edison asked.

"Bryce was taken into immediate surgery," Cheviot replied. "They said they would call us as soon as it was over. Or..." he broke off, not even wanting to think about the other outcome. "God, please let him live."

"Theora," Edison suggested. "Look up incidents of unexplained slasher attacks. See if there's a pattern of some kind."

"Okay," Theora said, as she turned to her control computer and began to search.

"I'm going to the hospital," Cheviot told them.

"I'm coming with you," Edison said, hoisting his vidicam over his shoulder. "Theora, feed any information you find to me at the hospital."

Theora nodded and continued to look up the information Edison had asked for while Edison followed Cheviot to his car.

Back                         Home                              Max Headroom Main Page                              Next