Chapter 8 - The Most Dangerous Patient in Chicago
Octavio demanded to leave the hospital the following morning.
Dr. Ward said absolutely not.
Octavio said absolutely yes.
Mina stood between them, drinking coffee.
“I'm enjoying this.”
Both turned toward her.
Ward pointed at Octavio.
“Tell him.”
Mina shrugged.
“You won’t survive stairs without help.”
Octavio looked offended.
“That was unnecessarily specific.”
“Reality usually is.”
Eventually they compromised.
Octavio would remain hospitalized forty-eight more hours while Gabriel quietly arranged transfer to a secure rehabilitation property outside downtown Chicago.
No public announcement.
No official discharge schedule.
No names.
Mina expected her role to end there.
It did not.
“You're coming,” Octavio said.
She stared.
“To rehab?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Gabriel entered.
“We've arranged temporary private nursing authorization.”
“No.”
Octavio frowned.
“Why?”
“Because I have a job.”
“This is your job.”
“No. This is kidnapping with paperwork.”
Gabriel coughed to hide a laugh.
Octavio looked genuinely puzzled.
“You'd be paid.”
“That's not the point.”
“More.”
“Still not the point.”
He stared at her for several seconds.
“Then what's the point?”
Mina put down the chart.
“I became a nurse because patients need people who can tell them no.”
Gabriel whispered,
“That explains everything.”
Mina continued.
“If I work for you, you're my employer. I don't want that.”
Octavio understood.
“Hospital employs you.”
“Yes.”
“I reimburse hospital.”
“No.”
He sighed.
“What do you want?”
“Professional independence.”
“Fine.”
“And authority over your medical care during my shifts.”
“No.”
“Then find another nurse.”
His jaw tightened.
Mina waited.
Gabriel checked his watch.
Octavio finally said,
“Fine.”
Mina smiled.
“See? Rehabilitation is already teaching flexibility.”
Two days later they transferred him.
The safe property stood behind trees on thirty acres north of the city.
From the outside it looked like a modern country estate.
Inside it looked like a medical facility hidden inside a fortress.
Rehabilitation room.
Monitoring equipment.
Private nursing station.
Security control center.
Physical therapy gym.
Mina stared.
“You built this in forty-eight hours?”
Gabriel answered,
“Money is useful.”
“Apparently.”
Octavio arrived in a wheelchair and hated every second of it.
He spent the first afternoon reviewing company records.
The second trying to contact people Gabriel had forbidden him to contact.
The third arguing with a physical therapist named Renee who was even less impressed by him than Mina.
“Stand.”
Octavio stood.
“Three steps.”
He made two.
His legs buckled.
Renee caught him.
“Again tomorrow.”
Octavio looked furious.
Renee shrugged.
“I don't work for your ego.”
Mina immediately liked her.
That evening, Mina found Octavio alone in the medical room.
He was holding a photograph.
A woman with dark hair beside Lake Michigan.
“Sofia?”
He nodded.
“She’s younger?”
“Six years.”
“Close?”
“We were.”
“What happened?”
“I became busy.”
“That sounds like a polite word.”
His gaze moved to her.
“It is.”
“With business?”
“Yes.”
“With being Octavio Rain?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Mina sat opposite him.
“You think she disappeared because of you.”
“If I gave her the key.”
“You don't remember doing it.”
“I would.”
“You suffered catastrophic brain trauma.”
“I would remember Sofia.”
Mina softened.
“Maybe the brain keeps different things in different places.”
Octavio looked at the photograph.
“She hated what I became.”
“What did you become?”
He smiled without humor.
“Read the newspapers.”
“I have.”
“And?”
“I think newspapers know your reputation.”
“Not an answer.”
“I don't know you well enough to know the man.”
He studied her.
“Everyone thinks they do.”
“That's easier.”
“What is?”
“Making people simple.”
He looked back at Sofia.
Mina continued.
“Good man. Bad man. Criminal. Nurse. Victim. Villain. People like labels because labels don't require understanding.”
Octavio was silent.
Then:
“What label do you give me?”
“Difficult patient.”
He laughed.
A real laugh this time.
Short.
Rough.
Unexpected.
Mina smiled.
Then every light in the estate went out.
Darkness.
One second later emergency power activated.
Red security lights illuminated the hallway.
Gabriel’s voice erupted through the intercom.
“Lockdown. Medical wing secure.”
Mina stood.
Octavio reached toward the drawer beside him.
She stopped his hand.
“What are you doing?”
“Protection.”
“You're barely strong enough to lift soup.”
“I don't eat soup.”
“Stay here.”
Gunshots did not follow.
Instead came silence.
Then Gabriel entered.
“Someone breached the perimeter.”
Octavio’s expression hardened.
“How?”
“Used one of our security codes.”
“Whose?”
Gabriel hesitated.
“Mine.”
Mina looked at him.
“You think your credentials were cloned?”
“They were.”
“Like mine at the hospital.”
“Yes.”
Octavio’s eyes narrowed.
The same method.
The same pattern.
Someone wasn't merely attacking them.
Someone had studied how their systems worked.
Gabriel handed Octavio a phone.
A video had arrived.
Sofia appeared on screen.
Alive.
Older than the photograph.
Tired.
But alive.
Behind her stood a blank concrete wall.
She looked directly into the camera.
“Tav, if you're seeing this, you're awake.”
Octavio stopped breathing.
Sofia continued.
“Do not come looking for me.”
His fingers tightened around the phone.
“Victor doesn't have the ledger. He doesn't have the key. And he doesn't know where I put either one.”
She leaned closer.
“But there is something you need to understand.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“The person who betrayed you wasn't working alone.”
The video glitched.
Then Sofia said the sentence that turned every person in the room toward Gabriel.
“Someone beside you helped Victor from the beginning.”
The recording ended.
Silence.
Octavio looked around the room.
Gabriel.
Mina.
Security personnel.
Medical staff.
People he had chosen.
People he believed were loyal.
Somewhere among them was a traitor.
May you like
And suddenly the secure estate did not feel secure at all.
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