Fatal Complications

by John Benedict

  “What’s wrong, Daulton? Where’s your precious faith now? I watched your wife flatline.”

  Amazing! That didn’t fit either. Wouldn’t a guy like Katz, who prided himself on the brilliance of his plans, see fit to taunt Luke, if indeed Kim had survived his first attempt—the injection of air—only to have Katz realize it and kill her anyway? And would he really have taken the time to restart her IV and inject more air, when he could’ve easily killed her in so many other ways? Plus it made no sense that Katz would brag about administering a fatal air injection, if he had killed her by some other means.

  Maybe Kim is alive!

  “You bastard!” Luke shouted, but almost smiled. An enormous feeling of love swelled in his heart. The possibility that Kim might be alive reenergized Luke more than all the anger in the world. His despair vaporized and he fought back vigorously with everything he had. He managed to push free of the hot doorframe and broke Katz’s grip on his arms. The two stood facing each other again. Two could play at these mind-game things. “You know the senator is still alive?”

  “What’re you talking about?” Katz demanded.

  “I know about your stupid plot to kill the senator. I know the MH was a fake.”

  “Nice try, Daulton, but you can’t lie any better than your dumb, dead friend, lover boy. Doesn’t really matter now, does it? You’ll never live to tell a soul.”

  “You made one stupid mistake, you moron.”

  Katz looked irritated. “And just what might that be?”

  “My dad did teach me one thing that’s true. Never send a boy to do a man’s job. Your stupid Russian flunky was too busy getting high to finish the job.”

  Katz hesitated before replying. “It doesn’t matter. The plan was foolproof.”

  “Maybe. But not idiot proof.” Luke was on a total roll here. “I helped Stu save the senator.” He had no clue whether the senator had lived or died. In fact, he thought it most likely that he was dead. But he could see the bluff was definitely rattling Katz, so he persevered. “The first thing we did was take down the IV bag you started.”

  “That’s enough!” Katz came at him again. With unbelievable strength, Katz latched onto Luke and drove him back against the hot doorframe. Luke barely got his arms out in time to keep from getting pushed in. His hands were once again being cooked on the doorframe. Frantically, he looked around the room for anything he could use as a weapon. He saw a shovel across the room. It would do nicely, but since it was out of reach, it might as well have been on the moon. An orange glint caught his eye, the flames being reflected from some shiny surface on the floor. Luke glanced down and saw the blade of a knife, a blade he had seen before—Nikolai’s switchblade. But Luke needed both hands to resist the inexorable pressure of Katz shoving him backward. If he let go with one hand to try to retrieve the knife, it would be over—he would go in. What could he do? He couldn’t hold on much longer.

  Suddenly a vision of Abi, angelic Abi, came to him. Maybe this was a defense mechanism, his mind offering the illusion of being cradled in love to give him peace before his own death? He relaxed a bit, ignored the scorching heat on his back and hands, and immersed himself in the vision, concentrating on Abi’s face. She seemed to be speaking to him. Abi meant so much to him. Saving her life had been the key that unlocked his faith. Wait—Abi was trying to tell him something.

  And then it dawned on him.

  Luke pushed back from the doorframe with all his might. “I also know about your son,” he lied. “Rob told me everything. How he died in the house fire and you were consumed by guilt.”

  Katz straightened up again and the pressure eased. “You don’t know shit about what happened.” Katz glared at him with his remaining good eye.

  “I do know one thing,” Luke said, returning the glare. “You failed to save him!”

  “I tried, damn it!” Katz shouted, spittle flying into Luke’s face. “God knows, I tried.”

  “Do you still hear him scream?”

  “No, of course not,” Katz answered too quickly. Katz got a faraway look in his eye, as if he were listening to something only he could hear. The pressure eased further.

  Luke carefully removed one seared hand from the doorframe and moved it slowly to search the floor, not daring to look. “You talk about my faith being weak,” he said, his hand desperately continuing the search. “It sounds like yours was weak!”

  “No, that’s not how it was! God knows I tried to save him.” Katz was snarling. “It was God who screwed up!”

  Luke never took his eyes off Katz, meeting his stare, but his groping hand connected with something hard and metallic on the floor—the switchblade.

  Katz continued his rant. “The fucking master of the universe couldn’t save one twelve-year-old boy! God must pay for betraying me. I’ll make him pay. You’ll see. Souls are mine for the taking!”

  “I doubt it.” But it seemed that Katz had reignited his anger with his fresh hatred of God, because the pressure ratcheted up once more. With only one hand to resist him, Luke knew that he only had a few more seconds. He cut his finger badly on the sharp blade as he frantically tried to locate the handle.

  “I’m done playing with you!” Katz grunted and pushed hard.

  Luke finally found the smooth handle of the switchblade. Grasping it tightly, he swept it up in an arc, ramming the blade deep into Katz’s chest with all the fury he could muster. Katz screamed and his hot blood gushed out, running down Luke’s knife hand. Luke hugged Katz tightly, and they swiveled like a dance pair doing the tango, completing a 180-degree turn with the blade still buried in Katz’s chest. Blood was now also running out of Katz’s mouth, but he held on to consciousness, anguished moans emanating from deep within his throat. Luke stood up straight and withdrew the blade, watching new blood spill forth from the chest wound. Katz tottered on his feet and looked like he might fall. Luke delivered a powerful kick, sending him tumbling backward into the furnace.

