Chapter 2 - Sixty Seconds Before the Heartbeat Stopped
The red light beneath Emma's ribs pulsed faster while the woman's voice counted down through the emergency speaker. Dr. Morgan held the scalpel above the scar, Detective Ortiz guarded the door, and the fetal monitor began to lose its rhythm.
Emma realized the silver cup contained a transmitter. When the unseen woman warned her not to touch its base, Emma understood the threat was also a weakness. She smashed the cup against the examination table. The hidden circuit broke, the implant's red light vanished, and the baby's heartbeat briefly disappeared before returning in a fragile rhythm.
Daniel escaped into the clinic basement after attacking a guard and taking his uniform. Emma, Ortiz, and Dr. Morgan followed a trail of blood into a hidden records area. There they found forged consent forms bearing Emma's signature, authorizing an embryo transfer, an experimental implant, and the collection of biological material from Emma and her child.
A recorder captured Emma's forgotten surgery. Daniel told her she had become ill. Margaret ordered more sedation. A man announced that the embryo had been transferred, then revealed that the donor file had been changed. The voice belonged to Samuel Morgan, Dr. Morgan's missing brother.
A scream led them into a concealed operating room. Daniel held Margaret hostage with a syringe and controlled Emma's implant with a remote. Behind a sliding wall, they discovered an emaciated man inside a glass medical chamber. Dr. Morgan recognized him as Samuel.
Margaret confessed that the embryo had belonged to Evelyn Vale, Emma's mother, who was believed dead. A live video feed appeared. The woman who had spoken through the clinic system introduced herself as Evelyn and claimed she had been imprisoned for nineteen years.
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Before Emma could demand answers, a masked shooter attacked the basement. Samuel's chamber cracked, and Emma's implant unlocked it. The man inside woke, looked at Emma, and warned her not to let anyone scan the child. During their escape, Evelyn directed Emma toward an old lighthouse and Room Seventeen.
Daniel sealed himself behind the hidden basement door as armed footsteps approached. Whether he had stayed to protect them or rejoin the people hunting them remained unknown.
