Anderson's costly experiment

The staff of St. Louis central hospital hurried out as a black SUV pulled up in front of the building. William Johnson, the driver of the SUV stepped out quickly and opened the side door where Stuart, his son of fourteen, lay unconscious, and covered in blood.

While Stuart was helped out of the car and placed on a stretcher which was immediately wheeled into the building, William ran along with them, worry and fear evident on his face.

Once they got to the entrance of a ward marked “Emergency Room”, William was disallowed further access.

“He is my son,” He kept yelling but the nurses around were too busy in their attempt to revive Stuart to pay him any attention.

A few minutes later, the senior doctor, Dr Sofia could be seen from the far end of the hallway hurrying towards the ward. Beside her was a much younger male doctor moving at the same speed as her.

Without any exchange of formalities with William, both doctors walked into the room to examine the patient who had the whole building in chaos.

William soon continued pacing about, deep in thoughts.

Soon afterwards, Kate Johnson, wife to William and mother to Stuart, came running down the hallway.

“What happened to my son?” She demanded, close to tears.

“What did you do to our son?” She asked again, hitting William on the chest, this time in tears.

“I swear it was an accident,” William replied, holding on to her hand soothingly.

When she said nothing but continued sobbing, William added - “He will be okay, I promise.”

But that did not stop Kate from crying any more.

After many attempts, William was able to convince Kate to take a seat at the waiting room while the doctors do what they know how to do best.

********

Inside the ER, Dr Sofia subtly sent every other person out, except for the nurse who cleaned up Stuart's wound, and Dr Anderson, who looked on suspiciously.

“Here, inject him with this,” Dr Sofia instructed, handing a syringe to Dr Anderson once she signaled the nurse out of the ER.

“What is this?” Dr Anderson asked, eyes fixed on the content in the syringe.

“It will make him feel better,” She informed him.

Skeptically, Dr Anderson injected the content in the syringe into the bloodstream of the boy whose eyes flung open in pain as the syringe needle made contact with his skin. One closer look at the boy showed that he was in more pain than he was when he was rushed to the hospital.

“You ... You …” Stuart muttered, eyes darting from Dr Anderson to Dr Sofia who looked stunned.

Once he shut his eyes again, Dr Sofia dragged Anderson to a corner in the ER. With fear evident in her voice, she instructed Dr Anderson who looked on cluelessly.

“You will stay with him in here, and exactly two hours from now, you will inject him with this,” she said, handling another vial of medicine to Dr Anderson.

However, Dr Anderson refused to accept the 5ml bottle which Dr Sofia now stretched out to him. He couldn't tell what drug it was because it was not branded.

“This is ZIP, Anderson.” Dr Sofia offered, her voice sounding in whispers. Dr Anderson's widened eyes prompted her to continue.

“Stuart wasn't supposed to wake up. He wasn't supposed to see us inject him with potassium chloride …”

“Wait, what? Did you just say… "

“Yes, Stuart, you just forced the boy into a coma. Unless you administer this to him, the whole world will know what you did to him. " Dr Sofia explained, effectively stopping Dr Anderson dead on his tracks before dropping the bottle on the table.

Anderson stood there, dazed, and unable to believe his ears.

*******

Four hours later, the door to the ER was opened, and the doctors stepped out of the room for the first time since they stepped in. Mrs Johnson, who was believed to be sleeping, rose up immediately. Dried patches of tears could be seen on her face as she beckoned on the doctors for any news about her son.

“How is Stuart?” Kate asked.

“Right now he is in a coma, and we are doing all we can to stabilize his vitals.” Came the senior doctor's reply.

“Meet Dr Anderson, he is in charge of your son.” Dr Sofia introduced, just as William joined them.

The surprised look on Dr Anderson's face at Dr Sofia's last sentence wasn't lost on Kate who looked on in wonder.

“Can I go and see him now?” Kate asked, hopeful for a positive reply.

