by Grant Pies
“But—" Carter started.
“But I do,” she said. “He was able to get the seizures to stop. They drew blood and they’re doing tests. But knowing where Rose came from, and that she was sedated at the clinic where you found her, I can say with some certainty that she had a seizure as an effect of her sedation. More specifically, coming out of her sedation.”
“So, what’s that mean? Will she be okay?”
“It’s likely. She’ll probably wake up in a few hours.”
“So that can happen? Seizures after being sedated?”
“Yes, but most doctors know which sedatives would cause it. My gut tells me she was given Propofol.”
“Propofol?”
“It’s known to cause withdrawal seizures on children after long-term use.”
“So why use it on Rose?” Carter asked. “Why use it at all?”
“I’ll give you two theories.” Olivia held up two fingers. “One, they didn’t have well-trained physicians on staff, and they didn’t know any better.”
“After seeing their operation at Accenture, I’m guessing they are all very well trained,” Carter said.
Nodding, Olivia said, “Or two, they didn’t care if she had seizures because they never intended for her to wake up.”
Intravenus de Milo
Carter sat in a chair, watching the man he’d shot, but still keeping an eye on Rose across the ER. The man was large, square jawed, and a shaved line cut a part in his short hair. A scar ran from the back of his ear down his neck and disappeared underneath his hospital gown. His leg was bandaged, and an IV stretched from his arm to a bag hanging over the bed. His clothes sat in a pile in the corner of the room.
Carter felt the pockets of the man’s pants and found a cell phone. He gripped the man’s thumb and pressed it against the phone screen. There was a tattoo on the underside of the man’s forearm, two knives crossing over each other and the word ‘MOUNTAIN’ above them. Carter had seen a lot of military tattoos, and he guessed this man’s ink was for the 10th Mountain Division of the Army.
With the phone unlocked, the first place Carter looked was the text messages. There were two conversations. The first, one-sided and starting two months ago. The man had sent sets of numbers to someone. The only number Carter recognized was blood pressure. After that, the texts listed something called GFR, which started at 86, but, as Carter scrolled through the texts, the number dropped. The last GFR was 45. Whatever that means. Other stats in the texts were labeled ALT, AST, and something called proteinuria. Carter couldn’t make any sense of the numbers. He looked out to the ER. Olivia wasn’t in sight.
“Shit.”
The text conversation ended with a message from whoever was on the other end. It stated Terminate procedure. Abandon site. The message was sent twelve hours ago. The last text was sent from the man. It read Leave girl??? There was no reply.
Carter scrolled to the beginning of the other text conversation. It also started two months ago:
This is Brian. New number. Company phone.
The person on the other end, Lisa, gave a thumbs-up emoji. Then there was nothing for a few days. Carter scrolled.
You going to be home? I’m stopping by The Broiler. Could get take out? Lisa asked.
Brian didn’t reply.
Then at midnight, Lisa messaged, I guess that’s a ‘no’…
Sorry, busy. Won’t be home tonight either. Work needs me.
Lisa simply replied with an eye-rolling emoji.
Carter kept scrolling.
Home tonight? Lisa asked a few times a week.
Job still ongoing. Not tonight was Brian’s typical reply.
One week ago, Lisa had messaged, Another Dr. appointment tomorrow… then an emoji of a person with a surgical mask. Will you be able to take me?
I’m so sorry, Brian replied. It’s this job. I have to stay on site. Can John take you?
John’s working too… Lisa said. Why’s the job keep extending???
That’s the job. It’s what I signed up for.
I’ll let you know how it goes. I miss you. Love you…
The last text was from Brian. It said only, I love you. Home soon.
Brian rolled around on the hospital bed. He smacked and licked his lips, then mumbled something incoherent. Carter stood from his seat, hovering over him. His eyes opened and shut. He lifted his hand to touch his face, but it fell back down to the bed like a weight was attached to it.
“Hey,” Carter whispered. “Hey.” He placed a hand on the man’s shoulder.
