Sam had glanced over Melissa’s test results again before he and Donna entered the room. While John and Donna quietly talked in the corner, Sam checked Melissa’s reflexes. There was no response. He then checked the urine level in her catheter reservoir.
“Well?” John prompted.
“Let’s talk in my office.” Sam reached for Donna’s hand and guided John to the door. Donna sat in a chair next to Sam’s desk. Melissa was Sam’s patient, and unless Sam did something Donna disagreed with, her reason for being at this discussion was for moral support only.
John sighed, his voice laden with anguish. “It’s not good is it?”
“Have a seat, John,” Sam said.
John gripped the arms of the chair. “Just tell me, I can’t take not knowing. Is she going to die?”
Sam drew in a sigh. “Well, John, I’ve never been one to ‘give up hope’ per se. The brain is a complicated and unpredictable piece of work. It seems, the more we learn about it, the less we know.”
John furrowed his brow and tightened his jaw. “Sam…!”
Sam held up a forestalling hand. “John, she’s not responding. There’s very little brain activity. The parts of her brain responsible for important functions, such as the nervous and endocrine system, and other involuntary body functions indicate she’s been subjected to some kind of inner-cranial electric shock.” Sam paused and then continued.
“Because of the damage done to the medulla oblongata - the area of her brain responsible for involuntary functions, such as breathing and regulating body temperature, Melissa’s body is slowly shutting down. Donna believes it has something to do with the EIA – the monster drug – as she refers to it.”
John sighed and rubbed his forehead. His dark eyes glistened and burned with un-cried tears. “So you’re telling me…” his voice cracked. “…there’s nothing you can do?”
“John, I wish I could offer you more, but I’m sorry. Until we can get a working sample of the EHG virus, I’m afraid we’ve done all we can.”
John lowered his head. “So, what now? He looked back at Sam.
“John, as I told you before, Melissa didn’t want to be kept alive by artificial means.”
John’s heart all but stopped. “Sam she’s too young to think about that! Surely there must be something you can do to keep her alive until the virus can be used!”
“John…” Donna softly interjected, “…for the amount of damage that’s been done, even if she pulls through, Missy will probably be little more than a vegetable, unless I can perfect my CTZ5 treatment, soon.”
“I’ve checked the document Missy signed, John,” Sam added. “She left the final decision up to you, whether or not to take her off the machine.”
John tightened his grip on the chair arms more. He didn’t want to see Melissa suffer, but he wasn’t willing to let her go either. Still, he felt obligated to respect her wishes. Finally, he spoke. “Sam. Donna. I know this sounds extremely selfish of me, but I’m not ready to let her go. Don’t pull the plug, not until we’re sure that’s the only option.” John turned his attention back to Donna. “If the EIA has caused permanent brain damage, would your CTZ5 be able to reverse that?”
Donna studied Sam’s eyes for a few seconds; she turned back to John. “Yes,” she said with confidence. “If Missy is genetically compatible, this treatment will undo any damage Forrest has done. Unfortunately, we don’t know how long it will take to get something we can test.”
John swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’ll risk it.”
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Sir Richard called Gary to his office. “How close is Donna to having something to test?”
“Convincing the EHG to transcribe. We’re still looking for a suitable vector.”
Sir Richard slid the cheek scraping and vacutubes across the desk. “These were given under the strictest of confidence, Gary. He said it was what Donna needed to save Missy and to use as a temporary vector. He stressed you would have to use it as a last resort because it has to be genetically matched each time it’s used. He also said she was right. HIV1 was the answer.”
Gary read the name on the label. “How long are they planning on staying in the UK?”
“Jared wanted to stay until Missy either recovered or…” he broke off and swallowed the lump in his throat.
Gary sighed. “Sir Richard… do you think Jared is being fair to Donna about this? When she sees the DNA profile, she’s going to know it’s from him.”
