Page 73 of Iron Unicorn

“What’s the timer on the heart?”

“We have some time. The donor is on life support, but ideally, we would start within the next day. The organ recipients are on short timers. The donor is brain dead, but her will, which was known by her family, asked that as many of her organs be used as possible. They made sure the hospital kept her on life support to keep her organs sound. Jane appears to be a match as far as I can tell. The heart’s available. There are recipients for just about everything else, so they’re just waiting for someone to claim the heart.”

I eyed Carl, muted the call, and said, “How long does it take to sign and process adoption papers in Texas?”

“About ten minutes if I call the king and have him cut through the red tape.”

Unmuting the line, I said, “I’ll call you back in five minutes.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Hanging up, I went for my next resource, my queen. I dialed, and wondered what sort of chaos I would unleash with my question. On the second ring, my queen answered with, “What’s wrong, Terry?”

“Apparently, I’m a bleeding heart that needs to buy a service pony for a child along with a heart transplant, and I have no idea how much I have in my investment accounts. Can you check for me? I don’t have my laptop, and my investments aren’t set up on this phone.”

“How much do you need?”

“I have no idea how much the pony will be, but the heart will be six hundred thousand. It covers some other treatments needed as well.”

My queen made a soft noise before asking, “Is there a heart available?”

“There is.”

“The surgeon?”

“Her Royal Highness of Maine is available and up for the challenge.”

“Send the bill to the palace, and I’ll make the accountants and paper pushers earn their keep for a change. I’ll warn them the bills are coming, so don’t worry if the estimates are off. We’ll sort everything afterwards. If the kid needs a heart, then the kid needs the heart. Where’d you find a kid needing a heart?”

“A Texan adoption and charity event, and the event hasn’t even started. She’s terminal without the heart and was brought along so she got to see it, I guess.”

My queen laughed. “You’re adopting her, aren’t you?”

“Only as long as it takes to get her treatments, and then I’ll be delivering her back to her parents and transferring custody. They gave her up trying to make sure she had a better life. The Texan RPS has looked into the situation.”

“How did you get involved?”

“The service pony tugged on my sleeve because the girl was alone and upset.”

“Sounds like the service pony tugged on your heart strings instead. Consider the treatments paid for in full. If there are any problems with the Texans about processing the adoption, I will use the lip on them.”

My queen transformed herself into a sneaky woman day by day, and one day, she would grow into her true strength and take the world by storm. “Thank you, Rachel.”

“You’re welcome, Terry. Just don’t adopt all of them. While you could afford that bill, your sanity would quickly deteriorate.”

No kidding. “I’ll limit myself to one.” To yank on her chain, I added, “This time.”

I spared us both from blubbering, hung up the phone, and eyed Carl. “Think you can get me adoption papers signed within the next ten minutes?”

“I don’t think so, I know so. Everyone we need is here for the event, and the king is a call away.”

“Notify Jane’s parents and pay for their costs to be in Maine for the operation. Offer custody post treatments conditional to them being able to house the service pony. If they refuse custody, I’ll need someone to write up visitation documents.”

Once Carl acknowledged me, I called Her Royal Highness of Maine back.

“How’d it go?”

“Carl says ten minutes and send the bill to New York. See if you can get a claim on that heart. Can you handle a service pony?”

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