by Ellen Clary
“You’re putting a spike into her heart?”
“That’s just to get it close and then electrodes will deploy around the heart,” Calvin said.
“Does that work?” Steve asked, tension creeping into his rising voice.
Calvin gave him another Do you want the truth? look, and Steve said, “Never mind, please continue.”
Steve wasn’t normally sensitive, but it was entirely different watching a person carefully insert something that resembled a spike into someone he cared about. He kept a hand on her, but looked away and said what was slowly dawning on him. “So, if she’s going to live, it has to happen here?”
“Yes, indeed. If we could get her to drink something warm it would help, but she’s not responsive.”
Steve looked at Yolanda and, with tears in his eyes, said, “I guess drowning her accidentally in warm water would be counterproductive.”
Yolanda hugged his shoulder in response and the three formed a triangle, with each of them holding on to each other’s shoulders, with their outside arm on one of Amy’s shoulders, and Lars’s head on her chest, licking her face.
Calvin said, “When the defib beeps, you need to let go of her for five seconds, because it is about to shock her heart.”
They waited for what felt like hours. The display on the defibrillator changed into a heart rate readout. They could see the medi-patch, which showed her body temp. Each time the defib beeped, they’d all jump and look at the very slow heart rate, which would briefly go to nearly zero and then back to the low forties. Her internal body temp had dropped to 85 degrees.
Steve said, “Come on, Amy. I don’t need two dogs.” Guilt flooded in. “Wait, I shouldn’t talk like that. Lars will always have a home with me even if he doesn’t like to talk to me.”
At his name, Lars picked up his head, glancing at him. Steve rubbed Lars’s neck. The kelpie fully understood that something was very wrong. He put his head back on Amy’s chest, though they had to keep him from touching the defib. Yolanda wrapped her hand around his head, so she could pick him off Amy’s chest when a beep came.
Steve said, “Come on Amy, I’ll buy you a case of whatever you’re drinking.”
Yolanda cut in, “Hey, Amy, that reminds me you owe me a beer—don’t think you can weasel out of it this way, girl.” She patted Amy’s shoulder with each word for emphasis.
Everything hung in suspended animation. Waiting. Waiting for something to change. But there was only more waiting.
Calvin was in conversation with the hospital, apparently talking strategy.
And they waited.
Their usual jocularities had left them. Steve said with a long sigh, “Amy, you’re only twenty-two, please don’t leave us. Please don’t leave me.”
“Your mother does not want to outlive you,” Yolanda said.
The patch made a different type of sound. “Oh Gods, what now?” Yolanda said.
Both Calvin and Steve said, “Look!” pointing to the display. It said 86. Steve hardly dared to hope. Then it was 87, then 88. When it hit 90, Calvin said to the hospital, “Her body temp is increasing.”
Yolanda and Steve, at the same time, said, “YES!”
Calvin was more cautious, checking her vital signs and looking at her heart rate on the display for any abnormalities. “Heart rate is improving and no arrhythmia.”
When her temp hit 95, Calvin said, “She’s coming back.” Everyone cheered.
Calvin removed the defib.
Steve started shaking Amy as hard as he dared. “Amy, Amy. It’s Steve.”
Amy’s eyes opened a little and closed again.
“Steve? … Steve? Where’s the seal or sea lion or whatever?”
“I’m here too, Amy. Yolanda that is.”
It was all too much and Amy, eyes still shut, leaned her head back on what felt like a sandy beach. Hands were on her, but they seemed to be moving in very brisk ways that said they had a job to do. She was cold again. “Cold.”
“This isn’t going to be fun, unfortunately,” a voice said.
“Hurts.”
“You were completely numb and life returning is going to be painful.”
“Metaphor,” Amy said.
“Ah, so you’re not dead after all.”
“Fuck off, Steve.”
“And you knew it was me.”
“Go away.”
“You already told me that, you also called me a stupid sea lion.”
“Well, you were.”
“Body temperature 96 degrees,” a voice said. “Heart Rate 52. She’s breathing and conscious.”
