The Key to Midnight

realized might be the physical evidence of a fierce internal struggle to break free of the implanted psychological bonds that imprisoned her memory, she repeated, 'Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun.'
        'Now what?' Alex asked.
        Omi Inamura was silent for so long that Alex thought he hadn't heard the question. Then: 'The posthypnotic suggestion that triggered her breathing difficulties was their first line of defense. This is their second. I suspect this one is going to be harder to crack.'

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        'Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun.'
        'Do you hear me, Joanna?' the psychiatrist asked. 'Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun.'
        Alex closed his eyes, silently repeating her chant along with her. He was teased by a vague sense of familiarity, as though he had heard it somewhere before.
        Inamura said, 'At the moment, Joanna, I'm not trying to pry any of your secrets out of you. I just want to know if you are listening, if you can hear my voice.'
        'Yes,' she said.
        'That sentence you keep repeating is a memory block. It must have been implanted posthypnotically. You will not use that sentence - "Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun" - when you talk with me. You neither need nor want to avoid my questions. You came here to learn the truth. So just relax. Be calm. You are in a deep and natural sleep, safe in a deep sleep, and you will answer all my questions. I want you to see that memory block. It's lying in your mind, rather like a fallen tree lying across a highway, preventing you from going deeper into your memories. Visualize it, Joanna. A fallen tree. Or a boulder. Lying across the highway of memory. You can see it now… and you can even put your hands on it. You're getting a grip on it… such a powerful grip… and you feel a sudden rush of superhuman strength… so very strong, you are, so powerful… straining… lifting… lifting the boulder… casting it aside… out of the way. It's gone. The highway is open. No obstacle any more. Now you will remember. You will cooperate. Is that clear?'
        'Yes,' she said.
        'Good. Very good. Now, Joanna, you are still in that room. You smell the alcohol… ammonia. Such a stench that you can even taste it. You're strapped to the bed… and the straps are biting into you. The blind is open at the window. Look at the window, Joanna. What do you see beyond the window?'
        'Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun.'
        'As I expected,' Inamura said. 'A difficult barrier.'
        Alex opened his eyes. 'I've heard that chant before.' Inamura blinked and leaned forward in his chair. 'You have? Where? When?'
        'I can't recall. But it's strangely familiar.'
        'If you can remember, it would be enormously helpful,' Inamura said. 'I've got several tools with which I might be able to reach her, but I wouldn't be surprised if none of them worked. She's been programmed by clever and capable people, and more likely than not, they've anticipated most methods of treatment. I suspect there are only two ways I might be able to break through the memory block. And under the circumstances, with time so short, the first method - years of intensive therapy - isn't really acceptable.'
        'Not really,' Alex agreed. 'What's the second way?'
        'An answering sentence.'
        'Answering sentence?'
        Inamura nodded. 'She might be requesting a password, you see. It's unlikely. But possible. Once she gives me the first line - "Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun" - she might be waiting for me to respond with the appropriate second line. A sort of code. If that's the case, she won't answer my questions until I've given her the correct answering sentence.'
        Alex was impressed by the doctor's insight and imagination. 'A two-piece puzzle. She's got the first piece, and we've got to find the second before we can proceed.'
        'Perhaps.'
        'I’ll be damned.'
        'If we knew the source of the line she uses, we might be able to come up with the answering sentence. For instance, perhaps she's giving us the first line of a couplet of poetry.'
        'I believe it's from a book,' Alex said. He rose to his feet, stepped out of the circle of chairs, and began to pace around the shadow-shrouded room, because pacing sometimes helped him think. 'Something I read once a long time