The Key to Midnight

floating on a vast body of water… floating on blue water under blue sky… drowsy… drowsy… drowsier… until you are now in a deep and natural sleep.'
        Joanna's breathing had become slow and regular, but Inamura continued:
        'I am taking hold of your right hand, Joanna. I'm lifting your right arm. And now your arm is becoming stiff… rigid… cannot be moved… cannot be lowered. It is impossible for you to lower your arm. It is rigid and will stay where I have put it. I'm going to count down from three, and when I say "one," you will be unable to put your arm down. Three… you are sleeping deeply… two… deeper and deeper into a relaxed, natural sleep… one… your arm is rigid. Rigid. But try to prove me wrong, Joanna. Try to move your arm.'
        She tried, but the arm trembled, and she could not lower it.
        Inamura nodded with satisfaction. 'You may now lower your arm, Joanna. I am now allowing you to lower it. Indeed, your arm is now so limp that you cannot possibly hold it up.'
        Her arm dropped into her lap.
        'And now you are in a deep, deep, very relaxed sleep, and you will answer a number of questions for me. You will enjoy answering them. Do you understand?'
        'Yes,' she murmured.
        'Speak more clearly, please.'
        'Yes.'
        Inamura returned to his chair. He put the remote control on the coffee table.
        'Fly away,' said the myna in the cage. A wistfulness colored those two words, as if the bird actually understood their meaning.
        Joanna was limp, but now Alex was tense. He slid to the edge of his chair and turned to his right, so he could look directly at her.
        To Alex, Inamura said, 'She's an excellent subject for hypnosis. Usually, there's a little resistance, but not with her.'
        'Perhaps she's had a lot of practice.'
        'Quite a lot of it, I think,' said Inamura.
        Joanna waited.
        The doctor leaned back in his chair, every bit as relaxed as his patient. His face was half in shadow. One eye was dark, the other gilded by a soft golden light, a reflection off the brass birdcage. He thought for a moment, then said, 'Joanna, what is your full name?'
        'Joanna Louise Rand,' she said.
        'Is that truly your name?'
        'Yes.'
        'Recently you learned that Joanna Rand is a false name and that you were once called something else. Is that true?'
        'No.'
        'You don't remember making that discovery?'
        'My name is Joanna Louise Rand.'
        'Have you heard the name "Lisa Chelgrin"?'
        'No.'
        'Think about it before answering.'
        Silence. Then: 'I've never heard the name.'
        'Do you know a man named Alex Hunter?'
        'Of course. He's here.'
        'Did he mention Lisa Chelgrin to you?'
        'I've never heard that name.'
        'Joanna, you can't lie to me. Understand?'
        'Yes.'
        'You must always tell me the truth.'
        'Always.'
        'It is utterly impossible for you to lie to me.'
        'Impossible. I understand.'
        'Have you ever heard the name "Lisa Chelgrin"?'
        'No.'
        Alex glanced at the doctor. 'What's happening?'
        Inamura stared at Joanna for a while, tilting his head just far enough so the reflected spot of golden light shifted from his right eye to his cheek, where it shimmered like a strange stigmata. Finally he said, 'She might have been programmed with this response to this particular question.'
        'Then how do we get around the program?' Alex asked.
        'Patience.'
        'I haven't much of that at the moment.'
        Inamura said, 'Joanna, we will now do something amazing. Something you might think impossible. But it is not impossible and is not even difficult. It is simple, easy. We are going to make time run backward. You are going to get younger. It is beginning to happen already. You can't resist it. You don't want to resist it. It is a lovely, sweet, flowing feeling… getting younger… and younger. The hands of the clock are turning backward… and you feel yourself floating in time… getting younger… rapidly younger… and now you are thirty-one years old, not thirty-two any more… and now thirty… and now twenty-nine… floating back through time.' He continued in that fashion until he had regressed Joanna to her twentieth year, where he stopped her, 'You are in London, Joanna. The apartment in London. You are sitting in…