throat would be completely constricted.
Maggie was now almost hysterical. “Erica, do something, please! She’s dying!”
“She’s not going to die,” Erica said as calmly as possible. She stuck the syringe’s needle into Tory’s left quadricep and pushed the plunger to its stop. The epinephrine would quickly flow from the thigh muscle into the femoral vein and then straight to the heart. She removed the needle and stuck it into one of the tomatoes lying on the floor.
The only thing Erica could do now was tilt Tory’s head back to clear the airway as much as possible. Cradling Tory’s neck with her left hand, Erica gently pushed her forehead back. She leaned down and put her ear next to Tory’s mouth. It was only the faintest of puffs, but she was still breathing. Erica hoped the epi had come soon enough.
Erica looked into Maggie’s tearful eyes. “She’s going to be all right,” she said confidently, even though she wasn’t sure. But the words had the desired effect. Maggie nodded and tried to smile.
Two minutes later, she heard sirens blaring and then the honk of a piercing air horn. They were silenced as an EMS unit squealed to a stop in front of the store. The paramedics would be in here any second. Then another siren grew louder. The police, Erica thought with alarm. When they got here, they would certainly want a statement from Erica, including her name. She had to leave.
The contents of her purse were still scattered across the floor. She hurriedly scooped them up and stuffed them back in her purse. As she finished, the crowd parted and two paramedics holding emergency boxes pushed their way through.
Erica got up and spoke to one of them while he opened the box on the floor. “Anaphylactic reaction. Severe throat constriction causing stridor. A dose of epi was administered via left quad.”
Before he could ask any questions, she ducked past the crowd. As she ran down the aisle, she could hear shouts behind her. “Hey! Who was that? Come back!”
At the cash registers, she slowed to a walk when she saw a policeman. He was talking to the store manager, who had his back to Erica. She held her face down to avoid being recognized. As inconspicuously as possible, she turned away as the policeman followed the manager toward the rear of the store. She continued walking with her purse clenched tightly to her stomach and made it through the store’s front door without being noticed. Outside, clusters of people were talking and pointing at the emergency vehicles. No one looked at her. Although she was almost hyperventilating, Erica ran.
CHAPTER 27
Kevin gnawed on a leftover piece of pepperoni pizza as he studied the figures on the computer screen in front of him. The graph of the spectroscopic analysis showed an impurity in the carbon of 0.01 %, primarily in the form of methane and other organic molecules. He wasn’t surprised that there was some impurity. Instead of requiring a pure vacuum, the process produced the greatest yield when performed in a vapor of hydrogen gas. Still, to the naked eye, or even under a high-powered loupe, no flaws in the material would be evident unless one had been introduced artificially. Just as the Adamas Blueprint said, the process produced clear, flawless diamond.
Kevin shook his head, still in a mild state of disbelief that it really worked. He walked over to the test chamber and stared through the door’s porthole. The specimen sat in the middle of the chamber, imperceptibly acquiring new coatings of diamond every time the laser’s light flashed, coatings that were fused to the previous layer with the strength of the world’s hardest known substance. Because of this fusion process, the layers were not detectable. It was a single crystal.
Kevin’s contacts were bothering him, as they often did when he stayed up late. He rubbed his eyes and looked at his watch. Almost half past midnight.
“Ready for bed?”
Kevin whipped around, startled by the voice behind him. Erica’s head peeked past the lab’s open door.
“Hey stranger. I didn’t hear you. What are you doing here?”
Erica came in the rest of the way and closed the door behind her.
“That’s a nice greeting. And when I came all the way over here to find out how you were doing.”
“Sorry. Been a long day I guess.”
“I know what you mean.” Erica walked over to peer into the chamber. When she saw the specimen, she gasped and then chuckled. “So that’s how we’re going to prove it’s an artificial diamond.”
“It was the only thing I could come up with.”
“I like it,” Erica said. “How much
“Not as much as I’d hoped. It looks like we might get 40 grams by Sunday.”
“How many carats is that?”
“I was wondering that myself, so I went and found a dictionary in Ted’s office. One carat equals 200 milligrams.”
After the slightest pause for a calculation, Erica exclaimed, “That’s 200 carats!”
“Yeah. I figured it would be enough to prove our point.”
“Liz Taylor might not be impressed.”
“She wasn’t. I’ve already got her order for a 300 carat diamond.”
“You have to spend that alimony somehow. How did she know where to find you?”
“Smell. She can detect the scent of large diamonds from as far away as a thousand miles.”
“Is it a hypersensitivity to all jewels?”
Kevin nodded. “Large amounts of shiny objects.”
“That must explain her irresistible urge to be near Michael Jackson.”
He wanted to laugh, but he was too tired. He smiled, then couldn’t stifle a yawn.
“You need to get some rest,” Erica said. “You’ve barely slept the last two nights.”
“I’m all right.” He rotated his head around and then rubbed his neck. The lack of exercise was starting to get to him. “What did you do all afternoon?
Erica took over rubbing his neck and moved down to his shoulders. He moaned appreciatively. It was just what he needed, and her hands were obviously skilled in the art of massage.
“The reason I’m here,” she said, “is that I couldn’t sleep. Something happened today. I wasn’t going to tell you because I knew it would upset you, but I thought you should know.”
“What?” Kevin’s mind raced through a number of possibilities, all bad.
“Relax. You’re tensing up.”
“No kidding.”
“I won’t go on unless you relax.”
“All right,” he said reluctantly.
“Good. Today, when I went to the store, there was an emergency. A girl, a teenager, had a reaction to something she ate.”
“And?”
“She was severely allergic and went into anaphylactic shock.”
“What’s that?”
“Sorry. The body acts as if the allergen were a poison. In her case, her throat swelled shut.”
“Wow! Did she live? Is she going to be okay?”
“I’m not sure, but I think so.”
“That’s good…Wait a minute. What does this have to do with you?”
Erica took a deep breath. “I was right there when it happened. By the time anyone noticed, she couldn’t breathe. I guess my instincts took over, otherwise she would have died right in front of me. I had to help. She was suffocating.”
“What did you do?”
She stopped the massage and pulled out a newspaper out of her purse. The banner said
