by Jan Eira
While no one was noticing, Valerie took her car key and pushed hard on the rubber port, disrupting it. She placed the research drug bag back on the counter, with the rubber port up, and slowly walked away.
Several more minutes passed while she observed from afar how her father and the nurses worked together diligently to help the patient on the table.
“Let’s go ahead and administer Enoxadin,” said Dr. Rovine.
“I’ll get it,” said the circulating nurse. “It’s right back there on the counter.” She walked away from the table and returned a moment later with the IV bag in her hand. The rubber port was dripping rapidly. “Bad news, Dr. Rovine. The research IV bag’s rubber port has a hole in it, and the drug emptied out to the floor.” She showed him the dripping bag. “Sorry.”
“Oh shit,” he said. “What the hell happened to it?”
“I don’t know. It must have arrived this way from the company. We haven’t touched it before now.”
“OK, then. In that case, we’ll treat Mr. Andrews like we normally would. We’ll place a stent in his occluded coronary artery.”
“What’s a stent, Dad?” asked Valerie.
“It’s a tubelike metal mesh. I’ll leave it in his coronary where the plaque was. I ballooned the obstruction, squashing it into the arterial wall. The stent will remain in the area of the blockage to prevent it from reoccluding, we hope.” The group continued to work for several more minutes.
After they were finished, Dr. Rovine addressed the circulating nurse. “Leticia, fill out an incident report on this research IV bag, and get the company to send us many more by Monday—a whole bunch more.”
CHAPTER 22
Ellie peeked out of the closet and saw no one, so she exited in silence and looked both ways. She found the staircase and went up. She peered through the door’s window and smiled. A group of about twenty young women were strolling by. Nonchalantly, Ellie joined them.
“You girls nursing students?” she whispered to one of them.
“Nope, not anymore,” said the young woman with a smile bursting with pride. “Graduated two weeks ago. We’ve been hired by the hospital. We’re on our orientation. We’re getting the royal tour. Are you interested in nursing?”
“I’m very interested in anything to do with medicine. How do you like—”
An older woman from the front of the procession interrupted her. “We’re now back at the main entrance where we first began the tour.” She continued to talk to the women, but Ellie’s attention was immediately drawn to a group of security guards mingling with the visitors as they came and went, no doubt looking for her and the boys.
The older woman continued. “We’ll see you all tomorrow morning at seven o’clock sharp.” The group dismissed, and the young women wandered outside from the large foyer, with Ellie in the middle of the pack. She took a deep breath of fresh air when she stepped outside the hospital.
“Free at last,” she whispered to no one.
In the back of the hospital, five young men surrounded William and Brent.
“Who are you guys?” asked Brent. “What do you want with us?”
“You don’t look like hospital security guards,” said William.
“No, losers,” said one of the young men. “We saw you with Valerie Rovine. We go to school with her.”
“Do you scumbags know she’s going out with Doug, our quarterback?” asked another.
“You’re football players?” asked Brent.
“So what if you saw us with Valerie,” said William. “It’s a free country. What are you going to do about it?”
“We’re going to smash your heads in,” said the biggest guy, punching his open palm.
Brent turned to him. “One thing about linebackers: you run like girls.” He took off sprinting. Surprised by the swift move, William gave a half-hearted smirk and bolted right behind him. The other boys ran after them. Brent looked behind his shoulder at the bullies, several feet now between them.
“Girls with thick glasses whose favorite past time is homework,” said William.
By the time William and Brent arrived at the lot where Valerie had parked the car, they had a considerable distance between them and the others. Ellie, who was standing by the car, waved at them. Then, she saw the five larger teens in pursuit.
She looked up a phone number on Valerie’s smartphone and dialed.
“Officer,” she said. “I just saw teenagers running around Parking Lot D trying to find their car, I guess. One of them is carrying what appears to be an IV bag of medicine. I thought you should know.”
Ellie gestured for William and Brent to duck behind the parked vehicles. Now obscured from the mob’s view, the three entered the Medical Office Building. From behind the main door, they could see the other five boys running around the parked cars. William pointed to the perimeter of the lot, where multiple security guards and police officers now converged. Within minutes, they corralled the five boys, handcuffed them, and took them away.
William smiled. “The show’s over. We need to find Valerie.”
Ellie sighed. “William. Babe. I can tell you that this chick’s not the one for you. She’s too bossy and has the rich-girl complex. Have you stopped to think that the old Brent may have been talking about a different Valerie? I personally know three Valeries who are all better matches for you than this one.”
“Do I detect a bit of jealousy? Do you want me for yourself? Is that it?”
“No, I want you to be happy.” She looked at Brent and then William. “You two guys are like brothers to me. I’m trying to get you to be real. Valerie Rovine is not the love of your life—or anybody else’s, for that matter. Her own, maybe.”
“She has to be the one the other Brent is talking about,” said William. “She has the hospital connections, and her father invented this stupid drug we’re after. Besides, I feel something for her. I like her spunkiness.”
“Enough about the matchmaking game,” said Brent. “So, what’s our next move?”