“That’s why he said for you to do the profile and culture the stem cells yourself. He said no one else could know these came from him, especially not Donna. It has something to do with influencing her choice. Whatever that’s supposed to mean. I assumed it had something to do with his secret.”
“Did he explain anything about himself to you?”
Sir Richard grinned. “Gary, we really don’t have time to exchange Indian legends. Get on this. I don’t want to lose Missy.”
Gary stood. “Until I can do the profile and start culturing the stem cells, you’ll need to keep Donna and Richard distracted.”
Sir Richard stood. “I think I’ll let Sam do that. How long will this take?”
“Since I know what I’m looking for, assuming the EHG is on the same chromosome as Donna’s was, I’d say about six to eight hours. The question is can Missy last that long?”
“I’m going to sit down with Sam, and Donna, and John, and discuss our options. I want to respect Jared’s wishes, but if Sam and Donna don’t think Missy can wait that long, I may not be able to. As I see it, saving a life is more important than keeping ancient secrets. Don’t you agree?”
“Yes Sir, I do. I’m not sure I agree with Jared about keeping secrets from Donna, in the first place. It’s only going to make matters worse between them. Especially if she finds out Jared was willing to risk Missy’s life just so she wouldn’t find out he was helping us.”
“Get started growing the protein crystals. We’ll decide what to do after I’ve talked with Sam and Donna.”
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Sir Richard and John met Sam and Donna in the medical conference room. “Where are Gary and Richard?” Donna asked as they took their seats.
“Richard is sitting with Missy, and Gary is growing a new batch of protein crystals. Sam, I’m not here to order you to pull the plug. I’m here to discuss our options, and don’t tell me there aren’t any. What happened? I thought she was stable.”
“Sir Richard, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong. I told you when we brought her in that her recovery was conditional. Donna, who has had some experience with EIA doesn’t even know what went wrong.”
“That’s not entirely true, Sam,” Donna interjected.
“Donna, there’s no way anyone could have got in the room, without John or the two security guards….”
Sir Richard held up a hand. “You think someone tried to kill Missy?”
Sam tightened his jaw. “Donna….”
“Shut up Sam!” John snapped. “Let her talk.”
“Sir Richard, Missy basically had a heart attack. Now I know her system has been weakened by the effects of the drug Forrest gave her, but it doesn’t make sense.”
“Donna, there are a number of things that could have caused this – brain herniation, a thrombus, a pulmonary embolism, cerebral pressure or infection.”
“Yes Sam, I know that, but her D-dimer was negative. There are drugs that can mimic a heart attack, digoxin, for example, which I screened for. Her Bilirubin was elevated, which suggests to me that there was some kind of toxin involved. This could have been what caused her to go into renal failure. The thing that makes poisoning or an overdose, so implausible is what Sam has already pointed out. John was in the room the entire time before Missy went into cardiac arrest. How could someone get in there, give her the drug and then get out without anyone, John least of all, seeing them?”
Sir Richard narrowed his eyes. “You’d be surprised what’s possible. You said you screened for drugs and toxins that could mimic cardiac arrest. Are there any you might have overlooked, or not known about?”
“Of course,” Donna responded knowingly. “People are finding new ways of killing each other every day, but if Missy was poisoned, it’s not something I’ve had any experience with.”
“What about you, Sam? Can you think of anything that you’ve had experience with that Donna might not have? Something that might not be easily detected?”
Sam sighed and pursed his lips. “There are two things, but I don’t know how in the hell someone in England would get their hands on either one of them – cerbera manghas or cerbera odollam. Both are basically undetectable by Western medicine, unless you were looking for it. Some people know it as the suicide tree because virtually everything about it – its seed, its bark, its root, you name it – is highly toxic and would cause the same effect as an overdose of digoxin. But, again, we’re back to square one – the when and how.”
“Find out if that’s what it was. Let us worry about the when and the how. My next question is how do we treat it?”
