Bridge to Nowhere

The Spa

Tuesday Night–White House

Zsoldos helps the two old men to the door of the Oval Office. The Secret Service detail takes charge once the office door is open. "The president and the colonel would like to spend time in the spa. Please assist them."

The spa is in the basement of the West Wing next to the swimming pool. The colonel had it remodeled into a modern treatment center during a previous administration. President Anderson and the colonel walk into the luxurious treatment room and sit in comfortable reclining chairs. Male attendants dressed in medical garb work to prepare customized individual treatments.

President Anderson will receive a new course of Alzheimer's therapy. The treatment involves flooding the brain with a mix of chemicals designed to dissolve amyloid and tau protein buildups, revitalizing damaged nerve cells.

Before beginning this course of treatment, the president went through a procedure to install small plug valves in his skull, hidden beneath his hair. An attendant connects tubes to the valves.

Cruikshank notes the bizarre sight; the leader of the free world sitting with colored tubes coming out of his skull. The attendant starts the cerebral flush and fluids gush through the tubes with a pumping, sucking sound saturating the president's brain with healing fluid.

Colonel Cruikshank is an enthusiastic devotee of a unique treatment to cure his ails. His procedure involves using blood, plasma, and stem cells from young subjects. A young person's blood replaces the blood of an older person through a process called Parabiosis, resulting in mental and physical rejuvenation of the older subject. He considers it his fountain of youth.

Scientists tested the Parabiosis process on mice. The scientists found when an older mouse shared the circulatory system of a younger mouse, the stem cells and blood factors from the younger mouse rejuvenated the older mouse, effectively making the older subject young again. They've since developed new techniques for extraction and processing of young blood factors, making the complicated parabiosis transfusion process unnecessary, but the colonel trusts the traditional method. He prefers a human touch.

A door opens on the far side of the spa and a small boy, wearing only sky-blue pajama bottoms and white slippers, walks anxiously into the room. He catches a fright at the sight of the old men and freezes in place. A husky male attendant lifts the boy, carries him across the room, and straps him in a small reclining chair next to the colonel.

The boy looks to be nine or ten years of age. He is rosy-cheeked with blond hair. The boy is thin but tall for his age. The colonel looks the boy over approvingly. Two attendants extend the boy's arms and strap them to padded boards. They swab his arms with alcohol, then pierce him with needles. The boy whimpers. The male attendant connects tubes to each needle. The man attaches one tube to an IV bag of saline and the other tube fills with the boys' blood. A tear rolls down the boy's cheek.

Blood pulses from the boy into a small machine. This machine pulls blood from the boy and pumps it into the old man. One attendant swabs the old man's leg on the inside of his upper thigh and inserts a tube. Another attendant does the same to the boy. They connect these tubes to a similar pump system, but this device pulls blood from the old man and stores it in a reservoir. The reservoir ensures none of the old man's blood gets recycled through the boy during the process. The final step of the procedure is to pump the old blood into the boy.

Tears stream down the boy's face. The attendant leans down and whispers into his ear. "You are helping Colonel Cruikshank. He is a great man and you're a brave boy. You are helping the colonel and the glory of Arcadia."

The attendant pushes a lozenge between the boy's lips. It's cherry flavored. He smiles. The lozenge contains a relaxant to calm the boy during the procedure. They don't inject the drug. If injected, the drug would enter the bloodstream too quickly and travel to the old man. The attendant starts the pump. It makes a soft whirring sound. Blood surges into the old man's arm. Cruikshank feels the young warm blood flow into his veins. His body surges with energy, forcing his eyes shut. A thin smile forms on his face as his head falls back in the spa chair. The attendant starts the second pump to evacuate old tired blood from the colonel.