William pondered. “We need to find Valerie and give her cell phone back, for one. Then, we’ll need to—”
Valerie’s phone rang in Ellie’s hand. She looked at it.
“It’s a call from the hospital.”
“It has to be Valerie,” said William.
Ellie answered the call. “Hello?”
“It’s me. Valerie. Let’s meet up in the doctors’ parking lot. Be careful.”
Fifteen minutes later, the kids gathered by the car.
Older Brent’s headache deteriorated. To make matters worse, he had developed a bloodcurdling cough that was becoming deeper and more productive. In despair, he gazed at the gadget with which he was analyzing the newest fresh sputum specimen. It stared up at him from the napkin—white phlegm with small streaks of yellow and red. He coughed again, and his headache exacerbated. An awful shiver passed through his body like an electric current.
“Damn!” he said. No one else was in the cave. He read the instrument’s panel: Viral Particle Count: 52,102. He took his temperature. “One hundred one point seven,” he said aloud. He sighed and looked into the darkness of the cavern. “God, please help me live long enough to fix this mess.” He retrieved a blanket from his backpack and wrapped his body in it and stared at the ceiling of the cave. Another intense shiver passed through him.
His heard his wife’s voice from the cave’s depths. “Brent.” His mind returned to past moments of the future.
“Yes, sweetheart,” he said. “Are you feeling any better?”
“Some,” Ellie said. “My fever’s down, and the shivering has quit for a while.” She smiled through her viral isolation mask. “These symptoms come and go. For now, I’m feeling great.” She smiled again; this one was even more radiant and infectious. She coughed forcibly, her knees buckling under her. Brent rushed to her side and
supported her.
“What was your viral particle count when you just checked?” He helped her sit down.
“A little over seventy-eight thousand. How quickly do you think it’ll take for me to reach one hundred thousand?”
“I don’t know. But I’m not ready to let you go, Ellie. I love you too much.”
“I love you, too,” she said. She coughed into the tissue inside the viral barrier mask’s reservoir.
“Let me see your sputum,” he said. “Please, let me see.”
“I don’t want you near it. I don’t want you to get infected, Brent.”
“That’s what the antiviral protective case is for. I just want to look at it.”
She placed the tissue into a clear container and closed the lid. She handed it to him. He examined it from all angles.
“There’s more blood than yesterday,” he said. “How’s the chest pressure and the numbness in your hands and feet?”
“The discomfort comes and goes. Right now, it’s pretty good. My hands and feet are colder. I think the circulation is worsening. My fingers have begun to turn white and blue, like frostbite.”
She showed him her hands, which were covered in the clear material of the protective suit that encompassed her body. He took her hands into his and enfolded them, trying to warm her. The tight wrapping around her skin was designed to feel like real skin. Even though it was touted as such, Brent mused at how far off the design really was.
“This plastic crap feels nothing like your skin.” He gently kissed the thin viral protective barrier encircling her. “Unfortunately, for now, that’s as close as I can get to you.”
“I’d like to go for a walk, Brent.” She pointed out the window. “I want to walk through our garden one last time.”
He shook his head. “It’s not safe. And you’re not strong enough.”
“I think I can make it with your help.”
“No. It’s not safe.”
“A dying woman’s wish.” Her pleading brown eyes pierced through the clear bubble around her head.
“I could never refuse those eyes.”
The two got up and walked out the back door and into a small but well-kept garden. A small path with red and yellow roses trailed off to one side. On the other side, blackberry vines covered the wall that separated their property from their neighbor’s. The sun peeked through a cloud-covered sky.
“I have a confession to make,” said Ellie. “I’ve been having weird dreams. An albino—”
“I know you have. The little girl showed me. Her name is Alexandra.”
“How did you know?”
“I’ve been having dreams, too.” Brent forced a smile.
Ellie swallowed hard. “What is she teaching you to do in your dreams?”
“Alexandra has been—”
Ellie stopped walking and began to cough forcibly. Then, she collapsed onto the thorny rose patch.
“Ellie, are you OK?” Brent helped her up. As he did, he felt a prick on his index finger, a drop of crimson on his skin. He wiped it on a tissue he carried in his pocket covertly. He knew well Ellie would worry if he told her and it was nothing but a pinprick.
With his help, Ellie got back up on her feet, and the two resumed their slow stroll.
“What will it be like for me when the viral count gets to one hundred thousand?” she asked.
“Ellie, please, let’s not talk about death and dying.”
“I think we need to. If it gets horrible for me, will you help me?”
“No, Ellie. I can’t help you die. I won’t have the strength.” His eyes became moist.
“You are the strongest man I have ever known, Brent Joseph Smithson. You can do this for me.”
“I can’t, Ellie.” He sobbed. “I just can’t.”
A few steps later, she stopped to admire a rose. She squatted to see it up close. “Wish I could smell it,” she said.
“It smells as divinely as it is beautiful,” said Brent, helping her stand straight again.
Ellie gasped. “Get away from me,” she yelled. She pushed him away. In the process, she fell backward onto a patch of grass. “Look!” she said pointing at her arm. The clear, vinyl fabric ripped, and a small gash on her forearm was bleeding. Brent grabbed her arm and pulled her up. She said, “Be careful, Brent. I have a cut on me and the protective suit has been compromised.”
