Chapter 24

Rudy watched as closely as he could from up in the theater. The young surgeon/scientist's stance was tall and confident, his hands were steady and his demeanor calm. Rudy allowed himself to relax just a little bit; Michael seemed completely sure of himself and in control of his faculties. The initial cuts were made and Michael removed the same portion of Jaime's skull as had been removed during her initial surgery. He painstakingly worked his way into the most injured part of her brain and then...Rudy bounded from his seat because Michael left the OR! With a patient on the table, the most sensitive portion of her brain exposed and ready - he left the OR!

Rudy made it downstairs and into the anteroom in record time. Michael stood facing the rear wall, trembling visibly with his hands to his head. ''I'll close her up,'' Rudy told him. ''You canNOT operate in that condition!''

''I'll be fine in a minute,'' Michael said firmly. ''I need to do this - for Steve and Oscar and especially for Jaime!''

''No; not like this.''

''I came out to get this,'' Michael announced, picking up the nearest vial as a cover for what was happening (to give him precious seconds to 'get right' again). ''It was accidentally left off the tray.'' He turned to face his former mentor, clear-headed and pain-free once again. ''You can go back to the theater,'' he told Rudy. ''I'm fine - and ready to proceed.''

''Michael - !''

The young surgeon was already striding with renewed confidence back into the OR. If he's really going through with this, I need to be in there, Rudy told himself, quickly masking and scrubbing in to stand at the table. One of the attending nurses gave him a shocked look and they all made room for him. It pained Rudy to see the man who'd tried to kill him - not to mention what he'd done to Jaime - at the helm of such crucial, intricate work...but there truly was no other choice.

Michael gave Rudy a nod of respect and continued with his work.

Oscar, too, had a seat reserved for him up in the theater - but instead he'd remained in his office. There would be nothing he could do up there to speed things along or ensure a proper result, so he busied himself with a new file, a much thinner file on Anna Kingsley. She had disappeared more than a decade earlier - about a year before her brother infiltrated himself into the Soviet education system. Oscar's face blanched as he read that her disappearance came on the heels of her rejection for an internship at this very hospital, by Rudy himself! Oscar's agents had been thorough with something specific to work from...and had noted that the year's internship had been granted to Michael Marchetti.

Oscar knew then that they were targeting the correct suspect. Whether her brother had given her a primitive version of his device or whether she'd somehow built one from his specs, Oscar didn't know...until he read a little further. Anna had graduated from college before her brothers, who were five years older! Any hospital in the nation would've been happy - and lucky - to welcome her aboard but she had chosen the one place where her credentials were held up to those of another young genius and a decision had to be made. Rudy had gone with the intern whose research seemed more promising, the one with a clear vision of his future and the confidence to take himself all the way. The notes Rudy had made at the time indicated that it had been a very close decision but Michael had an edge to him that Anna simply couldn't meet.

She'd disappeared within weeks of her rejection...and the file stopped there. No further information could be uncovered on her whereabouts or even if she was still alive. There was a tiny notation at the bottom of her application file noting that Rudy had attempted to call her back in the following year but the consensus among her friends and family was that Anna Kingsley had committed suicide, even though no trace of her had ever been found.

Oscar picked up the phone and dialed the hospital switchboard. ''Get me Jack Hansen at the NSB,'' he said brusquely.

''I believe he's here in the building, Sir,'' came the reply.

''Well then page him!'' Oscar barked. ''Just get him into my office - and I need him NOW!''

Steve had been offered a seat in the theater but he'd turned it down, unable to watch his wife's attacker cut into her brain. He chose instead to spend the time with Becca, taking her from the nursery into Jaime's cubicle where he sat and cradled her tenderly in strong, powerful arms where she would hopefully pick up her mother's scent from Jaime's pillow and bed covers. He sang lovingly to her, Jaime's favorite Irish Lullaby and then rang for a nurse when it was time for the child's bottle. Occupying the same space that Jaime had been lying in just before them calmed both her husband and daughter. Steve took care of burping and changing the infant after she'd eaten, took a few bites of the sandwich a nurse brought him then held Becca close (still in Jaime's bed), humming the baby into soft, pleasant slumber and staying in that position, holding her while she slept. He would return her to the nursery much later in the day, to take his place outside the big double doors to await news...and Michael's emergence. In the meantime, Becca's nurses had a phone line that had been connected directly to the OR and if anything happened that he needed to be aware of, Steve would be notified immediately.

For now, both Steve and Becca were sensing Jaime's presence and being comforted by her closeness...and Steve needed Becca equally as much as Becca needed him.

''We need to combine efforts,'' Oscar told Hansen, after briefing him on what his teams had uncovered. ''Specifically, we need to find those lost years - where she was and what she was doing there. Also whether she had any contact with her brothers - especially Grant, possibly when he was in the Soviet Union.''

''We'll involve Interpol if we have to,'' Jack theorized, ''because if something happened between them in the Soviet Union, we may be bringing the Cold War into this - and then we're looking at an international incident...''

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