Ch.43: Greta's Sacrifice

The saw blade touches my wrist.

The vibration travels up my arm, a precursor to the severing. I feel the teeth snagging on the fine hairs of my forearm.

"Wait."

The voice is weak, breathless. It comes from the hallway.

Aris looks up, annoyed. He keeps the saw running.

"What is it now?"

Greta stumbles into the OR.

She isn't dead.

The bullet Kael fired hit her shoulder, not her heart. She is bleeding heavily, her white nurse's uniform soaked in crimson, but she is standing.

And she is holding something.

Not a gun. A syringe. The one Aris dropped when Isabella attacked him.

The paralytic.

"Let her go," Greta wheezes.

Aris laughs. He turns off the saw.

"Greta. You really are like a cockroach. Hard to kill."

He signals to Kael, who is standing guard by the door.

"Finish it."

Kael raises his gun.

Greta doesn't run. She charges.

She screams, a feral, mother-bear sound, and throws herself at Kael.

It is suicide. Kael is twice her size, armed, and trained.

He fires.

*BANG.*

The bullet hits Greta in the stomach. She doubles over.

*BANG.*

Another shot to the chest.

She falls.

But as she falls, she doesn't reach for her wounds. She reaches for Kael's leg.

She stabs the syringe into his thigh.

Kael grunts. He kicks her away.

"Stupid bitch," he mutters. He aims the gun at her head to deliver the coup de grâce.

But then he stumbles.

His leg gives way.

He looks down, confused. He tries to take a step, but his knee buckles.

The paralytic. Rocuronium. Fast-acting. And Greta injected the whole vial directly into his muscle.

"What...?" Kael slurs.

His gun hand drops. The weapon clatters to the floor.

He collapses. He hits the tiles like a felled tree. His eyes are open, wide with panic, but his body is stone.

Greta lies next to him. She is gasping, blood bubbling from her lips. She looks at me.

Her eyes are dimming. The light is fading.

"Leo," she whispers.

Then she is gone.

The room is silent except for the hum of the medical equipment.

Aris stares at his fallen head of security. He stares at the dead nurse.

Petrova looks bored.

"Your staff is incompetent," she says. "Hurry up. I have a plane to catch."

Aris nods. He looks shaken, but he is too deep in to stop now.

He picks up the saw again.

"Nurse," he barks at the new girl. "Lock the door. Don't let anyone else in."

The nurse runs to the door. She locks it.

We are sealed in. Just me, Aris, the Petrova woman, her two guards, and the dead bodies.

Aris turns back to me.

"No more interruptions," he says.

He lowers the saw.

But I am looking at the floor.

Kael is paralyzed. Greta is dead.

But the gun.

Kael's gun. It slid across the floor when he fell.

It is lying under the instrument tray. Just out of sight of Aris and the guards.

But I can see it.

And I can see something else.

One of the leather straps on my right wrist... the one Isabella cut earlier... the nurse didn't re-buckle it correctly. She was rushing.

It’s loose.

I pull against it. Just a fraction.

It gives.

I have one hand.

My only ally is dead. But the gun is on the floor.