Instinctively, Brent gawked for a split second at his finger-prick. But it was enough for Ellie to notice it. She looked at his bleeding finger and then at her injured arm. Their eyes met.
A beeping sound disrupted older Brent’s thoughts. He walked to a small device perched on a rock.
“Good, the kids are on the move again,” he said.
“I destroyed the IV bag, so the patient never received the drug,” said Valerie. She backed up the car out of the parking stall. “But we need a better way to do this going forward. I’m afraid our present methods of sabotaging the IV bags won’t work for long. The hospital will get many more dose packets of the research medication by Monday morning. What did you find out, Ellie?”
“I called your friend Darren Owen, but he couldn’t or wouldn’t help at all. We’ve destroyed our IV bag, too.”
“I told my dad I was going to spend the day with my new girlfriend,” said Valerie, pointing at Ellie. “So, I’m not expected home until tonight. And I got the Lexus and a hundred bucks for my troubles.”
“Let’s go find the other Brent,” said William.
Valerie drove from the hospital campus. After five minutes, her cell phone rang.
“It’s Brent from the future,” said Ellie.
“Put it on speaker,” said Valerie.
“I see you’re driving over here,” said older Brent.
“How do you know we’re driving at all?” asked Ellie.
“I can tell you’re moving at fifty-three miles per hour, going north on Highway 41,” he said. “How did it go at the hospital?”
“We destroyed both dosage packets, so we’re OK until Monday,” Ellie said. “Any ideas as to how we should proceed? The hospital is supposed to get many more research drug dosages by Monday.”
“Brent,” said Valerie. “You’re infected with the virus, which is otherwise harmless. What if we infect the patients who get Enoxadin and let the company see how bad it’ll get? We’ll cause some deaths now but prevent billions later.”
“We considered that as an option,” said older Brent. “It’s a horrible way to die. For that alone, I wouldn’t want to use that strategy, unless nothing else would work. It will also introduce a new virus before its time. Who knows the implications of that, but potentially it could change the whole world in ways we don’t comprehend.”
“Probably not as bad as it actually turns out though, right?” asked younger Brent.
“We have to find a better way than to kill a whole bunch of people to get our point across,” said Ellie. “What else did you contemplate?”
“Contaminating Enoxadin by adding a new substance to it that renders it ineffective,” said older Brent. He coughed harshly.
“Won’t the company figure that out and make a new batch?” asked Valerie.
“The plan is to contaminate Enoxadin with a chemical by mixing it into the large container where the material is made. The contaminant will adhere to the walls of the vat and will continue to taint all Enoxadin batches they make in there. For now, Enoxadin is being manufactured only in a special tank here in town at Supreme Pharmaceutical’s headquarters.” Older Brent coughed several times. “They may figure it out, yes, but very unlikely, given today’s technology. We hope the drug will fail miserably, and they’ll give up on it before anyone suspects—” He coughed again, this time even more forcibly.
“Are you all right, Brent?” asked Ellie.
“Yes. When you get her
e, I’ll show you how to taint the Enoxadin manufacturing tank.”
“We’re on our way to Supreme Pharmaceuticals right now,” said Valerie. “We’ll scope out the place and see how we can best get in later. As soon as we’re done at Supreme, we’ll come back to the cave and get the tainting chemical from you.”
“Kids, you should know that doing this might be dangerous. You might get caught—or worse, killed.”
The teens heard a siren. Valerie looked in her rearview mirror. “Cops,” she said. She pulled over to the side of the road. “They finally caught us.”
CHAPTER 23
Security Chief Jeff Cunningham arrived at the hospital’s pharmacy accompanied by his shift commander, Eddie Gavin.
“Tell us exactly what happened, Mrs. Hamm,” said the chief. “Don’t leave anything out.”
“As I told Eddie, these four kids came up to me and stole a dosage packet of Enoxadin.”
“Now, tell me what Enoxadin is. I never heard of it. Is it a new narcotic? Speed? Downer? What is it exactly? Can it be sold outside the hospital for a lot of money?”
“No, that’s the funny part. It’s a brand-new new research drug for heart attack patients. In fact, today was the first time ever that a human was going to be treated with it. So, no, there’s no street value for the drug at all. We don’t even know for sure if it’ll work at all.”
“Well, that’s interesting.” Chief Cunningham glanced at Eddie and then looked at the pharmacist.
“You say there were four teenagers?” asked Eddie.
“Yes, two girls and two boys.”
“Did you recognize any of them?” asked the chief.
“The main one was a blond girl. She told me her name, but I don’t remember it. She said her father was a doctor here at the hospital. She was the one who actually stole the box from me right here at this counter. The other kids watched and ran away with her after she took off like a bat out of hell.”
Chief Cunningham looked up at the ceiling behind her. Then he turned to his partner. “Eddie, let’s review the security camera footage. We should be able to get an ID on the perps and get a pretty good idea of exactly what happened here.”