Stephanie appeared at the bedroom doorway, still struggling to get into her loafers and tuck in her blouse. By the time she got over to Daniel, he had the door to the hall open. Together, they flew toward the elevators.
After hitting the down button, Daniel took the cell phone from Stephanie, handed her the medical pouch, and dialed Dr. Nawaz’s number.
“Come on!” Daniel urged, as the phone rang and rang. Just as the elevator arrived, Dr. Nawaz answered sleepily.
“It’s Dr. Lowell,” Daniel said. “We might get cut off. I’m stepping into an elevator.” In response to Stephanie pressing the lobby button, the doors closed. “Can you still hear me?”
“Just barely,” Dr. Nawaz said. “What’s the problem?”
“Ashley is having an olfactory aura,” Daniel said. He was watching the floor indicator. It was supposed to be a high-speed elevator, but the numbers seemed to be decreasing agonizingly slowly.
“Who is Ashley?” Dr. Nawaz questioned.
“I mean Mr. Smith,” Daniel said. He glanced at Stephanie, who rolled her eyes. For her, it was another small episode in the continuously unfolding and unfunny comedy.
“It will take me about twenty minutes to get to the clinic. I advise you to call Dr. Newhouse. As I said earlier, I suspect this seizure might be worse than the first, especially considering where those cells are. We might as well have the same team.”
“I’ll call Dr. Newhouse, but we are not at the clinic.”
“Where are you?”
“We’re at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island. At the moment, the patient is in the casino, but we are going to try to get him back to his room, which is registered under a Carol Manning. It’s called the Poseidon Suite.”
There was a silence that lasted for several floors.
“Are you still there?” Daniel said into the phone.
“I’m not certain I’m believing what I am hearing. This man had a craniotomy some twelve hours ago. What the hell is he doing in the casino?”
“It would take too long to explain.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s two-thirty-five. I know it sounds like a lame excuse, but we had no idea Mr. Smith would go to the casino when we brought him back here, but he is extremely strong-willed, with a mind of his own.”
“Has there been any progression beyond the aura?”
“I haven’t seen him yet, but I don’t think so.”
“You’d better get him out of that casino. Otherwise, there could be one hell of a scene.”
“We’re on our way down to the casino as we speak.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can. I’ll check the casino first. If you’re not there, I’ll assume you are in the room.”
Daniel ended the call and then dialed Newhouse’s number. Like with Dr. Nawaz, the phone had to ring multiple times before it was picked up. But in contrast to Dr. Nawaz, Dr. Newhouse sounded chipper, as if he’d been awake.
“Sorry to bother you,” Daniel said, as the elevator doors opened on the lobby level.
“No bother. As an anesthesiologist frequently on call, I’m accustomed to calls in the middle of the night. What’s the problem?”
Daniel explained the situation as he jogged down the main hall toward the casino, which was centrally located in the huge complex. Dr. Newhouse’s reaction mirrored Dr. Nawaz’s in all respects, and he too said he would be there imminently. After disconnecting, Daniel exchanged the phone for the black medical pouch.
Upon reaching the casino, Daniel and Stephanie slowed to a fast walk. The facility was in full swing and significantly more crowded than either anticipated, despite the hour. It was a colorful sight with its rich, red-and-black carpet, huge crystal chandeliers, and snappily dressed croupiers. Daniel and Stephanie made a beeline through the clutter of activity and past the roulette tables grouped in the middle of the spacious room. It didn’t take them long to find the bank of slot machines Carol had described and, once there, even less time to find Ashley. Carol was standing right behind him and was ostensibly glad to see help arrive.
Ashley was sitting in front of one of the slot machines with a considerable pile of coins on the counter. He was still dressed in his laughable tourist outfit. His bandage was still in place on his forehead. His paleness wasn’t as apparent with the red glow reflecting off the carpet. There was no one at the machines immediately neighboring his.