  Katz shrieked, sounding like the inhuman wraith that he was, as the flames engulfed his body. Luke grabbed the can of fuel oil, uncapped it, and dumped it all over Katz’s burning body. “Burn in Hell!” Luke slammed the door home and latched it. He spun the furnace control knob to max and the flames roared like an angry beast. For good measure, Luke grabbed the shovel and wedged it in the door mechanism, jamming it tight. “Let’s see you climb out now!”

  EPILOGUE

  SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 9:30 A.M.

  Luke beamed with pride as he pushed the wheelchair down the hallway. Kim rode in the wheelchair with a neatly wrapped bundle in her arms—Abi. Luke was filled with an enormous sense of relief and gratitude that he was leaving the hospital with the two most important people in his life—alive and well. Things could easily have turned out differently. He also realized on some gut level that his future happiness would forever be tinged with bittersweet memories.

  Senator Pierce had survived his gallbladder surgery, although was still in the SICU recovering. Stu Whitman had indeed taken down the acid-laced IV bag after Luke had been forcibly removed from the OR. This action had been life saving and allowed Pierce’s resuscitation. However, Pierce had suffered a stroke during the operation, probably due to a combination of acidosis and low blood pressure. Time would tell to what extent he would recover his mental faculties and whether or not he would retain his Senate seat.

  Gwen was also in the SICU, recovering from abdominal surgery. The surgeons had found massive liver and spleen lacerations and she had required whole blood volume transfusions to keep her alive. Had she been found ten or fifteen minutes later, she probably wouldn’t have made it. But thanks to her youth and good health, she now had an excellent chance of making a full recovery. Except, Luke knew, she was being treated for severe depression, which had gripped her ever since she had learned of Rob’s death.

  In his debriefing with the FBI, Luke learned that the skeletal remains of three different bodies were pulled from the incinerator. In addition to Rob’s body and Ka
tz’s, a third body—FBI agent Benjamin Harris—was also retrieved. Luke didn’t know Benjamin Harris, but was informed that Ben’s quick thinking under duress had not only produced the Sudoku puzzle, but also summoned help—before he had been roasted alive by Katz. Luke shuddered when he thought how close he had come to suffering a similar fate. Ben was to receive the Medal of Valor, the FBI’s highest award for bravery, posthumously.

  Luke was also deeply saddened to learn that Jenna Steele—the OB nurse/FBI agent, who had saved his life during Kim’s C-section and helped deliver Abi, was also dead—killed by Katz. In addition to shooting Mark Seidle to death, they told him that Jenna had also shot and killed Nikolai Andropov and had wounded Katz. In fact, they speculated that the blood loss from Katz’s shoulder wound had probably weakened him, helping Luke to overcome him in the end. Jenna would also receive the Medal of Valor.

  The FBI said they had uncovered evidence from Katz’s computer of a murder-for-hire ring operating at the hospital. Luke provided them with some additional details about Mimi Hinkle’s suspicious death in the OR. They thanked him and said they were already on it—Katz’s phone and bank records had led them to investigate two prominent local attorneys, Bart Hinkle and Kyle Schmidt.

  The FBI also mentioned they were attempting to follow the money trail from Katz’s bank accounts to identify and apprehend whoever was behind the attempt on Senator Pierce’s life. But this was proving a tougher nut to crack. So far, the bad guys here—no doubt well-connected political operatives—seemed to have done a much better job covering their tracks, and the trail was obscured by many false leads and dead-ends. The investigation was ongoing, but likely to be drawn out, as it was already getting bogged down by political headwinds and outright stonewalling.

  Luke thanked the FBI for their continuing efforts and for the service and sacrifice of agents Benjamin Harris and Jenna Steele, both murdered in the line of duty by that bastard, Katz. Luke realized he owed his life to them. The thought of Katz made Luke’s fists tighten. The memory of their fight to the death in the incinerator room would haunt him forever. He could only hope that Katz had been wrong about his dire predictions for the human race. And he couldn’t help but wonder how many more Katzes were loose in the world. He was glad he had sent that unholy demon straight back to Hell, where he belonged.

  And that left Rob—the tough one. Luke still had to choke back tears when he thought of him. Rob had saved Kim’s life, as well as Luke’s, in an unselfish act of bravery and sacrifice. Luke literally owed him everything. He missed Rob already and mourned the friendship they never had a chance to develop.

  Luke parked the wheelchair next to the entrance to the hospital chapel. There was a beautiful wooden carving of Jesus on a pedestal, in a little alcove to the right of the chapel door. The door also had a lovely stained-glass window in it. Kim looked up at him.

  “Do you mind if we stop here for a minute?” Luke asked.

  “Of course not.” Kim blinked several times and he could see tears glistening in her eyes. “Take your time.”

  Luke went inside, knelt down at a pew, and started praying.

  Twenty minutes later, he came out of the chapel to find Kim absorbed, staring peacefully at their daughter’s face. She looked up and asked, “How’d it go?”

  “Fine,” Luke answered. “I got some stuff off my chest that’s been there a long time—it felt good. I also passed along some long overdue thanks.” He heard his voice break.

  She reached out with her free arm to comfort him.

  Luke returned her sad smile and the two looked into each other’s eyes without saying anything more. “Let’s go home,” Luke finally said in a stronger voice, and began nudging the wheelchair forward.

  “Sounds good,” Kim said. “This one’s going to be hungry soon.”

  Luke paused just before reaching the main entrance. “There’s something I have to tell you.”

  Kim turned and took his hand and squeezed it. “Go ahead,” she said. Abi looked up at him.

  “It’s about my father.”

  Luke took another step forward and the automatic glass doors whooshed open. The new family headed out into the bright, sunlit morning.