Everything hurt. She shook.
Then she remembered. “The bag!”
“It’s okay, we have it here and intact and on its way to join its friends in isolation.”
Amy exhaled, and passed out in surrender. They let her this time, after some long hugs. Someone was mentioning something about beer.
CHAPTER 66:
Amy Meets with Dr. Jill
AMY WALKED into Dr. Jill Friedam’s office, having absolutely no idea what she was going to say—which she figured was exactly the plan. Amy hadn’t seen her since the Randall Curtis incident, and she was concerned about being back here.
“Amy, come on in.”
“Hi, Dr. Jill,” she said, using the title the doctor had become affectionately known by.
“It’s okay, you can call me Jill. Please sit,” she said, motioning to the small sofa that sat opposite her own chair. To the side of the office, next to the wall, was a short table that had some roses of various colors with sprigs of rosemary and a vine of holly that wrapped through them. On the other side was a window with a nice view of one of the city parks, and below that was a dog bed that Lars plopped onto. Beside her chair was a table with a closed notebook on it.
Jill sat in her chair. “I’ve read the report. You don’t do these things halfway, do you?”
“Er.” Amy smiled awkwardly and looked at the carpet, which she noticed was one of those blend-with-everything greys with hints of blue, green, and a little pink.
“It’s okay, Amy, you’re not on trial here. I’m here to see how you are doing after these extraordinary events. I know we’ve seen each other after the Randal Curtis case, but this is completely different.”
“I—”
“But first,” holding up a hand, “I want you to know that while you have to meet with a therapist at least four times over this coming month, it does not have to be me. It can be any certified therapist who has access to the official reports.”
“I’m more comfortable with you than a stranger.”
“The devil you know. Works for me. Even though it’s not always very fun?”
Amy smiled weakly, lifting her upturned hands. “It’s never fun.”
Jill settled into her chair. “Okay, talk to me. How are you doing?”
“Everything has been such a blur. Everyone is being so supportive, it’s actually been a little overwhelming.”
Jill nodded and didn’t say anything.
“The media attention has been pretty intense, once they released information.”
“What was that like for you? This is not just an average PR thing.”
“Catherine has been doing much of the talking, but she brings in Steve or Yolanda. They haven’t talked to me much yet, because I was undercover and they don’t want Tomas to see me on the news with an LAI label by my name.”
“What is that like?”
“A relief, but I feel like I should be doing more.”
“You’re on official leave, and I want you to take it seriously. You have the death of the person you were investigating, and you put yourself in serious peril.”
“But—”
Jill opened the notebook and looked at a page for a moment. She read slowly out loud. “Body temperature as low as 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Started coding at 86 degrees.” Jill paused and looked at her steadily. “You know this means you died.” It wasn’t a question. “Your heart stop
ped, more than once.” She let silence sink the moment in. “If it wasn’t for a device restarting your heart each time it stopped, you would not be here. We would not be having this conversation.”
Amy’s eyes teared up, and Jill offered a nearby box of tissues. Amy took a tissue, balled it up in her hand, looked at the carpet again, and wept, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, the tissue still crumpled. Lars padded up to her and she put her head in his neck fur. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“About what?”
“I had to get the bag, and it was sucked down a whirlpool towards a metal grate. I had to dive in.”
“This isn’t about that, Amy.”
“What?”
“Forget the nuts and bolts, let’s talk about mortality.”
“I don’t know. I just did what I needed to do. I didn’t have a chance to reflect.”
“That’s fine, but how are you sitting with it now?”
“Feeling kinda stupid. Like, how did I let that happen?”
“Amy, I don’t think anyone is questioning your decision.”
“I can hear it beneath their words.”
“Hear what?”
“Being so brazen to jump into freezing water.”
Jill sat back in a please continue body position.
“It’s like they think that I had a second to think about it. To consider.”
“Amy, they admire your bravery. Your willingness to do what you thought was necessary. No one is second guessing you. Right now, they’re treating you gently to give you time to start to recover.”
