Chapter 1 - The Magnesium Order
Leo Rossi did not lower the weapon.
He pointed the Glock directly at the chest of Doctor Gable.
"Push the magnesium."
His voice possessed no emotion whatsoever.
"Now."
Doctor Gable raised his sterile hands in the air.
"You do not understand the pharmacology."
"I understand that you have exactly three seconds to do what she said."
Leo pressed the barrel of the gun against the surgeon's chest.
"One."
Doctor Gable looked at the cardiac monitor.
The deadly, erratic electrical storm of torsades de pointes was tearing Vincent Costa's heart apart.
"Two."
"Get the magnesium sulfate!" Doctor Gable screamed at the trauma nurse.
The nurse scrambled across the hardwood floor and ripped open the emergency crash cart.
She fumbled with the glass vial.
Her hands were shaking violently as she drew the clear liquid into a large syringe.
She sprinted back to the bed and injected the magnesium directly into Vincent's central line.
Olivia Hayes remained pinned against the wall.
She could not breathe.
She could not look away from the monitor.
Ten seconds passed in agonizing silence.
Fifteen seconds.
Then the chaotic, jagged peaks on the screen began to shift.
The rhythm slowed.
The widening electrical intervals began to snap back into a manageable pattern.
The continuous, terrifying alarm from the machine finally stopped.
Vincent Costa's chest rose and fell with a steady, mechanical rhythm.
His blood pressure numbers stabilized on the digital display.
He was alive.
Leo slowly lowered the gun and took a deep breath.
He looked at the maid in the shapeless gray uniform.
Olivia slid down the wall and collapsed onto the floor.
She gasped for air, clutching her bruised throat.
Doctor Brent, the cardiologist, stared at the monitor in absolute disbelief.
"It was the drug combination," the cardiologist whispered.
"The maid was actually right."
Leo turned his terrifying gaze back to the medical team.
"Who ordered the three medications to run simultaneously?"
The specialists exchanged nervous glances.
Doctor Gable walked over to the medical tablet resting on the bedside table.
He swiped through the digital medication logs.
His face turned completely pale.
"I did not order this," Doctor Gable said, his voice trembling.
"None of us did."
Leo stepped forward and snatched the tablet from the surgeon's hands.
"Then how did it happen?"
"The system logs show a manual override," Doctor Gable explained.
"Someone physically typed in the lethal combination twenty minutes ago."
Leo locked the heavy mahogany double doors of the master bedroom.
He turned to face the twelve doctors trapped inside.
May you like
"None of you are leaving this room."
Someone in this room had just tried to assassinate the boss.
