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His brown eye tracked her movement as she bent in so he could see her. He chuffed.
“I’m Ana Ramirez. I just increased your medication a little—should help cut the pain, but we don’t want you too out of it.”
Chuff.
Ramirez looked at me. “I’m going to go let Jin know he’s awake, although it’ll probably be a half hour or so before he’s with it enough to make a conversation worthwhile. You good?”
I wasn’t, but I’d survive. “Yeah, I’m good,” I answered her.
She patted my arm again, then stood and left the room.
By the time Zhou and Ramirez both rejoined us, my ass was completely asleep, my back was killing me, and I had what felt like a permanent indentation on my forearm from resting it against the kennel frame so I didn’t have to stop petting Taavi, because every time I did, he whined at me.
Zhou brought over a chair, but Ramirez just leaned up against the kennels, poking one finger into one of the cages. Every now and then, a small paw stuck out and swatted at her.
“Detective, Taavi,” Zhou began, and I braced myself, my fingers stilling on Taavi’s ears. “I was able to remove the device, which appears to be a long-term medical dispenser.”
“The source of the beta blockers in his system?” I asked immediately.
Zhou nodded. “That seems to be the case, yes. I’ve sent the remaining substance inside of it to… a lab for analysis.”
I noticed the pause in his sentence, but decided that I would be better off with plausible deniability about whatever lab—or not-lab—the underground shifter clinic used to do their drug testing. So I nodded, but didn’t say anything. I was still hoping to take it to Mays for confirmation of whatever Zhou’s lab said.
“I will say, the pump itself was about half-full, which means that there was likely another two months dosage in it, if your estimation for when it was put in is correct.” He shifted slightly in his chair. “The scarring is about what I would expect for eight to ten weeks post-operative,” he continued, “and I will also say that Taavi is very lucky he didn’t experience more serious complications from the… installation of that device.”
I grimaced. “So not put in by a surgeon, then?”
“Nor a vet,” Zhou answered. “But I would guess it is someone with some amount of medical training. A nurse, perhaps, or an EMT. Someone who knows how to suture, but doesn’t really have a good grasp of the finer points of surgery.”
Fucking great. I so wanted to be working on a case with an unqualified hack surgeon-wanna-be cutting up shifters and putting medical devices inside them.
Which raised another question.
“So what would have happened when the thingy ran out of drugs?” I asked.
Zhou gave an elegant shrug. “I honestly do not know. I’m happy to give it to you if you would like to have it examined.”
“Please.” I was pretty sure I could get Mays to look at the damn thing. I knew he knew shit about electronics—Mays was our go-to for breaking into security systems to get entry into houses with possible crime scenes. If nothing else, he could try to find prints from whoever built it.
“The point is, it should take twenty-four to thirty-six hours for the remaining drug to filter out of his system.”
Taavi brought his head up at that, looking sharply at Zhou.
“However,” Zhou continued, holding up one hand. “I cannot recommend shifting that soon after major surgery. This wasn’t an arm or a leg, and I don’t want to think about the kind of internal damage you could do to yourself if you shift too soon.”
I hadn’t even thought about that.
“So while your body chemistry will almost certainly let you shift much sooner, please don’t even think about it for a full two weeks. And if you’re still sore or feeling tugging, we may need to hold off after that. If you shift too soon, it will likely kill you. Is that clear?”
I felt a chill. As much as I wanted Taavi to be able to shift and get his life back—and get me some answers—that wasnota price I wanted to pay for quick information.
“No shifting for at least two weeks,” I repeated. “Got it.”
Taavi made a soft, chuffing whine.
“And I want to do a full evaluation at that point before we attempt any shifting,andI would prefer it happen with someone else close by. Yes?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
