Page 125 of Gone Before Goodbye

“Extracorporeal Blood Oxygenation and Ozonation Therapy,” Steve says. “Doesn’t that sound good for you?”

“It does.” She needs to stall for Nadia’s sake—and she’s also sort of interested. “How does it work?”

“You lay back on the most comfortable recliner imaginable. Your blood is drawn from a vein into a tube and through a dialysis filter where it gets exposed to medical-grade ozone and oxygen. As the blood circulates through the EBOO machine, it removes heavy metals, pathogens, debris—”

“Debris,” Maggie says. “I love that term.”

“Me too.”

“So all-encompassing. And meaningless.”

“Exactly. Oh, and EBOO also rids your bloodstream of my other favorite all-encompassing term.”

“What’s that?”

Steve smiles. “Toxins.”

“Oh yes.”

“Nice and vague. Anyway, after this, your same blood is returned to your body via another vein. So it cycles. Then you throw in some buzzy terms—immunity support, detoxification, inflammation reduction, enriching, regeneration, infusion…”

“Sounds perfect for the jet-setter who has everything,” Maggie says.

“Except immortality.”

“Which is what they sell here.”

“Andwesell, to be fair.”

“Yeah,” Maggie says. “But what we sell is real. It isn’t quackery.”

Steve mulls that over for a moment. “I’m not sure it’s fair to callit quackery. There are some quality physicians who swear by these treatments, but here’s the problem: All of them profit from it. That’s not to say that they are charlatans—they’ll cite iffy studies and anecdotal evidence—but none of us think clearly when it comes to our wallets.”

“We are all the hero in our own story,” Maggie says.

“Exactly that.” Steve reaches an office door. “Are you done stalling?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re still not licensed, are you?”

“I’m not, no.”

“So how did you end up being Nadia’s surgeon?”

“You’ve probably guessed.”

“You were paid,” Steve says. “A lot.”

“Yes.”

“So some rich guy thought Nadia was too skinny.”

Maggie smiles. “I guess you’ve dealt with this before.”

“I have.”

“How do you handle it?”