“Yes ma'am, you can, but please, desist from having physical contact with him. He is still very much in a critical condition.” Dr Sofia advised Kate who was already in front of the ward, ready to go in.

“That leaves us.” Dr Sofia said, turning to William, just after Kate stepped into the ward.

Together, they made their way to Dr Sofia's office, with Anderson looking confused and clueless.

Once they got to the office, all William's false show of concern and worry towards his son was dropped.

“How badly did I hit him?” William asked, locating his favorite seat in the office. For a moment, he panicked on realizing Anderson was in the office.

“Go on, Anderson is a friend.” Dr Sofia assured, watching as a wave of relief washed over him.

“Badly, but not enough to thwart the original plan.” Dr Sofia replied in answer to William's question.

Dr Anderson looked on in confusion from William to Dr Sofia, unable to fully understand the turn of events unfolding before him in Dr. Sofia's office.

“Now you know how serious I am about the mission.” William added, his voice hushed.

“I have never doubted you, not for a second,” Dr Sofia added.

“I have delivered my own part of the deal, Sofia. It's time for you to do the same,” William stated, rising from the chair on which he sat.

“You have. You will be paid half as we agreed,” Dr Sofia informed William who didn't look pleased with the news.

"No, once I deliver him to you. I will get paid in full. That was the agreement!” William countered.

“Things changed, William, your payment will be completed once the mission is complete. Or we can forget about the mission now, I'm sure Kate will understand.” Dr Sofia said, threatening William discreetly.

Both Dr Sofia and William conversed at length with each other, not paying the slightest attention to Anderson who had been listening to every spoken word.

“Sofia, you can't do this to me, please. We had an agreement,” William pleaded.

“We still have an agreement, William. I only changed the terms,” Sofia replied, legs crossed.

“What is going on?”Anderson asked. All he heard from both of them only managed to raise more questions in his head, without providing any answer to them.

His somewhat rhetorical question seemed to validate his presence in the office to them, so they stopped talking altogether.

“Dr Sofia, Mr. William, can anybody tell me what is going on here?” Anderson asked again when the silence stretched around the office.

When none of them provided an answer still, Anderson turned towards the exit and opened the door but Dr Sofia's voice stopped him.

“Take a seat Anderson. I will tell you everything.”

With a signal from Dr Sofia, William excused them.

"You will receive your payment by the end of the day". Dr Sofia called out to him as he stepped into the hallway.

************

“This is insane,” Anderson spat out.

“I will never be a part of it,” He added, wondering how Dr Sofia, whom he had held in high regard over the years, could be a part of something as vile as this.

Dr Sofia sat on her seat, unmoved by Anderson's rejection. In fact she wore a triumphant smile as she occasionally sipped from her glass of wine.

“It isn't a suggestion, Anderson. It's an order,” Dr Sofia repeated in a calm voice.

“And I will not do it,” Anderson declared yet again, rising from his seat.

He was moving towards the exit but stopped when he heard Dr Sofia's voice.

“The sixteenth day of May, 1990 has always been a memorable day to me. Do you know why?” She asked, watching as light drained from Anderson's face, just like she expected.

“I asked a question, Anderson. You have to answer.” She added, when Anderson said nothing.

Motioning him to resume his seat, Dr Sofia continued, “It is because I saved your ass that day by failing to report your misconduct. A misconduct which cost the life of a patient. A misconduct which would have cost you your medical license. Do you remember now?” Dr Sofia asked, enjoying the dazed look on Anderson's face.

When she got no response from Anderson, she motioned him over and then shoved a photo to him.

Once Anderson spotted the image on the photo, he broke into a sweat. He knew at that instance that he was done for.

“I have unlimited copies of that, just so you know,” Dr Sofia warned while she collected the photo from him and signaled him out of her office.

Just as Anderson turned down the doorknob, Dr Sofia's voice rang in the office.

“Don't freaking tell anyone!”