Chapter 3 - The Antidote
The room went completely silent.
Silas stepped forward, his hand dropping to the holster at his waist.
"Poisoned?" Silas demanded.
"Look at the discoloration around his veins," Clara pointed to Victor's neck.
"It’s not sepsis."
"It’s a slow-acting neurotoxin, likely introduced by whatever blade cut him."
Dr. Aris scoffed loudly, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"That is ridiculous."
"I ran his blood panels twice."
"There is no toxin."
"This woman is an unlicensed hack who lost her medical license two years ago!"
Clara did not look at Dr. Aris.
She looked directly into Victor Kaine’s fever-bright eyes.
"The Colombians don't just want you dead, they want it to look like a failure of your own body."
"If we don't flush your system and administer a neuro-blocker in the next twenty minutes, your heart will stop."
Victor held her gaze for three agonizing seconds.
He lifted a trembling hand and pointed a single finger at Dr. Aris.
"Get him out," Victor whispered to Silas.
Two guards immediately grabbed the protesting surgeon and dragged him from the room.
"What do you need?" Silas asked Clara, his voice dead serious.
"Atropine, high-dose activated charcoal, and a central line kit."
"And I need someone to hold him down, because this is going to hurt worse than the stitches."
Silas nodded and began pulling supplies from the glass cabinets.
Clara moved with the terrifying speed she had perfected in the trauma ward.
She prepped the central line, finding a vein near Victor's collarbone.
"Look at me," she told him.
He locked his dark eyes onto hers.
"This is going to burn," she warned him for the second time in twenty-four hours.
She pushed the medication directly into his heart.
Victor arched off the mattress, a guttural roar ripping from his throat.
The heart monitor screamed a continuous, terrifying pitch.
Silas grabbed Victor's shoulders, holding the massive man down against the bed.
Clara watched the monitor, her heart in her throat.
For ten seconds, the machine flatlined.
Then, slowly, a jagged rhythm returned.
The harsh red flush in Victor's skin began to recede.
His chest rose and fell in deep, exhausted breaths.
Clara stepped back, her gloves covered in sweat.
May you like
She had done it again.
She had saved the devil.