Amy slowly nodded, looked out the window, only now remembering the tissue. “I’m realizing, not many people get a choice when they die … in an accident, that is. It’s like a consequence they didn’t think about, if they have a choice in it at all. This whole situation felt completely out of my control.”
“And is that an issue?”
“I have no idea. I think I will feel better when they stop treating me like I’m breakable.”
“I’m quite sure they will stop once everyone gets more comfortable. At that time, they will realize that you’re not fragile, but right now you are vulnerable, and that’s okay. You need to heal. There is no shortcut.” After a moment, Jill asked, “How’s life at home?”
“John is being so kind to me.”
“How is intimacy?”
Amy’s face reddened, and she looked away.
“More or less sex?”
“More, and more intense.”
“Life-threatening situations can definitely bring that about. Okay, I won’t bug you about sex anymore. How are your parents handling this?”
“They worry. They respect my decisions, but they want to know if this work is something that I really want to keep doing.”
Jill said, “And?”
After a brief pause Amy said, “Yes. I think it’s something I can make a difference in.”
Jill said, “Well, that certainly seems to be the case, but I want you to relax for this next month. Go surfing down south. Go climbing. I’d tell you to lie on the beach, but I know you’re not the type.”
“Okay, I can do that, but I have to attend the wrap-up meeting.”
“After the month is over, you can ask yourself all these questions again, and you get to talk about it with me all month, too.”
“Oh, boy.”
“Consider it,” she paused for a moment, almost smiling, “quality time.”
“Can’t wait.”
“Oh, I’m sure you can, but come anyway.”
Amy smiled in surrender. “Okay.”
CHAPTER 67:
Wrap-up Meeting
THEY ALL gathered in the meeting room. Catherine and Beth were up at the front.
Beth said, “Welcome, everyone. I want to thank everyone for their help on this very important mission. And I am really glad that everyone has made it back safely.”
Amy saw Beth glance very briefly in her direction, but Beth didn’t make a point about it, for which Amy was grateful.
“As you know, Adam Robinson, the subject of our immediate concern, during a struggle with Agent Callahan, fell from a service bridge above a tributary that feeds into Strongwill Reservoir. He was gravely injured when he struck the rocks along the water. Agent Callahan gave orders that he be put on life support in hopes of gaining more information about the location of the nanobot bags that he had hidden, but he never revived.” Now Beth was looking right at her. “However, the organ donor people thank you for this foresight, so your request was appreciated.”
Amy had to restrain herself from looking skyward in a defensive who-cares motion, and she hoped Adam’s eyes didn’t end up with someone she ever had to look at.
Steve leaned over with his hand on her arm. “You okay?”
“Fine,” she said without any inflection, except a sigh.
“Using the dogs in the hidden bag search made the success of this endeavor possible, and potentially saved thousands of lives. This is not lost on the Feds. While they may not be entirely convinced that you all can directly communicate telepathically, there is no doubt that communication between an empathic dog and his or her handler is very enhanced and is a significant advantage.” She paused. “They were impressed, and you can expect them to request your services in the future.”
Amy wasn’t sure if that was good or bad news.
“The prosecutors have not decided whether to charge Tomas with a crime.”
Now Amy couldn’t stand it. “No? He’s going to get away with this?”
Beth, prepared, smiled. “Tomas is canny and careful. He put a lot of people in between himself and anything illegal. The people who arranged the theft and the attack are left standing caught in the spotlight, especially because he eventually returned the data units, claiming they weren’t supposed to be delivered to him. And Adam’s plan was not Tomas’s plan. We figure that Tomas has something much more devastating in mind. But keep in mind that the community that Tomas set up is not a cloistered one. They are well-liked in the area in which they live, and not just for fabulous hand-woven wool scarves, though that helps. If we are going to go after him it has to stick, because he has gathered a lot of supporters.”
Beth took a sip of coffee. “But I do have some good news. Some of you have met the Tomasian named Sarah.”
At the mention of Sarah, Amy sat up, tuning back in.
