Master of Plagues, D. B. Reynolds [best books to read fiction .txt] 📗

were desperate to save the life of a two month old infant suffering from ventricular septal defect. A Desflurance anesthetic agent was administered.
The mounted surgical lights beamed strongly down on the surgical equipment being passed to John and other pediatric physicians. The integrated breathing system management of the electronic ventilator kept the infant stable. John used the powerful fiberoptic illumination of the opthamology microscopes to see deep within the left and right ventricles of the baby girl’s ventricular septum. Acutely, blood rushed through the stout walls which separated the lower chambers of her heat.
“Our patient is losing a normal heart rate!” John barked to his surgical team.
“Too much blood is leaking from the left ventricle into the right ventricle,” observed one of the top pediatric nurses.
“If the blood reaches the patient’s lungs, then she probably won’t make it.”
“We might have to perform a Median sternotomy.”
“Nurse, there’s barely a heartbeat!”
“Dr. O’Connor, the right ventricle has clogged with more blood.”
Seconds inside the operating room were precious. John and his team had many options to saving the baby’s life. Which life-saving method to use was their biggest concern. Incidentally, the monitor displayed no heartbeat. Had the two month old baby died while under their care?
Not if the divine intervention of the Universe had its say. The bright surgical lights were drowned out by an even brighter light which cut through the ceiling. The doctors and nurses were lifted off the ground and suspended in mid-air by gravitational forces from the cosmos.
The deceased two month old was lifted off the operating table and also suspended in the air. A stream of cool ocean water and air came from under the door. The excess blood clogging the right ventricle of her precious heart was sucked out by the air and intermingled with the fresh ocean water. The blood caused the water to form a pinkish color.
Some of the water washed out all the infection. The wondrous forces of the Universe lowered the baby back down on the operating table. Loud cries from the infant filled the whole room. She cried as though she’d just been born into the world. John and the rest of his surgical team descended back to the floor. They just couldn’t believe what happened. A stream of Gulf Coast water measuring about six gallons had done their jobs for them.
“Did you all see what happened in here?” John asked his medical colleagues, all of them stunned from disbelief.
The surgical team shook their heads at the same time.
“Where did that water come from?” John questioned, looking around and not seeing one wet spot in the emergency room.
The surgical team silently replied with more movement of their heads.
“Long hours here at the hospital may be a bit too much for me.”
Standing right outside the surgery room without being noticed was Stuart. John came towards the door to make his exit. Stuart camouflaged himself behind a group of nurses going down the hallway. The infant survived and it really brightened up his day.
Susan O’Connor had no idea her husband spent extra hours at the hospital only to spend time with a dangerously beautiful clinical dietician specialist named Marissa Halifax. Talk about true beauty. Marissa had doctors from one corridor of the pediatric hospital to the next trying to date her. These doctors offered her money and gifts. She refused all of them. They offered her promotions within the hospital, and still, she refused them.
How did John get so lucky? His mouthpiece, bank account, and masculine magnetism were the goods to win her over. With the blinds shut, the door locked, the phone turned off, and lights turned down low, John and Marissa decided to have a late night rendezvous inside his office.
Their bodies pressed together while their lips smacked. They took a break from sucking face in order to catch their breath. Steam was sure generated from them exchanging saliva.
“Whew!” John huffed, fanning himself to cool off. “When I look at you, I’m looking at a masterpiece.”
“Consider yourself lucky, Johnny Boy,” Marissa nipped with arrogance, patting her curly brown hair back in place.
“Sure, I’m real lucky.”
“With all these doctors around here wanting me, you took home the prize, baby.”
“Can’t argue with you on that. Julius Caesar would’ve given up the Roman Empire for you.”
“I saw your wife today.”
“Where?”
“Down by endocrinology.”
“She finds out that we’re messing around, that’ll be my one way ticket to the poorhouse.”
“Your wife doesn’t have to find out. I won’t tell if you won’t tell.”
“You’ve got a deal.”
John and Marissa came back together to revive their body pressing and lip smacking. Small drops of water fell from the ceiling. More drops seeped through the cracks of the door and the windows.
John went over to the windows and peeked between the blinds. “Where’s that water coming from? It isn’t raining outside.”
“Are there holes in the roof?” Marissa asked, skipping from one side of the office to the next.
“No way does this hospital have holes in the roof.”
“John, I’ll see you later.”
Marissa sprinted over to the door. She found the lock wouldn’t turn.
“Who locked the door?”
“You can’t get out?”
“No, I’ve jerked on the knob several times.”
“The door can be locked from the inside and the outside.”
“Who’s playing tricks, John?”
“I don’t know.”
Winds in excess of over a hundred miles blew in between the door and window cracks. The drops of water joined together and formed a tiny hurricane inside John’s office. The forceful winds picked John off the ground and slammed him against the wall. Marissa got sucked up to the ceiling. Her body remained pressed to the crumbling tiles. The frames of pictures and certificates were blown off the walls and smashed into pieces.
Colonel Boaz made his presence known to John O’Connor. “John, have you not learned your lesson yet?”
“What lesson is that?” John answered, the mighty winds having deprived him of normal oxygen.
“You have violated the codes of morality. You made my master suffer, now you have to suffer.”
“Who are you?”
“I have been sent by my master to be a plague upon you.”
“Who’s your master?”
“The secrets of the Universe will not permit me to reveal who my master is.”
“I don’t understand, there are no hurricanes in Washington, D.C.”
“You weren’t meant to understand the true laws of nature.”
“This has gotta be one bad dream.”
“Your evil ways and disobedience have come back to bite you in the backside.”
“But, hurricanes don’t talk.”
“No, this hurricane does talk.”
Colonel Boaz used the power of its winds and water to throw John all around his office. The colonel threw him around like a boomerang. His face, hands, chest, and legs, they crashed hard against the wall. Slinging nearly ten gallons of water at him, John felt the stinging impact crash into his backside.
“Errrrrrrrrrrh!” John screamed, clutching his tender rear with both hands.
Yes, once again, Stuart meant exactly what he said. What they’d done to him would come back to bite them in the backside. John O’Connor was no exception.
Colonel Boaz pitched a bucketful of water at John and it smacked him dead in his face. “John, you will come crawling on your hands and knees to beg for the forgiveness of my master.”
“Why won’t you tell me who your master is?”
“At this present time, you do not need to know who my master is.”
Colonel Boaz calmed the winds around its hurricane figure and whisked out the window. Marissa climbed up from the floor unharmed. She couldn’t believe what had happened. Not a single drop of water was on the floor. Hurricanes usually left severe flood damage behind. John looked out into the hallway of the hospital. He noticed how nothing was damaged. An unclear message had been sent to him.


