CHAPTER 22

Janet stopped at the nurses station and picked up the foam cup she had left there. After drinking the coffee she realized exactly how long it had been since she set it down. Instead of forcing that cold crap down her throat she decided to toss it in the nearest waste bin. Missy Marcus, the station nurse, was busy on her computer and had not once looked toward Janet but, she did have time to comment, “you could have dumped the coffee before you tossed it. Now I have to clean that up.”

That left Janet grumbling, “sorry,” at the RN who had been working here a hell of a lot longer than Janet. Technically speaking, Janet was the doctor and was supposed to be the boss but, that was only technically. The fact was that Janet was only a resident right now and, on the real way that the food chain worked at this ER, she was only slightly above a bottom feeder. She was still two tired to correct her mistake though. She walked off and towards the break room, looking for another cup of coffee.

When Janet turned a corner she found her real wake up call. It was not some cheap dark fluid. It was a face that was too familiar to ever go unrecognized. Janet stopped and looked hard at the woman, put her hands on her hips, and then in a tone that spelled out how exhausted she was, Janet asked the woman, “how did you get back here?”

Mary told her daughter, “oh, you’d be surprised at what kind of doors some CIA credentials will open.”

Janet just huffed out a frustrated sigh, “mom, I’m on the back end of a twenty four hour shift. I’m kind of busy and, it’s great to see you but…”

Mary Isaacs had gotten worse from her daughter, particularly in those years leading up to college. She took the attitude with a grain of salt and told her child, “it’s about your father.”

Now Janet felt another jolt of wake up juice surging through her system. She squeamishly asked, “you didn’t shoot him did you? Nothing like that?”

When Mary did not reply, Janet waived over to a guy who was not actually wearing scrubs. By Mary’s way of thinking he was just a child and he kind of acted it, even if he had a lab coat on and was most certainly a fully certified doctor. Janet pointed out Mary and made introductions, “this is Doctor Patel. Um, can I get a few minutes off the floor?”

Patel looked almost comical when he said, “you’re that CIA chick they let in up front?” He pointed to Janet, “going to arrest her?”

Mary always wonder why people thought her agency was law enforcement. She didn’t have any more arrest powers than joe blow on the street. That was simply not her job. She still smiled at the obvious joke and told the doctor, “oh of course. We even keep Santa up to date, the whole naughty and nice list thing.”

Patel waived his hand gleefully, “I’m definitely on the naughty list!” He then soured a bit as he saw someone else, walk into view, way down on the other end of the corridor. Patel elbowed Janet and pointed out, “how’s flock of seagulls doing down there?”

As the two doctors talked about the guy with the weird haircut, Mary took a second look at him and realized he was an elf! He was wearing scrubs like everyone else and might not have been that recognizable had he not been singled out. Then Mary realized he had on a lot of jewelry, mostly on his ears. She realized something else about this kid who was apparently a doctor as well. The guy was Olyan-Notae! Mary was shocked and wondered how that happened!

Now, Mary joined in the conversation, “how long has he been here?”

Patel answered, “bout two months now, damn foreigners.”

Mary went shopping for more information, “is he, you know, living here? Working here? The whole nine yards?”

Janet just shrugged, “some kind of exchange program thing.” Then Janet looked at her mother hard, “you don’t know about it?”

“Not really my field of interest baby,” Mary replied. She then eyed her kid. Janet knew the look and excused herself from the doctor who then granted her the time she asked for. That left Mary and Janet alone in the break room. Janet went to making more coffee and Mary told her child what she knew, “he’s over there, right now.”

Janet almost seemed disinterested at this point, “mom, he’s been over somewhere my entire life. You scared me, you know that? I thought you were coming to tell me he was dead or something.”

How did Mary tell the girl? There was even a real question of if Mary could tell her. No one had told her that the information she had was classified, still, in Mary’s position no one really had too. Nine times out of ten, Mary was the one stamping the files, Top Secret. There was also the other secret that Mary was keeping. It was not a government one. She just did not want to let her child know that she was scared and needed some comfort right now.

What Mary did finally say was, “it’s dangerous over there, honey. There’s been, well, some fighting.”

Again, Janet was not that impressed, “that’s what Dad does.” She then surprised her mother by saying, “it’s dangerous here, Mom. I guess you don’t get out on the streets of Baltimore too much, do you? I see it all come through here, every shift.”

Mary changed the subject, “heard from your brother?”

“Rick is somewhere in California right now,” Janet admitted. “That’s all I know mom. He hasn’t called me any more than he has you.”

“I just thought that,” Mary stopped when her daughters pager went off. It kind of surprised Mary because she had no idea people even used those things anymore. Mary was guessing it was a work thing since the pager had a numbered sticker on it.

“Shit,” Janet said when she looked at the little screen. She ran for the door, “got to go Mom! Call you later!” Janet thought no more of her conversation as she ran down the hall to triage. She found several cops and EMT’s trying to hold a man down to a gurney. The guy was screaming with rage and Janet had to wonder how it took five guys to hold him back. When Janet got close enough to see the man’s eyes she almost stopped in her tracks and refused to take another step.

Patel ran right up behind her and, he too, stopped at the sight of the rage filled eyes. Patel also added, “another one?”

Janet told him, “third one this month!”

Patel began snapping orders, “let’s get this guy sedated.” He looked to Janet and told her, “we might need a crash cart, have it ready!” He then yelled to the cops, “don’t you guys have cuffs?”

One of the cops yelled back, “He almost tore off half his arm trying to get out of them!”

As more medical personnel and security began rushing over, Patel felt safer and he went to work as they rushed the guy into one of the small isolation rooms. As they did what they could to keep the man from hurting anyone, including himself, they tried to get him stabilized. As expected, the crash cart was needed when his heart stopped. Every time they got it to going again, it would stop again only minutes later.

Two hours went by before Janet walked away from their patient. He was barely alive but, at least he was stable. They had finally managed to get him to the point where they could pump him full of sedatives. That left him settled down but, also strapped down to the bed. If this guy was going to be like the other two, then they were in for a roller coaster ride over the next few days.

Patel walked up to Janet and was more frustrated than anything else. Janet settled on a wall and rested as Patel mouthed off, “what is it with these guys?”

One of the cops who had brought the guy in was still loitering around. He had to ask, “you know what caused this Doc?”

Patel knew that it was pharmacological, that much was certain. The lab had worked up the last two guys but, so far, they had found nothing. It was just like these guys went crazy when their lymphatic systems went into over drive. That, in turn, overloaded their hearts and then it just popped from the stress. They lost the first guy and the second one was a vegetable on life support. This new guy was most likely headed in the same direction.

That left Patel only shrugging at the cop who then said, “you know, we’ve had to take a few folks to the morgue, in the last month. Their eyes, they looked just like that guy.”

Patel’s interest perked up, “where did you get this dude?”

“Flop house,” the cop replied, “over on Twenty-First street.”

Janet now had to ask, “flop house?”

The cop replied, “bunch of dopers hang out there. We get seven or eight calls a month from that place.”

Now Patel wondered and asked, “dope? Like Marijuana?”

The cop shrugged, “maybe a few other things. You don’t think Marijuana did that? Do you?”

“Not that,” Patel replied, “hell no. The lab is going to work that guy up in the morning. We’ll let you know what we find.”

Janet just snorted in return, “probably nothing, like with the last two.”