Book excerpt: While chief surgeon Derek Benway entertains the hospital’s wealthiest donors at a lavish wine and cheese party, a tactic proven to loosen the purse strings, his beautiful blond drug-rep wife Susan makes the rounds of the surgical suites and break rooms doling out product samples. At the party, the suave and sophisticated Dr. Benway circulates the room with a platter of hors d’oeuvres, topping off glasses and trumpeting the virtues of Beverly Hospital. He has them literally eating of his hand until ultra-rich philanthropist Wendi asks him about the status of the Goliath project, a venture backed by Chinese money to build the world’s most powerful MRI. The truth is that the costly MRI is nowhere to be found. At the same time the Goliath MRI goes missing, an inter-dimensional wormhole opens up in the trash room and begins transforming the hospital and its staff in unexpected ways. When a reanimated training cadaver with soap star looks begins courting the neglected, baby-crazy Susan and promoting a holistic vision of health care, Dr. Benway plots to return his rival to the wormhole from which he came.