by Opal Carew
“Good morning, girlfriend. What interesting thing do you have for me today?” Carmen said.
“Are you always so cheery about a blood sample?” she chided as she pulled the tube out of her pocket and handed it over.
“Only when it’s packed with GFPs and all other kinds of interesting anomalies.”
Liliana shook her head and chastised her friend. “You know that there’s a person behind that sample. Someone who’s not doing so hot.”
Carmen remained unremorseful. “It’s why I’m down here. No people skills.”
“You’re underestimating yourself,” she said, but Carmen ignored her by removing a drop of blood from the vacutainer and putting it on a slide. She slid a slip glass over the specimen and placed it beneath the microscope.
“Whoa,” she replied and immediately looked up at her. “We’ve got an excessive number of white blood cells present as well as lysis of an assortment of other cells.”
Liliana thought about the inhibitor drug and what it might do. Was it the after effects which were creating the fever and the need for plasmapheresis after multiple treatments? she wondered.
“Do you think the lysis is a result of the white blood cells or something else?”
“A chemically-induced lysis?” Carmen tossed out for discussion and returned to examine the sample under the microscope once again.
After long moments spent examining the specimen, Carmen popped back up and said, “There’s a lot of cell damage, as if her body had an allergic reaction.”
“And now her system is trying to mop up all the destruction afterward,” Liliana noted.
“There may be too much lysis for her body to handle on its own.”
Liliana nodded, finally understanding the need for the plasmapheresis. Aware that they didn’t have much time to undertake the therapy in order to help Caterina. She motioned to the microscope.
“With that sample, could you prepare the cell separator with what was needed to cleanse the patient’s blood using plasmapheresis?”
“I could. I will. Just let me know when you need it done,” Carmen confirmed, understanding the urgency of the matter.
“ASAP, Carmen. You call me when you’re ready so I can arrange for the treatment,” Liliana said and walked out.
Chapter 32
Caterina’s fever had returned. The heat of it had warned Mick of her fragility when she had taken hold of his hand earlier that morning before dozing off to a fitful sleep.
He grabbed his cell phone and speed-dialed Liliana as he sat in the chair by the bed, hoping she would have some news about the blood sample she had drawn. His sister answered almost immediately, but strain colored her tones.
“You okay, sis?” he asked, worried that something was up with her. Something that had nothing to do with the trouble he had involved her in.
“Long day and lots of emergencies. There’s good news, though,” she said and her voice actually brightened at the end, giving him hope that the earlier strain was from just too much work.
“You were able to get something from the blood sample?” He shot a half glance at Caterina as she stirred for a moment, but then drifted right back to sleep.
“We did. The bad news is there’s too much going on. Lots of white blood cells and too much cell damage.”
Mick cursed beneath his breath, but Liliana immediately said, “The good news is we’ve got a plasmapheresis set-up ready and waiting for Caterina. Once we run her blood through the separator, it should relieve a lot of her symptoms.”
He thought about bringing her into the hospital and the risk it presented. Caterina’s picture had been in the papers and on television for the last few days. Reaching over, he brushed the back of his hand against her cheek.
Heat blasted from her. Too much heat.
If he didn’t risk bringing Caterina into the hospital, she might continue to get worse.
She might die.
His gut tightened at the thought of losing her.
“Where should I bring Cat?”
* * *
Mad Dog cursed and tossed aside the bits of the pastel pink envelope. He had spent a few hours searching the Internet, but had made little progress in tracking down where Mick might be.
His first guess had been that the address was from a town somewhere along the Eastern Shore. He put his money on the Jersey Shore given its proximity to Mick’s home base in Philadelphia. Probably the South Jersey shore.
That guess had left him trying to decipher the name of the town with those few letters. It had taken less than an hour to discover they most likely stood for Bradley Beach, a small shore town near Asbury Park. At least an hour away from South Jersey and Philly.
Whoever had sent Mick the envelope lived in that town. Possibly a member of Mick’s family which would give him some leverage if he could get his hands on them and use them as a trade for Shaw.
Mad Dog’s cell phone rang. His client based on the number on the caller id.
“What are you doing?” his client asked, his words laced with anger and frustration.
“I’m doing what you paid me to do,” he said nonchalantly, not about to let some piss ass scientist boss him around.
“People are asking questions.”
“People, huh? Which people?” It was easy to take care of people who asked too many questions.
The other man nearly hissed the name. “Edwards.”
Interesting, he thought. “You and your buddy have a falling out?”
“Carrera and Shaw paid him a visit last night. He’s quite dissatisfied. There’s a lot at stake here.”
Fuck. Not only did Mick have Shaw, she seemed to be cognizant and working with him. Not good.
“I understand what’s at stake. I stand to lose as well,” he reminded the man. He had only received half of his fee upfront. Another cool million would only be delivered once he either brought Shaw to them or eliminated her.
“We need her soon. The longer the police continue their investigation, the more likely they are to rule her out as a suspect.”
