“Shit, Juno,” he said, “I almost killed you. You should've announced yourself before barging in like that.”
I grabbed Vlad's arm and yanked him out into the hall. “Why weren't you guarding the door? I thought you'd ditched her.” The only thing keeping me from yelling was the fact that I hadn't yet caught my breath.
“Relax,” he said. “I didn't think it was too smart to be hanging around outside her door. Might as well put a big sign up that says, ‘Here's Niki.’”
“Right,” I said as I tried to collect my haywire self. “When was he here?”
“About a half hour ago. One of the nurses came down to tell me, and I called you right away. She said he got very belligerent with the desk nurse upstairs. She told him Niki checked out, but he wasn't buying it.”
“But he left?”
“Not until after he threw up a big stink. Listen, Juno, I don't think this is going to work much longer. If he comes back with a wad of bills, I don't think he'll have to ask around long before some orderly tips him off.”
Vlad was looking at me, waiting for me to tell him what to do. I had no idea what to tell him, none whatsoever. “I'll figure something out,” I said unconvincingly as I walked back into Niki's room.
Maggie had Niki turned on her side so she could check the skin ulcers that had formed on her backside from lack of movement. I took a look myself. They looked good. The staff was doing a nice job keeping them under control. There was nothing more life-threatening for Niki than those ulcers, which were sure to get infested with maggots if they broke open. And then, if they didn't heal quickly enough, the rot would set in, and once the rot set in, it was only a matter of time.
Maggie eased Niki over onto her back. Niki looked me straight in the eye. I stroked her cheek, which was just about the only place she could feel my touch. The door flew open. Vlad was there with a nurse I recognized as one of the nurses who took care of Niki when she was in Intensive Care. “He's back, boss. He's got a whole crew of cops with him, and they're going from room to room.”
The nurse took the purple 10 K bill Vlad held out for her and stepped away in a hurry.
“Shit. Let's move her. I'll get the bed, you get-”
Vlad interrupted. “No way, boss. I had them move her twice. It takes a whole team.”
“Well get them in here. NOW!”
“There's no time, boss. It's a big production.”
I was so panic-stricken, I was practically panting. “What am I supposed to do? Just let them come and kill her?”
Vlad looked down at the floor like a kid who just got in trouble.
“Yes,” said Niki in her ventilator voice.
I wheeled on her. “Shut up, Niki. Now's not the time.”
“Seems to me… now's the p-perfect time.”
“Shut up already!”
Maggie aimed a stern look at me before comforting Niki. “It'll be okay,” she said to her. “We'll think of something.”
Vlad poked his head out the door and looked both directions. “Nobody yet. They must still be upstairs.”
Fucking fuck! I was about to freak out. My blood was boiling. My bobbing hand was waving like a blade of grass in high winds. My stomach burned like I'd swallowed a hot coal. I grasped for a little sanity and came up empty. SHIT!
Vlad looked out again. “There they are. They're at the far end of the hall, two of them.”
From somewhere in my gut came the answer, like it was always there. Today's the day I die. I pulled my piece and spat orders. “I want Maggie and Vlad in the bathroom. It's me they want. I'll take the fight to them in the hall. Don't come to help. If they get me, they get me, understand? They'll leave once they have me.”
Maggie was shaking her head no.
“It's the only way, Maggie. If any of them come in, I need you and Vlad to ambush them from the bathroom. I'm counting on you.”
Maggie kept shaking her head.
I grabbed her hand. “I need you, Maggie.”
“No. You can't just provoke a firefight in a hospital.” She pulled Niki's blanket off and started wrapping it into an oblong ball.
“What are you doing?”
“We're in maternity, right?” She took the bundled blanket and tucked it under Niki's arm.
“This won't work.”
“Yes it will,” she said. “Now go get another blanket to cover this equipment.”
It won't work. It won't work. It won't work. I was looking at Maggie. She was staring me down, her face hard as iron. I tucked my piece back in my belt. “You better be right.”
“A blanket. Now.”
“I got it, boss,” said Vlad. He took a peek out the door and slipped out.
Maggie started pulling tubes and wires, unhooking everything but Niki's air.
Could that rolled-up blanket really pass for a baby? I got busy wheeling equipment into the bathroom, packing it in with as much care as a dockworker. I slammed the heart rate monitor down on the sink with so much force that I heard the mortar cracking. I nabbed the IV stand and battled it into a tilted position by the toilet.
Vlad was back. “They're getting close, maybe eight or nine doors down.”
Maggie draped the extra blanket over the respirator and set the vase of flowers I'd sent to Niki on top. This could work. They'd be looking for tubes and blinking lights. When they looked in, they'd find the same scene they'd been seeing all along this ward, a woman sleeping with her baby.
Vlad went into the bathroom and stood on the toilet to make room for me to cram myself in. Maggie tilted Niki's head to the side, away from the door, making her look like she was asleep.
I could hear Niki whisper, “Let them kill m-me.”
Maggie soothed with her voice. “Shh. It'll be okay.”
Maggie was poised over Niki's air hose. I listened as the sound of opening doors came closer. Maggie stayed still, waiting as long as she could. Finally, she unhooked the plastic air hose from the stem that was planted in Niki's chest. Maggie dropped the hose, letting it fall to the floor. She pulled the plug on the suddenly noisier ventilator then tucked both the air hose and the power cord under the blanket and hustled for the bathroom.
“Her chest,” I hissed.
Maggie skidded to a stop and pulled Niki's sheet up over the plastic valve poking out of her chest. I sucked my body in to make room for Maggie, who slammed into me. I started to tip over. Vlad steadied me with his hand. Maggie tried to yank the door closed, but my foot acted as a mashed-toe doorstop. I pulled my foot up and leaned into Vlad, while Maggie managed to make it latch on the second try.
I heard the door pop open next door. My heart was pounding. Any second now…
But then I heard another door open, this time closer and realized the first door I'd heard must've been two doors down.
“Damn,” whispered Maggie. She'd pulled the hose too soon. Niki could suffocate before we got the hose reattached.
And then another door. A baby started crying and a muffled, “Sorry, ma'am,” came through the bathroom wall.
Finally, Niki's door opened. The three of us were collectively holding our breath. I had my ear pressed up against the door. I had my piece in my left hand, and my right hand was on the doorknob, which was luckily a lever-style knob that I could easily open with my bad hand. Long seconds ticked by. I thought of my wife, lying there unable to breathe, thinking it had been too long already. Maggie had pulled the hose way too soon. She easily could've kept the air pumping for another twenty or thirty seconds and still would've had the time to hide.
The door closed. He was either inside or he'd moved on. I waited for the sound of the next door down, needing to breathe, but afraid of making any noise. I heard the latch pop next door, and let out the breath I was holding. We rushed to Niki's bed careful not to make any noise. Maggie snapped the air hose back in while I stuck the plug back into the outlet. The ventilator whooshed into life.