Chapter 6 - Room 614
St. Agnes stood twelve miles outside the city behind stone walls and old trees. Officially, it housed patients recovering from neurological injuries. Unofficially, its sixth floor belonged to Halcyon.
Ortiz obtained an emergency warrant while fire crews responded to the alarm. Sarah had no legal reason to go, but she had a medical one. If Lily had been confined for eight months, moving her could kill her. Marcus volunteered before Sarah asked.
They entered behind two detectives through a service elevator unlocked by Adrian Vale's stolen badge. The button panel ended at five. Ortiz pressed the badge against a blank metal square above it. A sixth button glowed.
The elevator opened onto a corridor without windows. The walls were white, the floor silent, and every door had a number but no name.
Room 614 was empty.
Restraint straps hung from the bed. A half-finished cup of tea remained warm on the table. On the wall, someone had drawn fourteen vertical lines in blue ink. Thirteen were crossed out. The fourteenth was not.
Emily.
Marcus opened a cabinet and found vials labeled with patient codes. Sarah recognized Novalyne. Beside them were cardiac drugs, sedatives, and micro-infusion reservoirs identical to the one inside Emily's cast.
"This was not a treatment room," she said. "It was a laboratory."
A speaker in the ceiling crackled.
Daniel's voice filled the room.
"Sarah, you should have stayed with your patient."
Ortiz raised a hand, warning everyone to remain silent.
"Emily is alive because of you," Daniel continued. "For that, I am grateful. But if you take anything from this room, Lily dies."
Sarah looked at the warm tea. "Where is she?"
"Close enough to hear you."
A faint удар sounded behind the wall. Then another.
Marcus pressed his ear against it. "There is space back there."
They found a concealed door behind a cabinet. Inside was a narrow observation cell containing cameras, medical monitors, and a chair bolted to the floor. Lily was not there, but a live video played on one screen.
She sat in the back of a moving ambulance, wrists restrained, an oxygen mask over her face. Daniel sat opposite her holding a pistol.
"He is using the old east exit," Ortiz said. "Units are moving now."
Lily lifted her eyes toward the ambulance camera as if she could see them. With one finger, she traced letters on the fogged inside of her oxygen mask.
NOT DANIEL.
Then she pointed beyond the camera.
May you like
A second figure leaned into view, wearing a physician's white coat.
Dr. Adrian Vale smiled at the lens and cut the feed.
