It didn’t take long.
Within a few minutes, I felt the urge to vomit. I forced my chin down onto my chest-if I threw up now, the drug wouldn’t have time to work and I’d be staying exactly where I was. I clamped my mouth shut and held my breath, willing my stomach to accept the alien mixture. I released the breath as slowly as I could, letting the air escape from my nose while keeping my mouth firmly closed.
I waited as long as I could, then sucked in a lungful of air. My stomach felt like it was trying to expel a barrel-load of psychotic piranhas and I twisted on my chair, trying to resist the urge to stand up and give my insides more space to flip about.
Obviously the drug still had some potency, though exactly what it would do to me next was anyone’s guess. I was bargaining on the compound’s deeper hallucinatory aspects not kicking in first, giving me a window in which I could put the drug’s physiological effect to good use.
I gasped involuntarily from a vicious pain in the back of my throat, a sensation like multiple bee stings. Swallowing hard, I felt like I was finally winning the battle against my stomach’s attempt to empty itself.
My extremities had started to perspire. I could feel my palms becoming clammy and beads of sweat starting to pop on my forehead. My temperature was definitely on the rise, even if I was keeping my bile down for now.
The table came up to meet my chest as I doubled over in agony, my abdomen feeling like it had just been slammed by a Lee Mazzilli bat swing.
I couldn’t help but yelp from the pain. My throat was burning now, my mouth dry. I felt like I was going to pass out.
If it was going to happen, it needed to happen now.
I started pulling against my cuffs, rattling the chain against the table while forcing my entire body back against the chair.
Staring directly at a camera I filled my lungs then shouted as loudly as I could, “Hey! Hey! I need some help in here!”
The gamble that I’d already absorbed enough of the drug to screw up my metabolism would hopefully pay off, because it was time to eject the contents of my stomach, with maximum choking for full effect.
I relaxed my entire body, focusing everything on the roiling in my stomach and the nausea at the front of my head.
Bile shot out of my mouth as my stomach tried to expel the foreign matter that had only landed there a few minutes earlier.
I balled up my fists and smashed them down against the top of the table. Then again. And a third time.
“Hey! Help me! Anyone!”
My stomach sent a geyser of bile up through my throat and out of my mouth.
I thrashed against the chair, no longer knowing how much of my behavior was natural and how much was for show. I was close to losing the ability to control the situation and that would render the entire plan useless.
From the corner of my eye, I glimpsed the doors slide open and Lendowski run in, closely followed by Deutsch. The rapidly receding part of me that could still think straight noted that this was in my favor.
“What the hell?” Lendowski grabbed my shoulders and pulled me up off the table, ensuring that my airway was clear. I wasn’t even aware that I’d slumped forward, but my lungs burnt as I gasped for air. I’d clearly been well on the way to asphyxiation.
“Nice try, buddy, but I’d expect more from you than the old two-fingers.”
I gulped down some more air before trying to speak. “I’m not! I’m burning up, Len.”
Deutsch stepped toward me, grabbed my face and peered into my eyes. “His pupils are blown and he’s running a serious fever.”
I fought the intense nausea so I could watch Lendowski’s reaction.
“Bullshit. He’s fine. Aren’t you, Reilly?”
I tried to speak, but all that came out was a loud moan.
“He’s made himself barf, that’s all it is. It’s what all those beanpole models do in the john at restaurants.”
Deutsch stood to face her partner. “He needs medical attention. Now.”
I retched again. Nothing came up this time, but my insides felt like they were being ripped apart.
I tried to stagger to my feet, but there wasn’t enough give in the cuffs and I crashed back down into the chair.
Deutsch was shouting now, “We need to call 911.”
“Forget it.”
“Len, listen to me. He’s in really bad shape and he needs help right now.”
I could see Lendowski fuming inside. “Fuck this!”
“It’ll be faster to take him ourselves. Presbyterian is less than two miles away. Come on!”
Deutsch uncuffed me, then lifted me upright and grabbed my waist with her right arm, flipping my left arm up and around her shoulders. She was deceptively strong for her size. She glared at Lendowski. “Help me lift him.”
They dragged me toward the door, then Lendowski stopped to wipe some vomit from his jacket.
Deutsch turned back, wondering what the hell was going on. “Move!”
Lendowski walked over to the exit and keyed in the code. The doors slid open. I could hear him speed-dialing Gallo. It would take the ADIC at least forty minutes to make it back to Manhattan, so at least I’d be spared his gloating if I failed.
Taking my other arm, Lendowski helped Deutsch march me down the corridor toward the elevator.
Lendowski was finally starting to show some concern. “Jesus, he’s shaking like he swallowed a jackhammer.”
Deutsch leaned in toward me. “Just breathe, Sean. Breathe.”
My whole body was flip-flopping between a lightness that felt like my skin was filled with helium and heaviness so extreme that I was convinced I would literally sink through the floor and ooze from the ceiling of the floor underneath.
I could feel myself starting to drift out of consciousness. The last thought to crawl across my mind as it shut down was simply this:
This isn’t going to work.
24
I came to with a jolt as Lendowski shoved me into the back seat of his Explorer. Deutsch followed me inside, pushing me upright so I wouldn’t choke to death.
It must have been only a couple of minutes, but it felt like hours.
Somehow my head felt absolutely clear-like on those rare occasions when your body is allowed to wake up when it’s ready, rather than when your smartphone demands it. But it was much more than that. A lucidity I’d never experienced, as though I were at once inside the moment and outside it, looking in.
Maybe this is going to work after all.
Multiple signals hit me at the same time:
My wrists weren’t cuffed. Deutsch was right-handed, but she was sitting to my left, directly behind Lendowski. I smelled like a bum. I was about to make things ten times worse than they already were.
Deutsch was thrown backward as the Explorer lurched into drive. She muttered a curse under her breath and fastened her seat belt.
I allowed my head to loll forward.
My left wrist felt Deutsch’s forefingers as she tried to find my radial artery.
“His pulse rate is too damn slow. Hurry!”
The vehicle bumped up the ramp and screeched out onto Broadway.
I focused on my breathing, ensuring it was as shallow as I could make it without becoming light-headed.
My temperature had dropped, but I was so soaked in sweat there was no way Deutsch could know this.
I gave thanks that Lendowski had decided not to use the siren. Traffic was sparse on the snow-dusted streets and the icy sidewalks were empty. All a sound-and-light show would have done was attract attention.
We sped south past City Hall Park, my left hand slowly edging its way toward Deutsch’s sidearm.
When I looked up to check she hadn’t noticed, it wasn’t Deutsch I was staring at, but a skinned corpse with pale blue eyes. Its limbs abnormally elongated. Gills either side of its chest and what looked like a long boney fin pressing into the seat from its flayed back. Brackish water seeped from the gill slits.
What the-?
I scrunched my eyes shut till my eyeballs ached. When I opened them, I was looking at Deutsch again.