“Huh?” Brian mumbled and opened his eyes, squinting at the bright light above his head. “What?”
“You’re in the hospital,” Carter said, fully expecting Brian to flip out once he woke up enough to realize what had happened to him.
“Hospital?” Brian said.
“Yeah, you’re alright.” Carter backed away slightly as Brian became more alert. “You were shot.”
“What the fuck?” Brian’s voice was still weak, and his eyes had yet to fully focus on anything. “Shot?”
“I need your help.”
“Who are you? Wait.” Now Brian’s eyes focused on Carter. “You shot me!” Force returned to his voice, and Brian tried to sit up. He quickly winced and reached towards his leg, then slammed his head back down on the pillow.
“Take it easy,” Carter said. “Yeah I shot you, but I got you here.”
Brian looked around at the trauma recovery room. “Why?”
“Like I said, I need your help.” Carter stepped closer. “It’s Brian, right?”
He looked at Carter, puzzled. “How?” Carter held up the cell phone. “Give it back!” Brian reached out, but the phone was out of reach.
“You’ve got two options. You help me, and I tell the cops I stopped two guys from mugging you, just after they shot you.”
“Sounds like option one benefits you more than me,” Brian said.
“Or you don’t help me, and I tell them that you were complicit in kidnapping Rose Bishop. Your choice.”
“I didn’t kidnap anyone,” Brian growled.
Carter sat down. “I helped you. Now you help me. Then I’ll help you, and we just keep helping each other over and over again until this is all cleared up. That’s a lot better than the alternative.” Carter leaned forward. “I need to know where my partner is. Sam Murphy. Where did you take him?”
“I told you I didn’t kidnap anyone. I don’t know anything about your partner. Get me the fuck outta here!”
Brian tried to sit up again, this time making it further than last time. He swung his legs off the bed, but stopped short of putting his feet on the ground, grimacing in pain. He clenched his jaw tight, fingers dug into the edge of the hospital bed, refusing to cry out.
Changing tactics, Carter said, “Okay, okay, then tell me what you do know. What’s wrong with Rose? What were you doing to her? You were sending someone these numbers.” Carter held up the cell phone. “What are the statistics for?”
“I look like a fucking doctor to you?” Brian shook his head. “They showed me how to run the tests, get a reading, that’s it. I sent them the results every few days. That was my job. That, and protect the girl. Let nothing happen to her.”
“What about the machine?” Carter asked. “What did it do?”
“What part of ‘I’m not a fucking doctor’ do you not get?” Brian said, clenching his jaw again, but this time out of annoyance instead of pain.
Carter needed something to work, something to crack through Brian’s refusal to talk. If Sam wasn’t dead already, he surely didn’t have much time.
“Who’s Lisa?” Carter asked, changing subjects yet again.
Brian jerked his head up and met Carter’s eyes. This topic shook something loose in him. There was a vulnerability in his face, like he was scared at the mention of Lisa.
“I’m not talking to you about her.”
Carter ignored him. “She misses you.” He scrolled through the texts. “Doctor’s appointments
.” He looked up from the phone. Brian’s face grew red, and he breathed in deep. “I was debating between wife or sister, but you said you’d be home soon. So, I assume it’s a wife if you live with her. Daughter maybe, but these texts seem a little more grown up.” Carter watched Brian. “What does she need? Kidney? Liver?” Nothing. No reaction.
“Heart,” Brian said, barely opening his mouth to speak. His eyes watered, and his face grew more red. “She needs a fucking heart. And she’s my sister. My brother and I just moved in to help her out with her kid.” He wiped his hand around his eyes and cleared his throat.
“I’ve seen enough in the last few days to put some pieces together. You work for Accenture, don’t you?” Carter asked. Brian just nodded. “And they promised you they could get your sister to the top of the list for a heart transplant?” Brian nodded again and wiped at his eyes. “And in exchange you had to, what, watch Rose?”
Brian breathed in deep; his chest rose and fell. “I never knew her name, but yeah, I had to protect her … and do those tests.” He pointed at his cell phone, still in Carter’s hand. “She was there when I showed up. Like I said, I didn’t kidnap anyone.”
