Chapter 18
No.1
The grand hall of the Metropolitan Museum was transformed into a glittering ballroom.
Elisa stood near the Aethel Intelligence tech booth,holding a glass of sparkling water. She ignored the stares of the socialites. She was busy analyzing the hospital directors circulating the room, mentally calculating which ones were desperate enough for Chiron's diagnostic speed.
Fifty feet away, at the VIP center table, August sat surrounded by Wall Street executives. Allena sat beside him, basking in the glow of the wealthy wives who were praising her medical brilliance.
Suddenly, a sharp, terrifying gasp shattered the elegant hum of the room.
At a table near the edge of the dance floor,a seven-year-old boy dropped his porcelain plate.It shattered on the marble floor.
The boy's hands flew to his throat. His face was rapidly turning a violent shade of purplish-red.He was gasping for air, his eyes bulging with sheer panic.
The guests around him screamed and scrambled backward, knocking over chairs.
The boy's mother dropped to her knees, shrieking in terror.
Elisa's head snapped toward the sound. The cold,calculating Al architect vanished. The ER nurse took over.
She dropped her glass. It shattered. She sprinted toward the crowd.
But Allena saw the cameras turning. She saw the opportunity.
No.2
"Let me through! I'm a doctor from Johns Hopkins!"Allena yelled, hiking up her massive white dress and rushing toward the boy.
The crowd immediately parted for the famous doctor.
August stood up, his chest swelling with pride as he watched Allena take charge. He walked over to stand behind her, acting as her protector.
Allena dropped to her knees next to the thrashing boy. She looked at his red face and panicked. She had no idea what was happening.
"He's having an asthma attack!" Allena declared loudly, making sure the reporters heard her. She looked up at a terrified waiter. "Go find an inhaler!Now!"
Elisa shoved through the crowd.
She took one look at the boy. She saw the aggressive, raised red hives spreading rapidly up his neck and arms. She heard the high-pitched wheezing.
It wasn't asthma. It was severe anaphylactic shock.His airway was swelling shut.
An inhaler would do absolutely nothing. The boy would be dead in two minutes.
"Stop!" Elisa roared, her voice cutting through the panic. "It's a nut allergy! He needs epinephrine immediately!"
Allena's head snapped up. Her face flushed with anger at being contradicted in public.
No.3
She stood up and violently shoved Elisa's shoulder.
"Get away from himn!" Allena screamed. She pointed at Elisa, looking at the crowd. "She's not a doctor! She's a fired nurse who has absolutely no qualifications to handle this kind of emergency!She's just trying to ruin my reputation because she's jealous!"
The wealthy guests gasped, whispering furiously and glaring at Elisa.
The boy's mother,terrified by the word 'unqualified,'threw her arms over her son, blocking Elisa. "Don't touch my baby!"
August stepped forward. His massive frame blocked Elisa completely.
He looked down at her, his eyes burning with rage.
"You are sick," August hissed, grabbing Elisa's left arm tightly. "Using a dying child to play your jealous games. Security! Get this lunatic out of here!"
Elisa looked past August's broad chest.
The boy's body suddenly arched backward.His eyes
rolled back into his head. His violent thrashing stopped. He went completely limp in his mother's arms.
His breathing had stopped.
No.4
The mother let out a sound that wasn't human-a raw,guttural scream of absolute despair.
Allena froze. She stared at the dying boy,her hands shaking violently. She had no idea what to do.A surge of pure, primal adrenaline exploded in Elisa's chest.
She didn't care about August. She didn't care about her cover.
Elisa twisted her body violently, ripping her arm out of August's grip.
She didn't have time to argue. She didn't have time to care about his fragile ego. The boy's life was slipping away by the second. Her eyes locked onto the solid wall of his chest blocking her path.She planted her feet firmly against the polished marble floor. She dropped her center of gravity in a fluid,calculated motion, leaning her weight forward.With a sudden, explosive burst of kinetic energy, she drove her uninjured left shoulder directly into the center of August's chest. A searing agony ripped through her right arm from the impact, making her vision swim with black spots, but she locked her jaw and ignored it.
The impact was hard and precise.
August grunted, the air knocked from his lungs. He
stumbled backward, his heavy frame clearing the path.
Elisa lunged forward, throwing herself onto the marble floor next to the dying boy.
Elisa hit the marble floor hard.
She shoved Allena out of the way so violently the woman tumbled backward into a chair.
No.5
Elisa grabbed the boy by the shoulders and laid him completely flat. She ripped his silk bowtie off and tore the collar of his shirt open to expose his chest and neck.
"Who has an EpiPen?!" Elisa screamed at the crowd,her voice raw and terrifying. "Look in your purses!Now!"
The crowd was paralyzed.
"Now!" Elisa roared.
A pale, trembling woman in the second row fumbled with her Hermes clutch. She pulled out a bright green plastic tube. "I... I have one!"
Elisasnatched it from her hand.
She didn't hesitate. She didn't prep the skin. She ripped the blue safety cap off.
She slammed the orange tip of the EpiPen directly into the thick muscle of the boy's outer thigh,driving the needle right through his expensive suit pants.
Click.
Elisa held it there, counting out loud. "One,two,
three..."
No.6
She held it for a full ten seconds, ensuring every drop of epinephrine entered his bloodstream.
She pulled the needle out and tossed the pen aside.
The boy didn't move.His lips were blue.
Elisa immediately locked her hands together,placing the heel of her left hand on the center of his sternum.
She locked her elbows and began chest compressions. She forced all her weight onto one side,her body thrown off-balance with each brutal push. The strain sent waves of fire up her injured arm, but she grit her teeth, turning the pain into mechanical rhythm.
Crunch.Crunch.Crunch.
The brutal, mechanical sound of her compressions echoed in the silent ballroom. She pushed hard and fast, forcing the blood to circulate the adrenaline through his failing heart.
August stood three feet away, clutching his chest where she had hit him. He stared down at Elisa.
Her face was covered in sweat. Her eyes were fiercely focused. She looked like a warrior fighting death itself. A strange, heavy knot formed in August's throat.
Two minutes passed. It felt like an hour.
Suddenly, the boy's chest heaved.
No.7
He let out a massive, ragged gasp of air. He rolled onto his side and began coughing violently,his face rapidly regaining its pink color.
The mother collapsed over him, sobbing hysterically,kissing his face.
The wail of ambulance sirens finally pierced the walls of the museum. Paramedics rushed into the ballroom with a stretcher.
Elisa stopped. The adrenaline crashed.
She slumped back onto the marble floor. Her right arm was on fire. The heavy velvet sleeve of her dress was wet and sticky with fresh blood.
Flashbulbs suddenly erupted around her. The media had broken through the security line.
Before Elisa could stand up, Simon, August's PR director, stepped directly in front of her, blocking her from the cameras.
Simon raised his hands, addressing the reporters with a slick, professional smile.
"Please, give them space!" Simon announced loudly. "Dr. Allena Mills just performed a miraculous, life-saving intervention! Her quick diagnosis and command of the situation saved this boy's life!"
Elisa stared at Simon's back.
Allena, who had been cowering in a chair, instantly understood the play. She stood up, smoothed her white dress, and stepped into the flashing lights.