Page 65 of The Devoted Game
Later ... when he wasn’t scared shitless that he would let someone die.
He stared at the email, read the puzzling lines once more.
. . . holds life in his hands . . . he is not God . . .
“This Trenton,” Ryan announced, “is a doctor.” He looked from Pratt to Grace. “A doctor with a major God complex.”
Grace looked away first, but not before he saw the glow of pride in her eyes. At first the idea baffled him, but then he realized what it meant. She was proud of him. That unfamiliar feeling constricted his chest once more, and he shook his head. The rookie had latched on to some unexpected real estate that he hadn’t even realized was on the market.
The last time anyone had owned a piece of his heart, he’d been a kid.
He just hoped the lady understood the kind of shitty neighborhood she’d bought into.
Grace abruptly swiveled away from the computer where she worked next to Pratt. “I’ve got him.” Her gaze homed in on Ryan’s. “Dr. Kurt Trenton, forty-eight years old, five eleven, one-sixty, gray eyes, salt-and-pepper hair. Cardiac surgeon.”
“Not just any cardiac surgeon,” Pratt added, twisting around to face Ryan as he evidently landed the info as well. “This guy was one of the country’s leading transplant surgeons. He’s been onGood Morning America.”
“Is,” Grace clarified with a glance at Pratt, “the leading transplant surgeon.” Her attention fixed back on Ryan then. “On Tuesday he’s scheduled to lead a rare triple organ transplant procedure on former Alabama Governor Garrett Shelby.”
“News flash,” Pratt cut in, apparently determined to one-up his colleague, “the procedure got moved up. The surgery’s scheduled for ninetomorrowmorning.”
A new load of pressure settled on Ryan’s shoulders. Now there were two lives depending on his ability to pull this off.
“Tell me about this rare procedure,” he said, striding toward where Grace and Pratt worked. “Why can’t someone else do it. What’s the big deal?”
Grace clicked a few keys. “Shelby’s heart issues caused damage to his liver and to his kidneys. All three organs started to fail. The treatments to help the situation only work for so long. And that time has passed. Each organ, starting with the heart, has to be replaced. It’s a very complex, twenty or so hour surgery that takes a great deal of preparation well before the patient hits the OR. It has to happen tomorrow, or he might not be able to survive the surgery.”
“If we don’t find Trenton”—Ryan dared to say the words aloud—“then Shelby possibly dies too.”
Worth strode into the conference room. “I just received calls from the chief of police as well as the mayor. Dr. Kurt Trenton’s wife reported him missing one hour ago. Birmingham PD discovered his car in the parking garage of UAB Hospital.”
“Your next call,” Ryan warned him, “will come from the governor.”
A frown drew Worth’s brow into a pucker. “What do you mean?”
Worth’s assistant burst through the door once more. “Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt, but Governor Wiley is on the line for you.”
Timing. It was all in the timing. Devoted Fan had a statement to make. He had just moved from a side note in local news to prime time.
6hours remaining. . .
Monday, September 11, 3:30 a.m.
Davis rushed to where Ryan sat reviewing schematics of every hospital in the city. He’d already gotten a citywide layout showing where every church was located. Hospitals and churches: the two most likely places for a miracle to happen. And most larger hospitals had chapels.
Worth had been pacing like an expectant father. The pressure was on. If Trenton wasn’t found, former Governor Shelby would most likely die. His condition was deteriorating by the hour. Every member of the team was either reviewing potential sites or making calls. Still they had nothing, and the time seemed to be flying.
“Sir . . . Agent McBride?”
Ryan looked up, startled at being addressed that way. “Yeah, Davis, what have you got?”
“I may have something on that phrase ‘justice is everywhere and threatens injustice anywhere.’” He shuffled the pages in his hand. “During his stay in a Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King wrote a letter using a variation on that phrase.” Davis read from his notes, “‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’”
Martin Luther King. Oppression. The fight to be equal. Lines from Devoted Fan’s emails tumbled one over the other into Ryan’s head.
. . . God . . . worships his fame . . . he must be humbled . . .
“I don’t think he’s alluding to a jail.” Ryan studied the wording of the email again. “He talks about God and Trenton believing he is God, holding life in his hands ...awaits death just as the One he would pretend to be once suffered so selflessly...”