Ashley was relentlessly feeding his machine in a manner he clearly wouldn’t have been able to do the day before. The instant the inner wheels stopped, another coin dropped into the slot and the arm was pulled. Ashley appeared mesmerized by the blurred images of fruit.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Daniel went directly up to Ashley and pulled him around with a hand on his left shoulder. “Senator! How nice to see you!”
Ashley squinted up into Daniel’s face. His eyes were unblinking, his pupils dilated. His normally carefully combed hair was tousled as if someone had deliberately messed it up, giving him a wild appearance.
“Take your hands off me, you skinny shit,” Ashley growled, without a trace of his normal accent.
Daniel obeyed instantly, shocked and terrified by Ashley’s uncharacteristic profanity, which recalled a similar outburst in the operating room. The last thing he wanted to do was provoke the man and thereby incite a more rapid progression of the seizure symptoms. He stared into Ashley’s eyes, which reflected a kind of disconnect, since Ashley evidenced no signs of recognition. For a beat, neither moved as Daniel rapidly debated whether to attempt to medicate him on the spot. He decided against it, for fear he’d be unsuccessful and make things worse in the process.
“Carol tells me you smelled a disagreeable odor,” Daniel remarked, unsure of what to say or how to proceed.
Ashley gave a wave of dismissal before nodding his head. “I think it was that whore over there in the sexy red dress. That’s why I moved to this machine.”
Daniel glanced down the row of slot machines. There was a young woman in a red dress showing significant cleavage, especially when she worked the slot machine’s arm. Daniel redirected his attention to Ashley, who had gone back to feeding the machine in front of him.
“So you don’t smell the odor any longer?”
“Just a little, now that I moved away from that bitch.”
“Well, good,” Daniel said, allowing himself a ray of hope that the aura might resolve without progression. Regardless, he wanted Ashley back in the Poseidon Suite. If there were a scene in the casino, undoubtedly the whole affair would unravel in the media.
“Senator, I have something I want to show you up in your room.”
“Piss off, I’m busy.”
Daniel swallowed nervously. His nascent ray of hope began to fade as he acknowledged that Ashley’s mood and behavior were obviously already significantly abnormal, even if not yet outrageous. Frantically he tried to think of something to get Ashley up to his suite, but nothing came to mind.
All at once, Carol gave Daniel’s shirtsleeve a tug and whispered in his ear. Daniel shrugged. He was willing to try anything, no matter how ridiculous. “Senator. There’s a full case of bourbon in your room.”
With encouraging rapidity, Ashley let go of the slot machine’s arm, turned, and looked up at Daniel. “Why, Doctor, fancy seeing you down here,” he said, with his accent returning.
“Good to see you as well, sir. I came down to tell you about the case of bourbon that arrived in your room. You have to come up and sign for it.”
To Daniel’s relief, Ashley immediately slid off the stool attached to the floor in front of the slot machine and stood. He must have had a wave of dizziness, because he tottered for a moment before grasping the edge of the counter. Daniel grabbed his arm just above his elbow for additional support. Ashley blinked, looked at Daniel, and for the first time smiled.
“Let’s proceed, young man,” Ashley said. “Signing for a case of bourbon sounds like a worthy cause to this old country boy. Carol, dear, se
e to my loot, if you please!”
With his hand still gripping Ashley’s upper arm, Daniel guided the man away from the slot machines. In appreciation of Carol’s suggestion, which he never would have thought of on his own, Daniel winked at her as their eyes briefly met. While Carol quickly gathered up Ashley’s coins, Daniel and Stephanie accompanied the senator across the floor and through the milling crowd of gamblers.
The journey went smoothly until they got to the elevators, where they had to wait briefly. Like a cloud passing in front of the sun, Ashley’s smile suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a scowl. Having been watching his face and seeing the transition, Daniel was tempted to ask the senator what he was thinking. But he didn’t, for fear of undermining the status quo. Daniel’s intuition told him that a mere tendril of reality was maintaining Ashley’s control of his mind.