CHAPTER—44

GIVE UP OR GIVE IN

Lounging on the soft white sofa of their luxury condominium were John and Susan O’Connor. John took two weeks of paid time to recover from the wounds he’d suffered inside his office at the hospital. Stories of how the miniature hurricane burst inside and knocked around him and his mistress were kept quiet. Marissa Halifax dared not tell any of the hospital employees how John’s office got turned upside down.
Telling co-workers down in the dietician department would’ve possibly leaked out the affair between her and John. As John and Susan rested inside their spacious, light-filled home, their lives exemplified what it meant to live well in Washington. John gazed up at the ten foot ceiling and slipped into a deep trance. The thought of Colonel Boaz interrupting a rare moment of intimacy between him and Marissa put something on his mind.
Susan tapped John on the leg. “Darling, is there something wrong?”
“Just got a few things on my mind,” John retorted, reaching back to pamper his backside.
“Want a cup of tea?”
“That’d be great, honey.”
Susan went into their gourmet kitchen with granite countertops and premium cabinetry to boil some water for their cups of tea. From the side of the chef’s island, she stood motionless while studying her husband. Something wasn’t right with him. Besides him suffering unexplainable wounds inside his physician’s office, it had to be something else. Women weren’t stupid. When their spouses had women on the side, the signs were in place. The water boiled and she prepared two cups of herbal tea.
Susan came back into the front room and placed the piping hot tea before John. “Darling, what really happened inside your office?”