“I’m on his trail,” Mad Dog lied, frustrated that the clues provided by the envelope had so far yielded no results.
“Hurry it along, Mr. Donnelly. If the police start looking somewhere besides Shaw, everything will be jeopardized.”
In other words, they’d stiff him for the rest of the money they owed him. “I’ll have Shaw for you within forty-eight hours,” he said, determined not to let Mick screw things up.
“Forty-eight hours. If it takes longer, we may need to reconsider our deal.”
“I get it. No cash. For either of us. Like I said, I’ll have Shaw for you in forty-eight hours.”
He hung up as his client continued with his dire warnings about the risk of failure.
He hadn’t failed on any mission he’d undertaken. Well, none except the one with Franklin and Mick. If they hadn’t been such pussies, they could have salvaged that one as well. They had been too worried about collateral damage to handle the problem. He had no such qualms.
He returned to his laptop and his search on the Internet. Plugging in Bradley Beach and Carrera yielded lots of results, from fan sites for Porsches to an assortment of news articles from area papers.
Methodically Mad Dog began to go through the materials, skipping those that seemed less relevant. He found several articles about an Antonio Carrera and his football exploits.
Unfortunately, many of the articles had been archived or were dead links. The use of the Wayback Machine site yielded the text of the articles, but not the pictures.
Damn, he thought. A picture might have helped him make a stronger connection to Mick if the football player looked anything like his ex-colleague.
What he did realize from the articles was that Antonio appeared to be at least eight or so years younger than Mick.
Additional hunts on the net yielded another Carrera – a Liliana Carrera who had been valedictorian of her high school class, but still no picture. This w
oman was just a few years younger than Mick. Mad Dog had little doubt that all of them were somehow related.
Tracking down the names of the local high schools, he tried to see if they had old yearbooks up on their websites.
They didn’t.
He had the same result at the local library. Although they had the yearbooks listed in their collection of reference books, they were not available online.
Powering down his laptop, Mad Dog decided he needed to do some hands on investigating.
In the morning, he would take his hunt to the streets. If he could confirm that the Internet hits for the two Carreras were for Mick’s relatives and verify that they still lived in the area, he could track down any properties they might own and scope them out.
As he considered everything, he was certain of one thing.
Forty-eight hours from now he’d be a million dollars richer.
* * *
The smell of the cheap spray-in hair color was strong, but it was all Mick could manage in the short time from the call to Liliana and her announcement that she had arranged for Caterina’s much needed therapy.
He pulled the Jeep up to the back door to the hospital. Liliana was waiting there with a gurney. Caterina didn’t really need it, but with the change of hair color and a blanket strategically obscuring part of Caterina’s face, he hoped she wouldn’t be noticed as they wheeled her through the hospital corridors.
He only hoped his sister and whoever was helping her wouldn’t be punished for their assistance with the therapy.
Arm-arm, he walked with Caterina to the door and got her settled on the gurney.
“We’ll be on the third floor. Room 303,” Liliana said. The faster they got the procedure going, the more they lessened the risk of discovery.
Mick leaned down and tucked the blanket up around Caterina’s neck, covering part of her face. He dropped a swift kiss on her cheek. “I’m going to park the car. I’ll just be a few minutes. Hang in there.”
Caterina nodded weakly and said, “I’m fine.”
He nodded and raced out the door.
* * *
Caterina met Liliana’s concerned gaze.
“So how are you really feeling?” Liliana asked.
“Hot. My joints ache and I have pain here,” she said and covered her midsection in the spot right between where her ribs ended.
Liliana eased her hand beneath Caterina’s. Pressed slightly, causing Caterina to moan from the pressure.
“It could be your spleen. It probably can’t handle all the stress your system is in.”
Liliana walked to the foot of the gurney, bent, and pushed with all her might. The gurney slid against the polished hospital floor and rolled with her guiding it from behind. The ding as they approached the elevator bank was welcome and they were soon on their way up.
Caterina closed her eyes and tried to ignore the assorted aches and pains in her body and the intense heat. When the gurney slowed to a stop, she opened her eyes.
Liliana was at her side with another young Latina in a light blue scrub suit. “This is Dr. Rojas. She’s a fellow doctor and a friend. She can be trusted.”
“Thank you,” Caterina said and the young woman nodded.
Dr. Rojas approached Caterina and held up a syringe connected to a long section of tubing. There was something familiar about it and in the back of her brain, Caterina realized she had seen something similar before while in Wardwell’s care.
“We need to put one needle in each arm. We’ll also be giving you an IV with citrate to avoid coagulation while we’re processing your blood. That may interfere with your clotting for the next twenty-four hours so try to avoid any strenuous activities and watch for excessive bruising.”
Caterina nodded and winced as the woman pierced a vein in her arm with the needle. The young doctor walked around and did the same in the other arm and as she did so she said, “I see you’ve had this done before, and often, so you know this may take about two hours. Close your eyes and get some rest.”