“Sarah has agreed to help us, by giving us information updates on what is going on inside the Tomasians.”
Amy said, “Excellent.”
“Tomas is a smart man, so he may figure this out quickly. He’s not known to be violent, so we are thinking that Sarah is not in physical danger, but he might just stop telling her anything. When in contact with us, Sarah will use her given name: Lisa Gernois.
“Sarah also has custody of Adam’s dog Levi, so we’re hoping that Markus in the Choran office can teach her some things about how to communicate with him.”
“Oh that poor woman. Levi’s not a trained dog,” Amy said.
“Well, we’ll see what Markus reports.”
Steve leaned over to Amy and said, “HiHiHiHi. Wag Wag. WhoWhatWhere.” Some people started laughing softly.
Trying to contain her own laughter, Amy hushed him by gripping his arm. She looked up. “Sorry, Levi is a very silly dog.”
Catherine stood up and Beth took a step backwards and headed for her chair. “Thank you, Beth, for providing us with a more than exciting time. We are all glad to have survived and we’ll hope to be returning to more routine activities for a while. Before I go further into our future plans, I want to say that you all are getting a well-deserved paid week off …”
There were cheers to that.
“ … and Agent Callahan will remain on medical leave for the rest of her thirty days.”
Yolanda said, “Sounds like a jail sentence.”
“It is. Okay, not really,” Amy said.
Catherine went on to cover future training plans, and t
hey adjourned.
CHAPTER 68:
Yolanda Toasts Amy
BEFORE THE party, Yolanda pulled Amy aside, hand on her arm. “Are you ready to party?”
“You bet I am,” she said, covering Yolanda’s hand in thanks.
“Do I have permission to tease you some during the toasts?” she said with a mischievous look.
“Sure, of course.”
“No, really, I need to know if it’s okay. Where shouldn’t I go? What topics should I steer clear of?”
Amy looked off, thinking for a moment. “Don’t talk about Adam, try not to be too hard on John. Everything else is fair game.”
“It’s a deal. Thanks.” She squeezed her arm.
At the party, the food and drink flowed freely and everyone from Evergreen was there, including friends and family. Lydia, Yolanda’s wife, and Amy’s parents, Mary and Stan, were there. Even Markus had come down.
Eventually people started toasting, congratulating everyone on a job well done, and offering thanks for everyone’s safe return.
After a lull, Yolanda said, “Well, I guess it’s my turn now.”
“Yes!” someone in the room said.
“Well, I hope everyone has their drink in hand. I have mine right here, because I need a little time with this.” She held up her beer bottle, waving it in that way that showed she’d already had a couple before this one.
“Now, I want you all to know that I have permission for the following toast. Okay, I didn’t spell out every word, but I did receive some latitude to fill you in on this.”
Amy leaned into to John. “Oh, here we go.”
John said, “What’s up?”
Looking up at the ceiling, smiling, Amy said, as she turned her head back to Yolanda, “Ms. Danimeyer is just getting warmed up.”
Yolanda said, “Amy has told some of you the sweet story that she experienced while she was unconscious. She was surfing with John out to an island. It’s all very peaceful, and gives you this nice warm fuzzy feeling, and makes being in a hypothermic coma sound like something that should be a tourist thing.” She had been waving the beer bottle around and Amy was concerned that someone was going to get a hops shower. “Well—” After a stylish head shake, she looked pointedly at Amy. “Let me assure you that the reality was anything but peaceful and fuzzy. The medic is hustling around with barbaric looking instruments, the helicopter is landing, Lars is agonizing, Steve is offering to buy her a case of whatever she wants to drink. I, on the other hand, am remembering that Amy owes me a beer and she can’t just leave. Plus we need to get the last plastic bag secured. It’s anything but peaceful. All this bustle and what is Amy doing? Surfing. Surfing?! Girl, you picked a not-so-fine time to go surfing. Wake the eff up.” People, who had been tittering hesitantly at first, started laughing out loud. “So,” raising her bottle in a dramatic pause, “let’s hear it for our favorite slacker.”