“But you knew she was kidnapped?” Carter asked.
“I’m not an idiot. I figured I’d have to do something a little…”
“Illegal?”
“Unethical,” Brian said. “They told us she was getting an experimental treatment, that her dad was paying for it, but her mom never consented to it. So yeah, we knew she was kidnapped, technically, but for her own good.”
“Nothing about that sounded fishy to you?”
“Well it’s what they told me. It’s not like I had much choice. Lisa needs that transplant. My brother and I would do whatever it took to help her.” He wiped his eyes again. A single tear escaped and dripped down his face.
“Even if the organ Lisa got was taken from someone else?”
“All organs come from someone else.”
“Taken from someone else. They don’t get you to the top of the list. It’s their own list. Their own supply of organs.”
“Like waking up in a bathtub filled with ice in Tijuana type situation?”
“Yeah … except when they’re done with you, I’m guessing you don’t wake up in a bathtub. You don’t wake up at all. You think that’s what Lisa wants? Someone to die so she can live?”
“But they aren’t cutting her up.” Brian nodded across the hall at Rose. “They had me protecting her for God’s sake!”
“I don’t know why they’ve left her organs alone, but I do know that girl’s been missing for two months. Her parents hired me to track her down. When I started getting close, Accenture sent someone to kill me. They’ve kidnapped my fucking partner! I don’t know what they were doing with Rose, but these people are no good. They’re taking organs, selling them, or using them as currency for people like you. What about the other guy at the clinic? He in the same boat? He need an organ? Is that your brother?”
“Max?” Brian rolled his eyes. “He’s not my brother. You kill him?” He was nonchalant, like he was asking Carter if he was from around here. Carter just shook his head. “If he had someone in his life that needed an organ, then he never said anything about it to me. A few days into the job I learned to tune him out. He never would shut his crumb catcher. Just yapping all day about useless shit.”
“Was he military too?” Carter asked. Brian squinted and wrinkled his forehead. “Your tattoo.” Carter pointed. “10th Mountain Division?”
“Shit, you know your stuff. Max? I swear he couldn’t have made it past basic training.”
“While you were there, watching Rose, did you see anything? Hear anything? These people are going to kill my partner. Anything you know could help.”
“It was a pretty boring gig. But every week, two doctors would show up to do something with that machine. Swap something out or whatever. They’d have me sign some form. Never liked putting my signature to this job. Thought maybe they were setting me up to take the fall if something ever went down.” Brian cracked a couple of his knuckles. “Always found it weird they were keeping paperwork on this job, like they had some legal department or human resources telling ‘em how to cover their asses or something.”
“That’s the thing with organized crime. You get too organized and you start leaving paper trails.”
“Suppose that’s true,” Brian said, letting a slight smirk creep across his face. “But one time this guy showed up with the docs. Suit and tie type. He came in like he owned the place, looking at the girl. As the doctors were having me sign these forms, this guy stayed in the room, you know, the glass room with the girl. He was in there talking to her. I could see his lips moving.”
“Any idea what he was saying?”
“Nah, nothing for sure.” Brian shook his head. “The guy creeped me out though. His eye was all fucked up, like oil was spilled all inside of the whites.”
“His eye? Like it was melting? His pupil?”
“Yeah, and the guy stared right at you, forcing you to look at it.”
“I think I know the man you’re talking about. That’s the man I need to find. Was there anything else about him? How long ago was this? Did he look healthy?”
“He looked … don’t know, I guess he wasn’t all that healthy, now that you mention it. He looked okay, maybe a bit pale, but he had a hospital bracelet on. Saw it under his suit sleeve when he went to shake my hand.” Brian pointed to the plastic bracelet around his wrist. “But it was from somewhere else. Not a hospital I’ve ever heard of. Something ‘Therapeutics.’” Brian looked up, trying to recall the name of the clinic. “Something about the ocean … not tides. Maybe waves? Yeah! Wave. Wave Therapeutics!”
