Chapter 6 - THE LAST INJECTION
Luca allowed Mercer to prepare the injection.
He did not allow him to administer it.
Just before the needle touched his arm, Luca dropped a glass from the table.
Mercer turned instinctively.
Vincent entered.
The syringe disappeared into an evidence container.
Mercer stiffened.
“What is this?”
“Routine precaution.”
Luca’s voice remained calm.
Mercer looked toward Vincent.
Then toward the door.
That movement answered more questions than words could.
“You’ve trusted me for eleven years.”
Luca studied him.
“That was before I learned trust can be chemically induced.”
Mercer’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But Luca saw fear.
Mercer left without the syringe.
Within hours, independent testing revealed a diluted neurological suppressant.
Not enough to create sudden paralysis.
Enough to prevent damaged nerves from recovering.
The original poisoning had stopped twelve years earlier.
The maintenance poisoning had continued monthly.
Luca read the report three times.
Every injection he had accepted as treatment had helped keep him in the wheelchair.
Elena stood behind him.
“He knew you could recover.”
“Yes.”
“And he kept you from recovering.”
“Yes.”
Luca closed his eyes.
Anger was easy.
What frightened him was grief.
Eleven years.
Hundreds of injections.
Hundreds of opportunities to question a man he had trusted.
Maya walked into the room carrying her baseball.
She placed it in Luca’s hand.
“When I get scared before dancing, Mom says hold something real.”
Luca looked at the ball.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Hold it.”
He did.
Later that night, Mercer vanished.
His house was empty.
His passport was gone.
His bank accounts had been drained.
But Vincent found one thing Mercer had left behind.
A locked safe.
Inside were patient files.
Luca’s name appeared on dozens of pages.
Beside every injection date was a handwritten code.
A.C.
Arthur Costello.
There was also a photograph.
It showed Arthur standing beside Mercer outside a private rehabilitation center.
The timestamp was eight months earlier.
Arthur was alive.
And written across the back of the photograph were four words.
PHASE TWO BEGINS SOON.
Vincent looked at Luca.
“What is Phase Two?”
Luca stared at the photograph.
“I don’t know.”
From the hallway came the sudden sound of breaking glass.
Elena screamed Maya’s name.
They rushed toward the back of the estate.
The bedroom window had been shattered.
May you like
Maya was gone.
And on her pillow lay the baseball Luca had been holding less than an hour earlier.
