ON EDGE (Decorah Security) by York Rebecca

Author:York, Rebecca [York, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Light Street Press
Published: 2013-01-18T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Frank wasn’t sure how long he was nowhere. It could have been minutes, hours, years or a century. But he awoke with a gasp, his body jerking painfully as his eyes flew open.

In pain and confusion, He looked up into the faces of two nurses and a doctor standing over him. The doctor was Southwell who was in charge of the internal medicine program on the trauma floor.

“Wha. . .?” Frank tried to ask.

“Take it easy.”

Frank wet his dry lips and waited a moment before trying again. “What happened?” he managed to ask.

The doctor’s face was strained.

“You were dead. We got you back.” Southwell gestured toward the crash cart beside the bed. On it was a defibrillator, and the doctor was holding the paddles.

“My heart stopped beating?” Frank clarified as he struggled to wrap his mind around the situation.

The doctor nodded.

Frank tried to square the information with his previous memories—starting when he’d finally gone to bed the night before. He’d put himself into a trance, forced himself deeper, and ended up in the jungle where Ariel lived. He’d been attacked by her guards. She’d saved his life, and they’d made love.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Southwell asked.

Unwilling to say anything that would get him transferred to the psych ward, he said, “Going to bed.”

“And you were here in bed all night?”

“As far as I know.”

“What does that mean?” Southwell demanded.

“I suppose somebody could have moved me. Like if I were unconscious,” he said, wishing he’d just kept his mouth shut instead of coming out with that last speculation.

Before the doctor could ask another question, an orderly came in. “Dr. Southwell.”

“Excuse me.” The physician detached himself from the group gathered around Frank and went over to the orderly, where they conferred in low voices. Finally Southwell returned.

“What?” Frank demanded.

The doctor hesitated.

“What?” Frank said again, his gaze drilling into Southwell’s.

“Gordon is recovering.”

Frank felt everything inside himself clench.

“From what?”

“He had a heart attack. We managed to revive him.”

Frank turned his head toward the window, seeing the first glimmer of dawn, then looked back at Southwell.

“You’re saying both of us had heart attacks tonight.”

“You didn’t have a heart attack. We believe you suffered a cardiac arrest, but we’ll have to run some tests.”

“What’s the difference?”

Southwell went into a technical explanation that Frank couldn’t follow very well. But the bottom line was that Gordon’s heart had been damaged, and his had not.

“Why did it happen to me?” he asked.

“We don’t know, but we’re going to check you over, starting with some blood work.”

One of the nurses stepped forward with a blood-draw tray.

“What, you think I’m on something?” Frank asked as she inserted a needle into his arm.

“We’re checking every possibility.”

“Just us—me and Gordon—nobody else?” Frank asked.

“Yes.”

“So I guess it’s not something like Legionnaires’ disease infecting the hospital.”

“Legionnaires’ causes respiratory distress and possibly mental confusion.”

Frank sighed. “I was just using it as an example of a disease that sweeps through a confined population.”

“Yeah.”

When the nurse was finished with the blood draw, Southwell listened to his heart, had him cough, and other stuff you’d expect in a routine physical.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.