Under the Knife(37)

FINNEY


“No,” Dr. Wu said.

This was growing tedious. She dared to defy him. Again.

He would not be defied.

He tapped the tablet with his finger, increased the power settings—

(because he would not be defied)

—and said, “Dr. Wu, you have to talk him into letting you operate today.”





SEBASTIAN


“No,” Wu said in Sebastian’s headphone.

Wow.

Goddamn if she still wasn’t fighting it. She was one tough-ass lady.

Sebastian had caught up with her before she and Montgomery had entered the alcove and was keeping an eye on things from a discreet spot nearby. He watched as the graphic displays on his phone spiked. Finney had turned the signal strength even higher and was now flirting with the established upper limits of human tolerability.

She would not be able to take much more of this.

Careful, boss. You’re going to fry her brain.

Finney repeated the command: “Dr. Wu, you have to talk him into letting you operate today.”





RITA


Chase spun back toward her with a surprised look on his face, as if he’d forgotten she was there.

“What?” he said. “What did you say?”

Rita didn’t answer.

She couldn’t, because the buzzing was back—this time with teeth rattling, skull-crushing intensity, as if someone were smashing glass bottles inside her head with a hammer. It crowded out all thought. She winced and clenched her teeth.

“What?” Chase repeated, then saw the expression on her face. His eyebrows drew together. “Rita. Rita. Are you okay?”

And then the buzzing was gone …

(What was I saying?)

… and Rita felt as if a reset button somehow had been pressed in her brain.

What were Chase and I talking about?

“Rita?” Chase said.

“You have to talk him into letting you operate today,” Finney said.

Right. I have to talk Chase into letting me operate today.

It seemed the most natural thing.

Of course she had to talk Chase into it.

“Rita?” Chase repeated worriedly.

“You have to talk him into letting you operate today,” Finney repeated.

I have to talk him into letting me operate today.

“I’m … fine, Chase.” She cleared her throat. “I’m fine.”

“What did you mean by ‘no’?”

“Oh. I meant that we don’t have to cancel the surgery this morning.”

“What?” he said, squinting. “And why the hell not?”

I have to talk him into it.

For reasons she couldn’t explain, Rita now felt filled with an urgency to make the operation happen this morning. Consumed with it. The only obstacle in her way was Chase, and her mind raced with potential ways to win him over—

(But a second ago wasn’t I AGREEING with him?)

—to her way of thinking.

Chase was an exceptionally bright and ambitious man in a profession of bright and ambitious people. One of the smartest guys in a roomful of smart guys, and he knew it. He was a skilled and widely respected surgeon, and as political a beast as they came. The buzz was that he was first in line to take the Turner CEO job next year, when the current CEO retired. No doubt this job was the next carefully planned step in Chase’s grand plan for career advancement and world domination.

No way the auto-surgeon project would have ever moved forward without his support. Nothing in the OR happened at Turner without Chase’s blessing. If you were a surgeon here, any kind of surgeon, and you wanted something done, you sought an audience with Chase, and you received his blessing. Or you didn’t, and that was the end of it for you. Because his was the first and last word in surgery at Turner.

He was also a voracious competitor, driven to win in everything: publishing the most scientific papers on a particular topic, or performing more of a complex type of surgery than anyone else in the country, or winning the annual Surgery Department golf tournament. Chase was always keeping score.

It was a pride that could blind him to certain, disagreeable facts that might otherwise dispute his mastery of all things. She knew all this because she knew Chase as well as anyone she’d ever known. She rejected the term father figure as trite. It belied the complexity of their relationship, reduced it to cheap, pseudo-Freudian analysis. Yes, his presence in her life had, to an extent, replaced that of her father. But Chase was also many other things to her.

A silver-haired Olympian who’d spotted her talent from on high, swept down, pointed his finger at her, and plucked her out from the crowd.

(Out of trouble he got me out of trouble after Jenny Finney died he fixed things but don’t think about that now I can’t think about that now)

A mentor and confidant, the man behind the curtain who’d nurtured her skills, guided her career, opened doors, and introduced her to all the right people.

(He fixed things after Jenny Finney died so no one would know but don’t think about that now)

The man who’d nominated her for the auto-surgeon project and given her every resource she needed to make it work.

(He fixed things after Jenny Finney died)