Fallout

[Ascendancy]

It was about forty-five minutes before sunrise, but buried deep within the heart of Kremlin Clinical, Viktor was aware of the passage of time based on the number of cups of coffee he had. Hours into the surgery, one of the surgeons returned for another update. The man was completely scrubbed out and unlikely to return once done with report. He was tired, eyes deepened by shadows, and shoulders sagged. Yet a determination hardened his expression. Viktor stood in anticipation of good news.

"The surgery is complete. He is in post-op and you can go see him after this. We have repaired the gunshot wound. It went clean through the chest cavity. A tube is currently draining the rest of the blood and air from the pleural space. Once complete the lung should open again, if the bleeding doesn't resume."


Viktor blinked. "So he's out of danger?"


The surgeon shook his head. "Hardly. The internal structures were damaged greatly. They are now sealed and pasted with a stem cell biofilm but rupture is still possible. Not to mention infection, embolism, aneurysm. Finally, he is still in a coma, but you'll need to speak with his primary for follow up. I can only tell you about the surgery. I do know there's brain damage, and those sorts of injuries are difficult to predict. He was weak, as I said before. We had to start his heart again near the end."


Viktor stifled the curse on the tip of his tongue and thanked the doctor instead. He gathered his things to go see Ascendancy when his under-Consul ran into the waiting room, nearly plowing down the surgeon on the way out.

"The fuck is wrong with you?"
Viktor snapped, but his Under ignored it, activating the television.

A huge image of the Ascendancy on a gurney, burned, bloodied, and unconscious filled the screen. His head was wrenched back at that sick angle to allow for intubation.

Viktor dropped his coat and walked to the screen in a daze until he was almost flat against the wall. "My god. How did THAT get out?!"


The Under answered, "I don't know sir. It is impossible."


Viktor rounded on the man and threw a loud slap across his cheek. "Nothing is fucking impossible! Did you see what happened today?!"


Still reeling with fury, he snatched the coat and left his instructions. "Find the source and destroy them. And wake Alexandrova immediately. If she doesn't already know. Get her working on it in five minutes."


The fury in Viktor's gaze kept everyone at safe distance. When he arrived in post-op, the place was crawling with CSS Barrier Preator agents as well as ZARS. He was accustom to their presence in the Kremlin and walked by while barely stopping to confirm identity.

After being permitted inside, Viktor's anger vanished when he saw Ascendancy. He understood intellectually, saw the leaked photos, but neither prepared him to really understand the gravity of the situation.

He went to the bedside. The man supine on the bed was still as death. A blanket draped his lap, but his legs and chest were bare, excluding the bandaging and pinch of sutures along the right. The tops of his shoulders were bright red as though sunburnt. His chest was peppered with wireless EKG monitoring leads. Lines of drugs were pushed into his arms. Tubes snaked from his mouth. His head was wrapped in gauze, tufts of dark hair stuck out along the edges. A dozen overhead screens illuminated the otherwise dim room, casting Nikolai's face with a sickly green pallor.

"You are not immortal,"
Viktor said quietly, resting his hands on the bedrail. Whatever possessed Ascendancy to confront these attackers alone, Viktor could not fathom. The man had been shot, fried, and burned nearly to death, and that was on top of the fatigue he showed after the construction of the monument. There was more to it, though. Viktor's eyes squinted as he leaned closer to the body. Within the redness, almost indistinguishable from the burns, just under a collarbone was a faint puckered circle. Almost like the man had gone Cupping, although Viktor knew Nikolai disliked the tradition.

He stood upright when his Wallet blinked a new message. It was from his Under-Consul. The slap must have put his head back on straight.

Jensen James has arrived with the CDPS agent I sent.

Send them up. I'll wait in the hall.

Viktor returned the message and slipped out of the room just as a surg-nurse entered to tend to Ascendancy. He stood with the human-wall of security and checked for the world's reaction to the leak while he waited.