Chapter 2

"Dual-authorization, dual-lock, continuous monitoring, with parallel electronic and paper logging. Forget about me—even if Mr. Sullivan wanted to sneak out a single vial unnoticed, he couldn't," I explained.

Unfortunately, Sally didn't listen at all.

Or rather, she refused to listen to anything that might shatter her hero complex.

Instead, she escalated things further. She pulled her phone out of her pocket. In front of everyone, she dialed the number I only ever had to deal with during medical disputes.

"Hello, hospital police station? I want to report a crime! Dr. Beresford, the head of cardiothoracic surgery, is using her position to traffic Schedule One controlled anesthetics. The evidence is conclusive!

"Come quickly! She's trying to use an emergency surgery to destroy the evidence right now!"

The moment she said "trafficking", the tension in the corridor became even more suffocating.

I almost laughed out of sheer frustration.

Reselling and trafficking were two completely different things. The former might cost you a job at most. The latter would put you behind bars for the rest of your life.

Two uniformed hospital police officers soon emerged from the elevator.

"Who called the police? What's going on here?"

The lead officer, Jim Brennan, was an older man with a serious face and sharp eyes. He scanned the scene carefully.

Sally immediately acted as if she had found her savior.

She dashed forward, thrusting the crumpled consumables list into Jim's hand.

"This is her! And she still wants to go into the operating room right now. God knows if she's going in to save a patient or to collude with her accomplices to dispose of her contraband!" she said.

Jim frowned after listening to her.

He turned his head, glancing at my half-fastened surgical gown, then up at the bright-red indicator light above the operating room.

Finally, he spoke, "Dr. Beresford, is it? Until we clear this matter up, I'm afraid you can't go in."

Just as he finished speaking, the operating room door behind me clicked open.

A junior nurse leaned halfway out, shouting frantically down the corridor in utter desperation, "Dr. Beresford! Hurry! The patient went into VF! We defibrillated twice without success. The heartbeat is almost a flat line!"

Jim extended a firm arm, blocking my path solidly.

"Dr. Beresford, please stay calm and cooperate with our investigation."

"Stay calm?" I stared at him, my voice turning raspy from sheer suppression.

"For every extra word I speak to you, that patient's chance of survival drops by another percent. He's in ventricular fibrillation right now. His myocardial cells are dying off in clumps. This is irreversible! You're not blocking me! You're killing him!" I screamed.

Right in the middle of this deadlock, a furious shout boomed from the outer edge of the crowd like thunder, "Sally! What kind of madness are you pulling here?"

The vice director, Gareth Wolfe, shoved his way through the crowd. Slightly heavy-set and completely out of breath, he rushed over.

"Who gave you the nerve to block Dr. Beresford at the entrance of the resuscitation room? Do you have any idea that every single second you waste is murder?" he shouted at Sally.

Gareth's arrival turned the tide in an instant.

As the vice director, he held immense authority in the hospital.

Faced with him, the brave front Sally had put on quickly lost its edge.

"Dr. Wolfe, I'm upholding hospital discipline and exposing corruption," she said.

"Corruption? You're a resident who hasn't even been here for three months. What the hell do you know about corruption?"

Gareth was clearly pushed over the edge, dropping his usual composure entirely.

He turned to the two officers and said, "Officers, I guarantee on my position and reputation that Dr. Beresford is completely clean. We just introduced a new surgical protocol, so the anesthesia dosage model is still being adjusted. Every single entry in the books is fully verifiable.

"A life is on the line right now. Please step aside. I'll take full responsibility for everything!"

Seeing the stalemate break, Sally was left with no way out. She snapped her head up and said, "Dr. Wolfe, of course you'd speak up for her!

"You're birds of a feather shielding one another! Do you think this hospital is your personal property?"

She took a deep breath and scanned the crowd. Then she played her trump card.

"Listen, everyone! My name is Sally Sullivan. The hospital director, Carl Sullivan, is my grandfather!"