Chapter 27: Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The wail of a siren rose and fell in pitch, but its volume did not get softer like one would hear if a fire truck were driving past.

His chest hurt. It burned. It also felt like he had been punched repeatedly. The air he breathed was cold, dry and metallic. He was being rocked back and forth. He forced his eyes open. There was a man in a blue uniform shirt sitting over him. Kara was sitting next to the man, staring down at Jake. They were swaying with the same motion he felt.

You’re going to be okay, my love, Kara sent him.

What happened to the Council guy?

He fucked with the wrong family of telepaths. He’s in the second ambulance.

Jake tried to smile but he couldn’t sustain it. With the breathing mask on his face, she wouldn’t be able to see it anyway. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. He fought a bout of dizziness.

I feel bad. I’m going to close my eyes for a minute.

Rest, beloved. It’s going to be okay.

Jake woke. He felt better, except for his chest, which still felt like it had been burnt and kicked.

He opened his eyes and looked up into Ellen’s troubled face. She was holding his hand. He radiated to her his appreciation of her beauty.

This time Jake managed a creditable smile.

I’m not sure what happened, he sent, but I suspect I’ve fucked up monumentally.

“Oh, master,” she whispered to him, tears forming in her eyes, “I was so scared when Jan called and told me you were on the way to the hospital. I would die without you. You are my life.”

Her tears fell down her cheek and onto Jake’s hospital gown. Her relief almost battered him.

Goddamn it, master, I don’t know whether to kiss you within an inch of your life or beat you black and blue.

He felt another strong emotion, distant but horrible. It was an overwhelming, unremitting shame, shocking in its intensity.

Ellen followed his thoughts.

“That’s the assassin. He’s down on the fourth floor. He’s barely within my range, but I still have to filter him out. Alice is merciless.”

“What happened?”

“You’re in the pediatric ICU.”

Jake looked around. There was a heart monitor over one shoulder.

“I’m the only one allowed in to see you. The others are in the waiting room. They told me the story while we were waiting for you to come around. But they know better than I do what happened.” Kara, Jake wants to know what happened.

Sure, I’ll tell him the story.

I’m sorry I messed up, Kara, he sent. I’m sorry I worried all of you.

Shut up, Jake. You weren’t at fault, not given the circumstances. More importantly, they took their best shot and failed. You survived and we kicked their ass. Things worked like they were supposed to.

I think my brainstem was ringed. But that’s all I know. What happened?

I thought that you were going to wait for me at the door into the mall. When I finally collected the others, you were already gone. I sensed you walking down the mall with Julie and Mona. We weren’t in a hurry. We thought we’d catch up with you in the parking garage.

Jake felt her anger surge.

That’s when the assassin came within range. I could feel his intentions. I realized right away what was going on. I called to you and started running to catch up. You were so far ahead of me that he got to you before I could. Thinking back, we were foolish. We should have paralyzed him immediately.

Kara continued.

Kara projected her agreement. While he was sleeping, Alice made him ashamed. For some reason, she decided that it would be an effective way to manage him. All the time we were working on you, she was intensifying his sense of shame. You must be able to sense him. If it goes on much longer, I think he’s going to go insane. But at least while it lasts, he won’t be doing anything to anyone else.

I already called them, Kara sent. They’re on their way back. Their flight is due at seven this evening.

Good. I need to talk to Boris as soon as he gets here.

The door opened and a young woman in scrubs appeared, followed by an older man in a lab coat.

“Mrs. Fielding,” the man said, “I’m Dr. Mahoney. This is Dr. Worden. We’re treating Jake’s heart condition. Can we speak to you outside?

“Yes, of course.” She turned to Jake. “You rest. I’ll be back soon.”

She followed the doctors out of the room.

Can we talk in the waiting room, Ellen asked. I have family down there. I want them to know what’s going on.

Jake sensed their reluctance to involve more people, but they acceded. Dr. Worden spoke when they arrived in the waiting room.

We’re very concerned about Jake. I’m a pediatric cardiologist, and I can tell you that it’s almost unheard of for someone with no apparent defect to have a heart attack at his age. I expected the lab tests to show that the heart stoppage was caused by drugs, but there are no signs of that in his system. Blood testing shows nothing to suggest an electrolyte imbalance and cardiac enzymes are normal. That leads us to suspect that there is some conduction disorder that isn’t apparent from the EKG. We’d like to perform an electrophysical study on Jake to collect more data about the electrical signals in his heart. We are concerned that he has a congenital disorder that hasn’t yet become apparent.

What does that involve? Ellen asked.

We insert a catheter in the groin and thread it through a large vein up to the heart. An antenna in the catheter picks up the electrical signals and allows us a better understanding of how Jake’s body is regulating his heartbeats.

Whoa! Jake sent. We know why my heart stopped. I’d rather not have them cutting me open looking for causes that aren’t there.

Is Jake’s heart operating correctly at the moment? Ellen asked.

At the moment, Dr. Worden said. But whatever defect caused his heart to stop this afternoon might occur again. Jake was lucky that a defibrillator was available. He might not be so lucky next time.

Isn’t there something less invasive you can do?

We might try an MRI or a CT scan. They would show certain kinds of defects.

Doesn’t a CT scan involve radiation?

That’s true, Dr. Worden said.

Then how about the MRI? That seems least likely to do Jake any harm.

That is true, but it’s also not the most comprehensive test.

Nonetheless, if you insist on more testing, let’s start with an MRI.

Mrs. Fielding, don’t you want us to do what is most likely to reveal the cause of Jake’s illness? Dr. Mahoney said.

I want to be smart about it. I’ll only authorize more conservative tests first. We can consider riskier tests later, if necessary.

Jake sensed the doctor’s frustrations. Jake adjusted them to be more cooperative.

If you insist, Mrs. Fielding, Dr. Worden said. We’ll schedule the MRI for this afternoon if possible. The nurses will bring you a consent form for you to sign.

He really wasn’t on drugs? Mona asked after the doctors left. He was acting so strange at the ice skating rink. Like he was stoned, or maybe drunk.

Mona’s concerns were valid, Jake thought, but she wasn’t being helpful. He tamped down her curiosity.

After napping, Jake felt almost back to normal, if normal included having been kicked in the chest. Just after dinner, at which Jake found the portion sizes woefully inadequate, they transferred him to a private room in the pediatric ward.

Most of the women came in to see him. He greeted them cheerfully.

“Jan and Christine had to go home,” Kara said. “Jan said she’ll be back this evening.”

“That’s silly of her to come all the way back here.”

“She’s concerned, Jake,” she said, “just like the rest of us.”

“We know that I don’t really have a medical condition. My problem is that I’m at war with murderous, sociopathic mind readers. The doctors can’t help me with that. What I really need is my war council. We’ve got some decisions to make, and we’ve got to secure Mr. Oliver Wise so that he can’t contact the council.”

“He’s completely paralyzed and his mind-reading skills have been disabled,” Alice said. “Plus his emotional state is not that good at the moment. There’s nothing he can do.”

“As long as no one comes looking for him,” Jake said. “If the Council sends another mind reader to find out what happened to Wise, we could lose him. That’s where Boris comes in. I need to see him as soon as he gets back to town.”