Behind him, Carter heard a rapid tapping on the glass. He turned to see Olivia standing outside the trauma room motioning for him to come outside.
“I’ll be right back.”
Once the door to the trauma room closed behind him, Olivia asked, “How’s that going?”
“I’m getting somewhere. I think he knew he was into something not exactly legal, but he definitely doesn’t know the extent of the operation he was working for.”
“Do you?” Olivia asked.
“Well, I think I know more than him. He thinks he met Blair once. Said he had a hospital bracelet from some place called Wave Therapeutics. I got his cell.” Carter showed the texts to Olivia. “He says he sent these figures every three days. What can you make of that?” He handed her the phone.
Scrolling through the text conversation, Olivia said, “GFR. AST. These are organ function tests.” She kept scrolling through to the beginning. “And her numbers were dropping. GFR tests kidney function. The others, ALT and AST, are used to test liver function.”
“So, what’s that mean?”
“It means her organs are failing.” Olivia looked up from the phone and over at Rose lying in the trauma room. She was still asleep.
“What can make her organs fail like that?” Carter asked. Olivia handed the phone back to Carter.
“All of her organs at once? There aren’t many things that could do that. I’d usually assume an infection of some sort, but with her … knowing where she came from, it confirms what I was thinking earlier.”
“What you were thinking?”
“I had a hunch.”
They both stepped in the trauma room. Olivia lifted Rose’s chart from the foot of the bed and scanned the results of her lab work.
“If Blair was the one behind her disappearance, then why is she still here? If it was for her organs, why are they still intact?” Olivia asked, like she was just talking to herself.
“Brian was just saying the same thing.”
“That’s the first thing I thought when I saw her, so I had Dr. Sheffield run a test.”
“What test?” Carter asked.
“Something called a microarray. Well I asked Sheffield to order the test, but he refused. That’s what we were arguing about earlier.�
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“Well shit. What would it have told us?”
Olivia smirked. “He refused, but I added it to her lab orders anyway.” She scanned the results. Carter grinned wide at her disobedience. “You said there was a machine in that clinic?”
“Yeah, a big fucking machine.”
“It was cycling her blood through?” Olivia’s eyes traced the lab report, and she ran her finger along as she read. “This is what I was afraid of,” she said softly to herself.
“Yeah, I think it cycled her blood. Maybe plasma. What? What were you afraid of?”
Olivia shifted her eyes back and forth between Rose and the monitor just to the right of her bed. She watched the lines zigzag up and down.
“You ever hear of CRISPR?” Olivia set Rose’s chart back down.
“Um, no, I don’t think so.”
“It’s a gene editing tool.”
“Gene editing? Like picking what color eyes your baby is going to have?”
“Yeah, but more than that. Much more.” Olivia stood at Rose’s side and turned her arms over, looking at the needle marks in the crook of her elbow. “CRISPR is a set of enzymes that can go into someone’s body and splice their genes, cutting out bad portions.” She made a scissoring motion with her fingers. “In theory it could cure a lot of disorders caused by malformed genes. Cancer, AIDS, blindness, sickle cell, cystic fibrosis. Once perfected, the possibilities with gene editing are limitless.” Her eyes sparkled as she talked about curing incurable diseases, but then it changed to something else, something closer to worry. “It could even be used to eliminate MIDAS Syndrome.”
“MIDAS? What Blair has?”
Olivia nodded, still looking at Rose, like she was piecing this together in her head as she said it all out loud.
“So, they’re testing a cure on Rose? But … she was healthy. Nothing to cure. Nothing to splice. They’ve made her worse, in fact. Maybe that’s why they ended the procedures and told Brian to leave the clinic. Their tests failed.”
“No. Wait.” Olivia held her hand up and froze, deep in thought. Carter shut his mouth and let her think. “All the research in gene editing so far has been about splicing off bad portions of genes, taking away something that was harming the rest of the body … but if the procedure was perfected, then they could splice off any portion they want. Good or bad.”
