Raj reached into the pocket of his white nurse’s trousers and pulled out the syringe he’d prepared back at the bungalow. In contrast to Veena and Samira, he’d not had to go to the empty operating room to get the succinylcholine, and for that he was pleased. He knew he had Samira to thank, and had already done so.

After checking the syringe to be certain none of the fluid had leaked out, a distinct possibility, since he had actually overfilled the 10 cc syringe, Raj was ready to go. He’d overfilled the syringe on purpose, thinking that the last thing he wanted to do was not give enough.

Returning to the door, Raj gave one last look up and down the corridor. There was one nurse walking toward him, but she turned into a room and disappeared. Sensing the time was never going to be better, he returned to the bedside. Carefully picking up the IV line without pulling on it, he took the cap off the needle with his teeth, and then gently poked the needle through the IV port. There was no need to worry about sterile technique.

Thus prepared, Raj paused for another moment, listening if there were any telltale sounds from the hall that he could hear over that of the lowered TV. There weren’t, so he used both hands to discharge the entire contents of the syringe into the IV line in a large bolus. Having not stoppered the upper part of the IV line beforehand, the first thing he noticed was a rapid rise in the level of fluid in the millepore chamber. But that effect was overshadowed by the patient’s response. As Samira had warned, there were almost instantaneous fasciculations of the facial muscles combined with David Lucas’s eyes shooting open. He also started to cry out as his extremities began a series of myotonic jerks.

Raj took a step back, shocked by what he was observing. Although he’d been cautioned, the reaction had been more rapid and more disconcerting than he’d expected. He watched for another beat as the patient tried to sit up but immediately collapsed back like a freezer bag full of fluid. With a sense of revulsion, Raj turned and fled. The problem was, he didn’t get far. As he yanked open the door to the corridor, he literally ran into a white-coated figure who’d just raised his hand to push open the door that because of Raj was no longer there.

Raj grabbed the man in a bear hug to keep from knocking him over as his inertia carried them out into the corridor. “I’m so sorry,” the befuddled nurse blurted. The collision had been so unexpected, and making it even worse, he recognized the man. It was Dr. Nirav Krishna, David Lucas’s surgeon, on late rounds before heading home.

“My God, man,” Dr. Krishna snapped. “What the bloody devil is the rush?”