Waters of Lethe, Book 2

42. Deadlocked

Removing the tracking device from behind one of my ribs was justifiable, which was why I didn't hesitate to let them do it.

After the point came up, Audi had to get a vote. He resorted to votes nowadays because most people found his ideas to be a bit irrational. Imagine that.

As always, he got us to compare pros and cons and which outweighed the other. Most people, save Danny, wanted to get the chip out and send me on my way. I couldn't help but think that most of the people in the room didn't really care.

Danny, on the other hand, cared.

"What about the dangers of getting the chip out and it alerting them?" Danny asked, worry plastered on his face.

Audi smiled. "Won't be a problem, Phantom. We aren't going to tamper with it. We already know where they are. No need. Plus, it moves around all the time, it's not like it'll alert them when its pulled out."

Audi had good points, but they didn't sell to well to Danny.

Danny silently shook his head and looked at me. "I still think this is a bad idea."

I tried hard to find a plausible reason that would prevent us from getting the device out of me, but I couldn't think of one. Especially when the benefits outweighed the risks.

Soon after Audi got yes vote from all the people in the room but Danny, Audi started making calls. We all sat back for a few minutes and watched him.

"I need confidentiality papers rushed to..." Audi called out a hospital that I'd never heard of or been to. It was our best option due to it being a quality hospital and the fact that it was only two hours away. We needed to be quick. "Get an agent out to talk with them, get them to sign the papers. This case is on a need-to-know basis."

Audi hung up and got a call a few minutes later. "Yes, we'll be there in a couple of hours. This is urgent." Audi pulled his phone away from his face and looked at me. "Have you had anything to eat today?"

I sighed. "No."

"What about to drink?"

I hadn't had the chance to do anything. It was early in the morning. I came here as soon as I'd gotten out of bed, after I had thrown on a t-shirt and jeans. "No."

Audi continued to get things set up. Two and a half hours later I was being prepped.

*******************

My heart was pounding against my chest, something I had grown used to in the last few weeks. Worrying all the time and constantly being nervous didn't help my blood pressure any.

I was put into a holding room as soon as we'd gotten to the hospital. Doctors and nurses streamed in and out of the room, checking my pulse and blood pressure and pressing on and between my ribs and stomach. I gritted my teeth when a nurse nervously came in to put a couple of IVs in me, one in my right arm and one in my left. It wasn't just the nurse who was nervous, however. All of the hospital staff that had anything to do with me seemed to be on edge, antsy, or just plain afraid. I couldn't muster a smile to make them see I wasn't going to attack them, so I let them be afraid of me. I thought back to the confidentiality papers they had to sign, agreeing that I was basically a big secret that they couldn't tell a single soul about. That, if they were to speak about me, they would face harsh consequences. Extremely harsh. They'd pass losing their licences and having to pay heavy fines and go straight to life in prison.

As I thought about it, I'd probably be afraid of me, too.

So I let them work after I'd changed into a horrible hospital gown and got into the bed, after I'd watched Audi leave and the surgical team come in. An anesthesiologist popped a mask over my nose and mouth, telling me to breathe in as deeply as I could and let him know when I was getting sleepy.

He sat by my bed, fiddling with the canisters of nitrous oxide. He had the last step in prepping me, so we were alone in the room.

"My name is Bob," he said with a smile as he cranked the gas up. I could smell it, taste it in my mouth. I was almost positive a normal person wouldn't be able to detect either of those things.

My voice was muffled by the mask. "Hi, Bob. I'm-" pretty sure you already know who I am.

He smiled. "Jai."

Bob, the short, stout man that he was, didn't seem to regard me as the nurses and doctors had.

"Alright, Jai, well this-" he pointed to the mask over my mouth and nose "-will make you feel calm and a bit sleepy. We have to test the dosages first to see what level will be effective for you." Because you aren't human.

I nodded.

A few minutes later he asked, "Are you feeling kinda dull or sleepy?"

"No." I wasn't, truthfully. My anxiety was decreasing, the anxiety that I didn't let show. That was it, however.

Bob twisted the knob on the canister and the blowing sound of the gas got louder as more came through the mask and into my nose and mouth.

"Where you from?" Bob asked me.

I was staring at the ceiling when he spoke. My eyes drifted over to him. The gas was working on my body, but not my mind.

I lied to him, simply because I didn't want to go further than seven months into my past. "I'm from here. A little more north, though."

"Ah, northern Maine." I liked this guy. He had kind eyes, a face that had seen many years. Good and bad. "I'm from Texas."

I almost laughed. "What brought you up here?"

He smiled again. "Wife is from this neck of the woods. We moved up here shortly after we got married."

I nodded. I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn't tell if I wanted to close them because I was so tired of worrying or if the gas was finally taking hold of me for good.

After a few minutes passed without any more progress, Bob turned the knob some more on the canister. His mouth was in a line of worry, and I could tell that he had never had to pump this much nitrous oxide into someone before.

He turned back to me, observing me. "You have any family up here?"

"No."

"What about-"

"No. No family."

He smiled sadly, nodded. "Alright. Just take some deep breaths..."

The level of gas he turned the knobs to did the trick. My eyes began to feel heavy and I drifted off a few times, getting to the edge of sleep, only to have that falling-off-a-cliff feeling, my eyes opening when I was in free fall.

I was able to watch as a few nurses came into my room and wheeled my bed out, Bob staying by me side as they took me down hallway after hallway, into and out of an elevator, through double doors and into a terribly cold, bright chrome room. People got on either side of me and moved me over from my warm bed and onto a cool table.

I'd seen people I knew throughout the hallway as they wheeled me in here. I thought about them as I felt someone doing something with the needle they'd stuck in my arm before.

I'd seen Audi, but I was almost positive he was real. I'd seen Gomez and Tom, though I knew they weren't actually there. Tom was dead, and Gomez wanted nothing to do with El or I.

Speaking of El, she was here now, by me, by the doctor. She leaned her hip into the cold table but regarded me with warm, lovely eyes. She held my hand.

I tried telling her that I'd seen my mother and sister in the hallway, tried asking her if she could run them down for me and get them to come back so I could talk to them, but I couldn't form words. I didn't have the energy. Something cool was running into my arm, through the IV.

Bob, who sat by my head watching computers, touched my arm. "You're going to be okay, buddy. You're going to be just fine."

As I drifted off, I imagined that he was telling me everything would be just fine, not just the minor surgery I was having.