Chapter 4: Antidote

"My patient needs air," I said, loudly and pleasantly, and stood.

Teo was already behind Luca's chair.

"Everybody stay seated," I said. "It's a drop in his blood pressure. It's common after a long fast."

Giulia was on her feet with her hand at her throat.

"Luca? What is it? Let me come."

"Stay with Uncle," Luca said, and it came out as a croak.

Teo took one arm, I took the other, and we walked the don of the Fontana family out of his own dining room.

Nobody followed.

Behind us, Giulia's voice rose, soft and frightened, telling the table not to panic.

In the study, Teo shut the door with his back.

"Floor," I said. "Now."

"The floor?" Luca said.

"Lie down, Mr. Fontana, or you'll fall down."

He lay down on the Persian rug in his charcoal jacket.

I pulled his collar open and put my fingers on his neck, and there was almost nothing there.

"Teo. Is there a defibrillator in this house?"

"In the front hall. His father had the same trouble."

My hands did not move.

"Get it. Then get me atropine, a bag of saline, a line kit, anything in the family's medical cabinet."

"The family doctor keeps a bag in the pantry."

"Run."

He ran.

Luca watched me from the rug.

"Tell me," he said.

"Your heart is beating slow and wrong, and a bad enough beat will stop it."

"You're calm."

"I'm busy."

Teo came back with a red case in one hand and a black doctor's bag in the other.

I opened the bag on the carpet and found an old vial of atropine, a catheter set and a bag of saline.

I did not look at anything else.

I slid the needle into the back of Luca's hand on the first try.

"That's a good vein," I said. "Don't make a fist."

He looked at the needle, and then at me.

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