“If I had a stable vector, the safest and fastest way would be my EHG virus, but without a stable vector, I can’t guarantee it will affect Missy any more than giving her a hypo full of deionised water. The other problem is I don’t know if Missy can survive until I find another vector. I need the HIV1! Even on life support, Sam’s right. Missy’s dying, Sir Richard. I’m sorry, John,” she said sympathetically resting a hand on his.
“It’s not your fault Donna. I know you and Sam are doing everything you can to save Missy. I may just have to face the facts….”
“Sam,” Sir Richard sighed. “I need to speak with John and Donna alone.”
Sam stiffened and started to protest, but stopped; remembering how Donna had reacted to a similar situation, when he’d objected to her questioning his judgement. He didn’t like it any more now than he had then, but he didn’t want to risk driving her away. He bent down and tenderly kissed her. “Since I know what toxin I’m looking for, I’ll get another blood and urine sample from Missy and start looking for the cerbera.”
Donna waited until Sam had left the room. She slid to the edge of her seat and frowned. “Sir Richard, why are you trying to exclude Sam?”
Sir Richard drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Because I was asked to by the person who donated the sample of DNA Gary is busy analysing.”
“What do you mean? He’s not still working with mine?”
“No, petal. The DNA profile Gary is doing now is on Jared.”
Donna’s eyes glossed. “I saw his name on Linda Wilson’s chart. I know he was the attending physician before Linda left the States. Jared was so secretive about that,” she mused. “Before we split up, he was going to let me do it, but only if I promised not to let anyone know where I got the samples. Why would he send samples back, so Gary could do it?” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “His blood is pure Dine'é Kay-Yah, Sir Richard. I only carry the recessive gene, yet he left me because I risked exposing him. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Donna… Jared didn’t send samples back to the UK. He gave them to us. John called me and told me Missy had arrested. I told Jared that you were afraid you were going to lose Missy because the EHG wasn’t completely genetically compatible with your CTZ5 vector. Jared voluntarily gave us a cheek scraping and blood samples. He said in them, Gary would find what you needed to make the CTZ5 vector work with the EHG virus, but it would only be temporary. Jared agrees with you. In order to make the EHG do what we want it to you’ll still need to use the retrovirus as your vector.”
Donna tightened her jaw. “Jared said Gary was the only one who could work on this? That arrogant hypocrite! I risked everything for him. How selfish can he get?” She braced her hands on the armrests and shot to her feet. She glared at Sir Richard. Her voice rose in pitch. “He was in the observation area with you, when Sam and I were in the operating room, wasn’t he? Jared was there! You lied to me! Sam lied to me! He said we were not being observed. Sam knew Jared was there too – didn’t he?” Donna was fuming.
Sir Richard grinned and softly chuckled. “Calm down, petal, I….”
“Maybe you should tell me why you find this so funny!” she snapped. “And stop calling me petal. It makes me feel like a fragile flower.”
Sir Richard pressed his lips together to suppress a grin. He swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, Donna.”
“I hate lies, Sir Richard. I thought I could trust you, but Jared was right. There’s very little difference – if any – between you and Forrest. Why didn’t you tell me Jared was here? You men are all alike. You all lie to get what you want. Where is the coward? Where is Jared?” Her voice was so high pitched she was almost squealing.
Sir Richard fought harder to suppress his grin, but he couldn’t hide the twinkle in his eyes. He swallowed hard again to keep from laughing. “Jared can be an arrogant asshole, but he is not a coward, and there’s a difference.”
“Yes Jared is a coward! If he wasn’t he would have told me to my face that he hated me for the way I betrayed him instead of putting it in a ‘Dear John’ letter! And what do you mean there is a difference?” she scoffed.
Sir Richard sighed deeply and shook his head. “Same fire her mother had,” he mumbled. John softly smiled and nodded in agreement. “A difference between me and Forrest, Donna. Let’s get Missy taken care of and, we’ll sit down, and I’ll explain a few things to you. I think it’s about high time I did.”