Chapter 3 - WHAT THEY PUT INSIDE HIM
Surgery lasted two hours and forty-one minutes.
I spent every minute telling myself I was only the nurse who noticed the scar.
That did not work.
At 3:18 a.m., Dr. Kim walked into the waiting room.
Luca stood immediately.
“So?”
“He’s alive.”
My lungs finally worked again.
“And his legs?”
“Too early to know.”
“What did you find?”
She looked toward the security officers.
Then lowered her voice.
“More than infection.”
She handed me a sealed specimen photograph.
During surgery, they found inflamed tissue around a small implanted device.
Luca stared.
“What kind of device?”
“Not something that belonged there based on his documented treatment.”
I looked at the photograph.
Small.
Medical-grade casing.
No identifying hospital tag.
“What does it do?”
“We don’t know yet. It’s going to biomedical analysis.”
Luca’s face became frighteningly calm.
“Someone put something inside him.”
“Yes.”
“Could it cause the paralysis?”
“The infection and resulting pressure certainly contributed to weakness. Whether the device itself had another purpose is unknown.”
I asked:
“Could it have been placed through that lower incision?”
“Yes.”
Exactly.
The hidden procedure.
But why implant anything?
Tracking?
Drug delivery?
Monitoring?
I refused to guess.
Evidence mattered.
Dr. Kim continued:
“We also found tissue changes suggesting the infection had been developing for days.”
“Since the private surgery?”
“Likely.”
Then the infectious-disease specialist arrived.
Blood cultures had begun growing bacteria.
Gabriel had sepsis.
Treatable.
Dangerous.
The penthouse would have killed him.
My hands went cold.
Four nurses had fled because Gabriel became violent.
Everyone interpreted the rage as personality.
Nobody considered hypoxia, fever, medication effects, infection, and neurological pain.
The most feared man in Chicago had nearly died because everyone was too frightened of him to examine him properly.
Then Luca’s phone rang.
He stepped away.
When he returned, he looked different.
“What?”
“Vincent’s attorney delivered documents to the board.”
“What documents?”
“A medical declaration.”
“From Vale?”
“Yes.”
It stated that Gabriel suffered:
Permanent spinal damage.
Cognitive impairment.
Severe behavioral instability.
Probable inability to manage business decisions for at least twelve months.
I stared.
“Vale wrote that before tonight?”
“Yesterday.”
“But he disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“And Gabriel’s spinal problem wasn’t even documented in the official surgical report.”
Luca nodded slowly.
“They knew.”
Maybe.
Or they created the problem they later described.
Then a nurse entered holding Gabriel’s personal effects from the penthouse.
Phone.
Wallet.
Watch.
A leather cord necklace.
And a folded paper found inside the lining of his shirt.
Luca frowned.
“That wasn’t there before.”
I put on gloves.
Opened it.
A handwritten note.
IF YOU WAKE UP AND CAN’T FEEL YOUR LEGS, DON’T TRUST VINCENT.
My heart stopped.
Gabriel had written it.
Same handwriting from medication notes in his penthouse.
Luca stared.
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
Below it:
VALE TRIED TO WARN ME.
That changed everything.
Maybe Dr. Vale was not the villain.
Maybe he was missing because he had tried to stop something.
Then one final line:
THE SECOND PROCEDURE WASN’T THE PLAN.
I looked at Luca.
“What was the first plan?”
He said nothing.
Then Gabriel’s phone lit up.
Incoming encrypted message.
Sender:
ADRIAN VALE.
Luca grabbed it.
The message contained only six words:
IF GABRIEL LIVES, VINCENT WILL RUN.
May you like
Then another:
DO NOT LET HIM REACH MONTRÉAL.