Unfortunately, two couples that Ashley had spotted over Daniel’s shoulder boarded the same elevator behind them. One of them pressed the button for the thirtieth floor. Daniel swore under his breath. He had hoped to have the car to themselves, and the tension of worrying about an explosion of Ashley’s behavior in the presence of strangers caused his pulse to race and perspiration to appear on his forehead. For a split second he looked at Stephanie, who appeared as terrified as he. Returning his attention to Ashley, he could tell the senator was glaring at the couples who were tipsy and carrying on in a boisterous and provocative manner.
Daniel unzipped the medical pouch. He looked in at the vial and syringes, and considered whether he should fill one of the syringes. The problem was that the strangers would see what he was doing and might become alarmed.
“What’s the matter, Papa?” one of the women questioned teasingly after noticing Ashley’s truculent, unblinking stare. “Are you jealous, old man? You need a little action?”
“Screw you, bitch!” Ashley snapped.
“Hey, that’s no way to talk to a lady,” the woman’s companion blurted. He pushed the woman to the side and stepped forward to confront Ashley.
Without thinking of the consequences, Daniel sandwiched himself between the two. He could smell the man’s garlic-and-alcohol breath and feel Ashley’s stare on the back of his head.
“I apologize for my patient,” Daniel said. “I’m a doctor, and the gentleman is ill.”
“He’s going to be a lot sicker if he doesn’t apologize to my wife,” the man threatened. “And what’s he ill with, loss of marbles?” The man laughed mockingly as he tried to peer around Daniel for a better look at Ashley.
“Something like that,” Daniel agreed.
“Whore!” Ashley shouted, while making a lewd gesture toward the woman.
“Oh, that’s it!” the man snapped. He reached out and tried to move Daniel aside while making a fist with his other hand.
Stephanie grabbed the man’s arm. “The doctor is telling the truth,” she asserted. “The gentleman is not acting like himself. We’re taking him back to his room to give him some medication.”
The elevator stopped at the thirtieth floor, and the doors opened.
“Maybe you’d better give him a new brain,” the man said, as his laughing companions pulled him off the elevator. He yanked his arms free and stood, glaring in at Ashley, until the doors closed in front of him.
Daniel and Stephanie exchanged a nervous glance. A potential disaster had been averted. Daniel looked at Ashley, who was smacking his lips as if tasting something disagreeable. The elevator doors opened on the thirty-second floor.
With Carol on one arm and Daniel on the other, they managed to get Ashley off the elevator and down the hall. He did not resist but rather walked like an automaton. At the mermaid door, Carol let go of Ashley long enough to get out her keycard and hand it to Stephanie, who got the door open. As Daniel and Carol started to urge Ashley forward, he shook off their hands and walked in freely.
“Thank heavens,” Stephanie said, as she closed the door behind the group.
The chandelier in the foyer was turned on, as was a lamp on the desk in the great room. Otherwise, the suite was lost in shadow. The drapes were pulled to the side, along with the glass panels. Beyond the balcony, a star-strewn sky arched over a dark sea. Freshly cut flowers rustled softly on the coffee table from the night breeze.
Ashley continued walking until he reached a point a few steps away from the coffee table. There he stopped and remained motionless while staring out at the balcony. Carol turned on more lights to fill the room with illumination, then went to Ashley to see if she could get him to sit down.
Daniel dumped the contents of the medical pouch on one of the small matching console tables in the foyer. He fumbled, trying to tear open a syringe packet, while Stephanie removed the cap covering the rubber stopper on the parenteral medication vial.
“How are you going to do this if he resists?” Stephanie whispered.
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” Daniel admitted. “Hopefully, Dr. Nawaz and Dr. Newhouse will be here to lend a hand.” He had to use his teeth on the cellophane.
“The senator is grimacing like he did when he smelled the pig excrement,” Carol called from the other room.
“Try to get him to sit down,” Daniel yelled back. He finally got the syringe out of its packaging and threw the wrapper to the side.
“I already tried,” Carol said. “He refuses.”
A loud crash of furniture in the other room snapped Daniel and Stephanie’s heads around. Carol was picking herself up from the floor after having been shoved into one of the end tables, knocking its lamp over. The ceramic lamp had shattered into a thousand pieces. Ashley was tearing off his clothes and throwing them around the room.
