by Kira Peikoff
He grinned at the report in his hand from the recent MRI of her brain: normal. Completely, beautifully normal. The X101 had once again proved its efficacy, in combination with the oxygenated fat globules and the mitochondria-protecting enzymes. Part of him wanted to just call off the clinical trial and make the whole protocol available stat to every hospital in the country, hell, in the world—but he knew it was too risky to blow the Network’s cover over such preliminary results. If they got to five hundred patients and the percentages held, then he and Galileo would have some serious decisions to make. Would the U.S. government forgive their transgressions of illegal human experimentation if the peace offering was a way to reverse death? He liked to think so. But if not . . .
He brushed those concerns aside, gazing down at the woman’s face—her sloped nose, her chapped pink lips, her arched brows. Each steady breath she inhaled was an affirmation of his own reason for being. He memorized the moment, knowing she would soon be leaving his care. It was hard not to get attached to the patients whose lives he had saved, even if they were mysteries as human beings.
“We did good,” he said, standing over her. “It was rough for a while there, but you pulled through.”
Her lids twitched at his voice, then fluttered open. She stared up at him blankly.
“Well, look who’s awake! Hello there,” he said, watching her expression transform into curiosity as she took in his white coat, wrinkled hands, and kindly face. “What’s your name?”
She cleared her throat, keeping her intelligent eyes on him. “Isabel. Where am I?”
“Nice to meet you, Isabel. I’m Dr. Quinn, and you’re in a hospital. You had a bad accident a few days ago in the ocean. Do you remember?”
“No.” She shook her head with surprising exertion.
“You don’t remember?”
“No, I do.” A fierce glare narrowed her eyes.
“You do? Then what’s no?”
“It wasn’t an accident.” She fingered the bruises at the base of her neck. “I was murdered.”
Photo by Matt Jacob
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
KIRA PEIKOFF is a writer based in New York City. She graduated with high honors from New York University in 2007 with a degree in journalism, after four years of reporting internships: covering street crime for the Daily News, writing about Capitol Hill for the Orange County Register in Washington, D.C., reporting on business and technology for Newsday, and researching feature stories for New York magazine.
To fulfill her longtime dream of writing fiction, she then spent a year working full-time on Living Proof, her debut novel, which was published to international acclaim. Currently, Peikoff is working on her next novel, freelancing for a variety of major media outlets, and attending Columbia University’s Master of Science program in Bioethics. . She continues to be fascinated by the intersection of cutting-edge science, medicine, politics, and human life.
Please visit her on Facebook or Twitter or at www.kirapeikoff.com.
PINNACLE BOOKS are published by
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Copyright © 2014 Kira Peikoff
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Quotation from Gerontology: Perspectives and Issues, Third Edition, Editors Janet Wilmoth, Ph.D., Kenneth Ferraro, Ph.D. Copyright © 2007. Reproduced with permission of Springer Publishing Company, LLC, ISBN 978-0-8261-0230-0.
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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ISBN: 978-0-7860-3489-5
ISBN-10: 0-7860-3489-0
First electronic edition: September 2014
ISBN-13: 978-0-7860-3490-1
ISBN-10: 0-7860-3490-4