Defiant: Quantic Dreams Book 2 by Elizabeth McLaughlin (best mystery novels of all time .txt) 📕

like the entire group had finally left when I heard more shouting, this time from the corridor.

“Let me through! Let me through! I need to see my wife!” Frank was shoving his way through the group of bystanders as quickly as he could. When he broke free of them he ran to the infirmary doors and saw the exact sight I hadn’t want him to see. He issued a strangled cry as he saw his wife heaving and gasping for each breath. I dropped the fire axe and wrapped my arms around him in a bear hug.

“Fuck you! Fuck you, Jacob! Let me in, goddamnit! That’s my wife! Let me go!” He swung his head back, and it connected with my nose. I felt the bone crack and hot blood ran toward my chin.

“I can’t let you go in there, Frank!” I spat, the blood from my nose coating the back of his head. He didn’t seem to notice.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” he roared, reaching for the fire axe.

“Frank, I’m not letting you in, I’m sorry!” I slid one of my arms from his waist to his throat and pulled my forearm against his windpipe. It wasn’t hard enough to compress his airway, but he stopped thrashing. “You can’t go in, Frank.”

“Fuck! Jacob! Please!” The yelling had turned to sobs now. “Please let me in!” It broke my heart to hold him like that. I pulled the fire axe from the door and kept my hold on him.

“Allison!” he shouted through the plexiglass windows. “Allison, I’m here! I’m here, sweetheart.” Dimly from the other side of the room I saw her look up and say something.

“Trust me, Frank,” I said into his ear. “They’re doing everything they can. She’s going to be just fine, but you have to stay back.” The blood from my nose had congealed now, huge gobs of it clinging to my lips. I worked up a gob of saliva and spat red on the floor. I watched over his shoulder as Phoebe and Shannon worked over Allison. They lay her back and injected her with some kind of clear liquid. Allison’s eyes fluttered, and the medic eased her back onto the gurney. Dr. Rickman tilted Allison’s head back as Shannon shoved a pillow under her neck and opened her mouth.

Even without medical training, I knew what came next. “Look away, Frank.” I pulled his chin aside and held it there as Dr. Rickman and Shannon gently inserted a metal instrument into Allison’s throat. A plastic tube followed it and they hooked it up to a strange looking machine. A hiss was audible even through the doors as the machine started up. Dr. Rickman attached an IV to Allison’s arm and hung a bag of liquid on a long pole next to the machine. At the sight of his wife being hooked up to the machine, Frank started struggling again. This time I didn’t hold him back. He burst through the doors and rushed toward Allison.

Shannon turned and for the first time since the whole incident began, I got a full view of her. Both she and Dr. Rickman were covered in spittle, mucus, and blood. Her hair was askew and her skin soaked in sweat. She held up her hands and both Frank and I stopped in our tracks.

“You need to stay back. In fact, you need to be outside.” Shannon held out her arms to shepherd us back to the doors and pushed us outside. Frank and I looked at each other and waited. Shannon and Dr. Rickman removed their PPE and placed it in a sealed bag in the corner of the room. I could see Shannon’s hands shaking from where I stood. Dr. Rickman said something to her, and she disappeared from our view. Dr. Rickman spent a few more minutes looking over the machines that now did the breathing for Allison and came to the door.

“Mr. Garvey, you can come in.” She handed the distraught man a mask and turned to me. “Jacob, I need you to get me Sophia Caruso and her daughter Daisy. You will say nothing to anyone else. If they ask, Allison is fine and just had a problem breathing.”

I nodded and took off for Sophia’s quarters. As I jogged, I heard the first few words of explanation from her. Something about how Allison had gone into respiratory arrest. I knocked on Sophia’s door and she answered, stepping into the hallway.

“Hey Jacob. Holy shit!” She jumped at the sight of my blood-soaked face. I waved her concern away. “What happened to your face? I was just getting the girls into bed. What’s going on? I heard about Allison’s episode.”

“I’m afraid not. Allison’s alive, for now, but Dr. Rickman sent me for you. My face is fine.”

“Of course, of course. Just let me get dressed and I’ll come with you.” She turned to go back inside her quarters.

“I need you and Daisy,” I blurted.

“Why Daisy?”

I sighed. “I don’t know, Sophia, I’m just following orders. Please. It’s been a very, very long day.”

“I’ll wake her up.”

“Before you do, they put Allison on some kind of breathing machine. I don’t want Daisy to be scared.”

Sophia paused. “It should be okay. Daisy wants to be a doctor when she gets older so she won’t be too freaked out by a ventilator.” The name of the machine made sense to my ears, but I wondered what it meant. She returned a couple of minutes later, looking far more put together than I was. Daisy was still clad in panda print pajamas, rubbing her eyes. I reached out to take her from her mother, but Sophia held on tight. “She’s still warm. Let me just hang on to her. I told David to look after Sarah. He sends his greetings, by the way.”

“That’s nice of him.” I barely heard her as we walked. Thankfully, no more crises presented themselves on our way to the infirmary. I bade Sophia and Daisy to go speak to