Silencing the beeper, Stewart stood
undecided, his current state of mind not ideal for any form of surgery and he
knew it.
The bodies had disappeared… Damn
these visions!
He took a valium to calm his nerves. He needed
to get his act together, retain some semblance of normalcy. Else the repercussions
could prove fatal. He could not allow anyone to visit home till he had cleaned
up the place. The staff from the agency was due for the maintenance visit in
the weekend, which gave him just two days.
Angela…he missed her so much.
The investigation had begun, now that
they had found Jake’s body; the attention had swung back to him. The detective,
blast his name, had already called him twice as had the reporters. It had taken
all his strength to answer the questions with composure, regret and anger in
the right places.
He changed into fresh clothes while
calling Malcolm, his friend from medical school. Malcolm had seen his share of
emergencies, being a visiting surgeon at St.Vincent’s with a thriving practice
of his own a few blocks away.
Luck on his side, Malcolm had already
been contacted by the hospital staff. He was aware of the strain Stewart was under
and promised to watch his back.
Next was Brendan, his loyal assistant
whom he acknowledged with a “You will be joining Dr.Malcolm and Dr.Bakshi. I
will be there as soon as I can.”
A nervous, agitated voice responded,
“It seems like a routine accident case, drunken driving…but…”
The hesitancy prompted Stewart to ask
“Did you ID the patient?”
“Nothing on him, detectives are
swarming the floor and a couple of government officials have turned up.”
‘Must be a local politician or high
ranking official, a potential cause of embarrassment’ mused Stewart as
Brendan’s voice came back on line.
“I only got a look at him; they are
keeping things pretty hush hush…” “Doc, Gotta go…”
He hurriedly parked his car and took
the basement elevator to the second floor. The scene that greeted him was one
straight from the movies…what caught his eye however, were the two officials
standing apart from the others. There was something familiar about the muscular
men.
Nurse
Lee, ever competently helped him sterilise, as he tried to keep him mind alert
and focused. As he pushed his body through the side door, his colleagues
greeted him with somber looks. As they updated him, it was obvious that with a
head injury and a puncture to his left lung, the patient’s chances of survival
were rather slim. They worked in silence, in perfect tandem for the next three
hours till they were relieved by a newer set of surgeons brought in.
One of the muscular men stopped them
outside the sterilising room with a curt “We need him alive.”
“Who is he?” queried Malcolm.
“What we say stays here, is that
understand?”
The three nodded…“He is ex CIA agent,
Alex Sonneberg.”
Stewart collapsed on the floor…
mine was the 15th episode of a 22 episode story on a website
