Free Code 15 by Gary Birken Page A

problem with one of my planes,” he answered without hesitation.
    Morgan looked at him as if he were growing a second head right in front of her eyes.
    “One of your planes has a problem. That’s your dilemma?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    With circumspect eyes she asked, “Have you thought about asking one of your fifteen mechanics to have a look at it?”
    He nodded slowly. “That’s a good idea,” he said, without a single illusion of how ridiculous he was sounding.
    “Give me a call later. I want to talk to you a little bit more about what Carrie told me.”
    “What time?”
    “I’m going to meet with Dana around five. It shouldn’t take more than an hour.”
    “I’ll call you at around six.”
    “I have a better idea. Why don’t you take me to dinner? We can talk then.” She turned and started back for the meeting room. “I’m in the mood for Italian. Pick a place. I’ll speak with you later.”
    “Sounds good,” Ben said, trying not to sound like he had just won the lottery and wondering how Morgan could sound so blasé about them going out for the first time.
    So much for trying to gather the nerve to ask her out, he thought as he headed back toward the hospital’s main lobby. It wasn’t until he reached the street that the self-satisfied smirk finally left his face.

CHAPTER 15
    At five p.m., Morgan pulled into the parking lot of Donovan’s Grill.
    The newly opened sports bar was a favorite among the Dade Presbyterian nurses. As soon as Morgan walked into the restaurant she spotted Dana McGinley sitting at one of the booths that surrounded a granite-topped rectangular bar. Above each of the booths, the wood-paneled walls were bedecked with a wide variety of sports memorabilia.
    “This is a lot better than meeting in the hospital,” Morgan said as she slid into the booth.
    “I was just thinking the same thing. Maybe you can use your influence and persuade administration to schedule all of our meetings here,” Dana suggested.
    Before taking the position of assistant nurse manager of the Cardiac Care Center, Dana had been a tried and true emergency room nurse. She and Morgan had worked numerous backbreaking shifts together and had emerged from the ordeal as good friends. Barely five feet tall and with no airs or graces, Dana remained a trim one hundred pounds irrespective of how many calories a day she consumed.
    “I’m sorry I’m late,” Morgan said. “I was reviewing a case for a hospital in Illinois. I guess I lost track of the time.”
    “Why would a hospital in Illinois send you a case to review?”
    “They had a serious patient error and wanted me to make some suggestions how to change their system to avoid the same thing from ever happening again.”
    “What kind of a case?”
    “It involved a twenty-year-old motorcyclist who sustained a major head injury. The hospital followed their usual protocol and pronounced him brain-dead. He had designated himself as an organ donor, so they called the transplant harvest team from the university hospital. The trouble was when the transplant team was preparing the kid to remove his organs, he coughed.”
    “Coughed? How can you be brain-dead and cough?”
    “That’s just the point; you can’t. He was in a bad coma but very much alive. The organ harvest was obviously canceled and five weeks later the kid walked out of the hospital.”
    “Are you kidding?”
    “I wish I were.”
    “So now what do you do?”
    “I’ll write the hospital a diplomatic letter suggesting changes in their protocol for pronouncing people brain-dead.”
    “That’s quite a story,” Dana said, signaling an approaching server. She then reached across the table and covered Morgan’s hand with her own. “How are you doing?” she asked.
    “It’s been a rough few weeks. Getting back to work has helped a lot.”
    A young man wearing a red apron and a white shirt strolled up to the table. “What can I get for you ladies?” he asked, placing a napkin in front of each