“Oh God!” Daniel cried. “The senator is going off the deep end.” Daniel grabbed one of the alcohol pledgets and tore it open, but the moment he got the pledget itself out, he dropped it. He grabbed another.
“Can I help?” Stephanie asked.
“I’m all thumbs,” Daniel admitted. He got another pledget out and swabbed the rubber stopper of the medication vial. But before he could insert the needle, Ashley let out a shriek. In a panic, Daniel thrust the vial and the syringe into Stephanie’s hands before dashing into the room to see what was happening. Carol was standing behind one of the couches with her hands clasped alongside her face. Ashley was still in the same place but naked save for calf-length black socks. He was slightly hunched over and staring at his hands, which he had cupped close to his face.
“What’s the trouble?” Daniel cried, as he came around to look at Ashley.
“My palms are bleeding,” Ashley said with horror. He was shaking. Slowly, he lowered his trembling hands palm-up, spreading his fingers widely.
Daniel looked at Ashley’s hands and back up into his face. “Your hands are fine, Senator. You have to calm yourself. Everything is going to be all right. Why don’t you sit down? We have some medicine for you, which will make you feel relaxed.”
“I am sorry for you that you cannot see the wounds on my hands,” Ashley snapped. “Perhaps you can see them on my feet.”
Daniel looked down and then back up at Ashley. “You’re wearing socks, but your feet look fine. Let’s sit you down on the couch.” Daniel reached out to take Ashley’s arm, but before he could, Ashley slapped his hands against Daniel’s chest and viciously shoved him away. Completely caught off guard, Daniel stumbled into the coffee table, falling over backward onto it and smashing the flower vase in the process. Water and cut flowers splayed out in an arc on the thick carpet. Daniel rolled off the table face-first, falling between it and one of the couches. Carol screamed.
Mindless of the havoc he’d caused, Ashley skirted around the other side of the coffee table and ran toward the balcony. He stopped abruptly just over the threshold and lifted his hands horizontally with his palms facing forward. The night breeze off the ocean fluttered his disheveled hair.
“Good grief! He’s out on the balcony!” Stephanie yelled. She was clutching the syringe, alcohol pl
edget, and vial to her chest.
Wincing from the pain in his back from the collision with the flower vase, Daniel struggled to his feet. He ran out onto the balcony, skirting Ashley, to put himself between Ashley and the balustrade.
“Senator!” Daniel yelled, holding up his hands. “Get back in the room!”
Ashley did not move. His eyes were closed, and a look of serenity had replaced the earlier horror.
Daniel snapped his fingers to get Stephanie’s attention. She had stopped just inside the room with a look of dismay on her face. “Is the syringe filled?” he asked, without taking his eyes off Ashley.
“No!”
“Fill it fast!”
“How much?”
“Two cc’s. Quick!”
Stephanie drew up the fluid, pocketed the vial, and snapped the syringe with the nail of her index finger to get rid of any bubbles. She dashed out onto the balcony and handed the syringe to Daniel. She looked into Ashley’s placid face. The man was like a statue. He didn’t move. He didn’t even seem to be breathing.
“It’s like he is frozen,” Stephanie said.
“I don’t know whether to try to give this IV or just settle for IM,” Daniel debated. He took a step forward, still not having decided what he was going to do, when Ashley’s eyes popped open. Without the slightest warning, Ashley bolted forward. Daniel reacted by throwing his arms around Ashley’s chest while trying to brace himself against the floor tiles. But it was like trying to hold back a charging bull. Daniel’s shoes slid easily across the ceramic floor, and when the two men collided with the balustrade, Ashley’s momentum caused them to flip over the top and out into the night.
Stephanie screamed “No!” as she raced to the railing and looked down. To her utter horror, Ashley and Daniel were locked in a slow-motion, tumbling embrace, like two lovers falling into the abyss. In the next instant, Stephanie averted her gaze, and with a sick feeling, she slumped down with her back against the cold stone balustrade.