Dr. Rojas patted her arm, the action slightly mechanical and stilted. She slipped some kind of device over Caterina’s finger and a machine a couple of feet away kicked to life.
“Thank you,” Caterina said and did as instructed, knowing rest was essential to rebuilding her strength.
* * *
Liliana approached her friend and clapped her on the back as she turned on the plasmapheresis unit. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it?”
“Dead people are easier to handle,” Carmen teased while keeping her eye on the equipment to make sure it was working properly and checking her patient’s heart rate and oxygen saturation.
“Easier, but not as rewarding.”
A knock came at the door and Liliana walked over, opened it to admit her brother, who scrutinized Caterina as she lay on the gurney, tubes running out of her arms and wires leading to the pulse oximeter that was keeping track of her heart beat and the oxygen saturation in her blood.
“She’ll be okay, Mick. We’ll be extracting the remnants of the cell lysis and antibodies plus adding some sterile plasma substitutes to help stabilize her,” Liliana said.
Mick glanced at Carmen and held out his hand. “Mick Carrera.”
“Liliana’s brother,” her friend said as she shyly peered up at him. “I’ve heard a lot about you from Liliana.”
As he arched a brow, Carmen quickly confirmed, “All good things.”
“Thanks. I appreciate you helping us,” Mick replied.
Carmen nervously half-glanced at Liliana. “I know Liliana wouldn’t ask unless this was an emergency.”
“It is. You’re helping save her life,” Mick said.
Carmen nodded and faced Liliana. “I need to head back to the lab, but I’ll check back in about an hour.”
Her friend left the room and Mick walked over to Liliana and hugged her. “Thank you.”
Liliana returned the embrace, and then went to where Caterina was resting on the gurney. She laid her hand over Caterina’s, waking her.
“How are you feeling?”
Caterina offered up a weak smile. “A little dizzy and my fingertips are numb.”
Liliana squeezed her hand. “That’s normal, but I’m going to check your blood pressure just in case.”
Mick came to Caterina’s side and laced his fingers with hers. The smile Caterina offered him was brighter and there was a look in her eyes that Liliana couldn’t fail to notice.
Caterina was in love with her brother, she thought as she wheeled over the blood pressure machine. As she wrapped the cuff around Caterina’s arm, she half-looked at her brother as he stood by the gurney.
She couldn’t miss the look in his eyes either.
Mick had feelings for Caterina. She couldn’t say love kinds of feelings because she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen her brother truly in love. But she was sure that this was more than a we’re-having-great-sex kind of look.
Which was so not good, Liliana thought as the blood pressure machine kicked to life, inflating the cuff and then shuddering and deflating to calculate the blood pressure.
“Your pressure is on the low side of normal, which is typical for this treatment. It’ll stabilize in a few hours,” Liliana said, inclined her head, and nodded to get her brother to meet her at the far side of the room.
Mick reluctantly left Caterina and the anxious look on his face only confirmed her earlier observation.
“She’s okay, right?” he whispered.
Okay was not a word she could use considering Caterina’s condition and while she didn’t want to shatter his illusions, he seemed to need a reality check. “She’ll be better. For a little while. Until she’ll need another dose of the inhibitor drug and this starts all over again. And then when you run out of the inhibitor drug, the replication will begin again.”
Mick tensed beside her. “Sounds like you’re warning me off.”
“Just being realistic ’cause I know you, bro. You’re the kind of guy who bri
ngs home strays and likes to save the world, but this is a lose-lose situation.”
A muscle ticked along the hard line of his jaw as he clenched his teeth. “Duly noted. When can I take her home?”
Liliana glanced at her watch. “To be most effective, I’d like to let this run for at least another hour and a half.”
“You’re on duty, right?” he said and she couldn’t fail to grasp his real meaning.
“You want me gone,” she said, wondering if it was because he was angry with her about her comments.
Mick must have sensed her concern because he explained his request. “The less you’re involved here, the better.”
It might be a little too late to curtail her involvement, but Liliana understood his apprehension.
“Call me on the cell if you need me. Otherwise I’ll be back to help you get Caterina ready to go home.”
He hugged her hard and whispered, “Don’t worry about me, Liliana. I know what I’m doing.”
She embraced him and as always, marveled at the sense of safety and strength she felt in his arms. He had always been the protector in the family. Always the hero who had come through for them.
It was why he deserved some happiness in his life.
As she pulled away from him and shot a look at Caterina as she lay on the gurney, she knew there was no happy ending there no matter what happened next.
She only hoped her brother was wise enough to realize it as well before it was too late.
Chapter 33
Mick had managed to get Caterina home with little fanfare.
She now lay tucked in bed, resting. Calls to Ramon and Franklin had yielded little more than the reassurance that nothing was happening. Yet.
He dialed his parents’ number and his mother answered.
“Hola, mi’jito. How is your friend?”
“She’s doing fine, mom.” He hesitated, unsure of just how to broach his request, but then plowed ahead. “I need to ask a favor.”