“Who were you speaking to?” he asked as he straddled the bike behind her.
“The only person I know who might be able to save Savio and Pia. If we’re lucky, she’ll be here on time.”
Sin rode up to the hospital and parked in a spot reserved for military personnel. “I have to warn you,” she said as they ran into the lobby. “Savio is in rough shape.”
“You forget who I’m affiliated with, I’ve seen rough shape before.”
“Not like this you haven’t.”
As they stepped up to the information desk, Sin flashed her creds and asked the person behind the desk to page Dr. O’Rourke.
Hanging up the phone, the clerk gave her directions to room 402. “The doctor said she would meet you in the room.”
As they approached the room, she spotted a team of medical personnel leaving the room with a crash cart. Entering the room, she was shocked to see Aria LaBarbara sitting in a chair next to the bed, a rosery in one hand, Savio’s hand in her other. Using her forearm, Aria wiped the tears from her eyes. Sin could tell by Russo’s rather expressionless face when he spotted his ex-wife that he wasn’t as surprised as she was.
“Care to share?” Sin said.
Russo furrowed his brow in confusion.
“Your ex,” she explained. “You don’t seem surprised to see her here.”
“Her contacts are extensive, Agent. I have no doubt that she has been appraised of all new events concerning Pia’s kidnapping and of Savio’s condition.” Russo stared at his nephew. “He looks dead,” he said, his words barely audible.
“Let’s hope your perception is not the greatest.”
Deb was standing next to the bed, pushing a hypodermic needle into Savio’s IV. Troy stood, looking haggard, at the end of the bed.
“How is he?” Sin asked.
Deb glanced back, her attention on the screen which flashed Savio’s vitals and EKG. “That was the third time he coded in the past hour.”
“Will he live?” Russo asked.
“Who’s your friend, Sin?” Deb asked
“Dominic Russo, Dr. O’Rourke. Dominic Russo is Savio’s uncle.”
Aria looked up, saw Dominic, leaped from her chair, and started pounding his chest, screaming in Italian. Russo grabbed her wrists, forced them to her sides, and tried to calm his ex-wife. Aria LaBarbara was having no part in calming down. The yelling escalated, the two of them screaming bloody murder at each other until Sin broke up the family reunion. Sin tried to quiet the storm that was Aria LaBarbara but found nothing but fury. Sin told her that if she didn’t calm down, she would have her forcefully removed from the hospital.
Aria acquiesced and sat back down, again taking Savio’s hand.
“Let’s go to my office,” Deb said. “We can talk there.”
Sin eyed the situation, taking mental notes of everything she saw, then pulled Dominic aside. “Stay here. Keep an eye on Aria.” Dominic agreed. Sin then pulled a new tissue from a box, handed it to Aria, and took her used one from her and placed it in the pocket of her jeans.
“Troy, keep one of your men outside the door. If the happy family start fighting again, have him cuff everyone and notify you.”
Walking down the hall, Deb whispered, “What the hell was that all about?”
Sin gave a brief synopsis of the argument as they made their way through the halls. “Aria is Savio’s aunt. There is bad blood between Russo and LaBarbara. She blames Dominic for the condition of her nephew and the kidnapping of her daughter.”
“He retaliated and blamed her for everything.”
“Interesting.”
“That’s one way to put it,” Sin said. “Did you happen to notice the strong family resemblance between Aria and Savio?”
“Their features are similar but if he’s her sibling’s son, it’s not unusual.”
Sin tucked that piece of information away in her brain but said nothing.
In Deb’s office, the three of them sat around a conference table. Deb pulled the toxicology report out of a file and slid it towards Sin. “I’ve never seen anything like this. There are no drugs in his system other than marijuana, but there is some sort of substance in his blood the lab can’t identify. Whatever that substance is, it’s destroying his organs. It’s killing him.”
“How?” Sin asked.
“Besides destroying his liver, kidneys, and heart, the Cat scan shows that it’s affecting his parietal lobe and the Amygdala of his brain.”
“In laymen’s terms.”
“Whatever is in his system is affecting the Parietal lobe of the brain, the part that acts as a relay from his frontal lobe to his spinal cord. If it fails, he dies.”
“And the other word you mentioned?” Troy asked.
“The Amygdala controls memory and emotions. The patient, when conscious, goes from being passive to violent without warning.”
“That explains why he tried to bite me back at the hotel.”
Sin thought for a moment. “Can he be transported?”
“I suppose, but why? If he codes again, there won’t be any way to bring him back.”
“That’s why I need you to accompany us.”
“Sin, I can’t just leave the hospital. I have other patients.”
“Please, Deb. It’s important.”
Deb sighed, picked up the phone and asked another doctor to cover for her. “Let’s go before my better judgment kicks in.”
“What about transport?” Sin said.
“I’ll have our patient brought to the emergency room. We’ll have to travel by ambulance. I need paramedics with me just in case.”
“Thank you,” Sin said.
“Don’t thank me yet. I can’t move him without consent from his closest relative. That just happens to be Aria LaBarbara.”
Sin stood. “You make the plans and meet us back at the room. I’ll go talk to Aria.”
Back in the ICU, Sin explained everything to Aria and Dominic. “Savio has some sort of substance or drug in his system that is killing him. Whatever it is, it’s not a known drug or at least not one that is in the hospital’s data bank.”
“What are you saying, Agent O’Malley?” Aria’s voice shook. “Is Savio going to die?”
“I know of one person who might be able to help him, but she can’t do what she needs to do here.
