Chapter 6 - The Visitor on the Third Floor
Jack moved first.
He locked the hospital door.
Marcus was somewhere downstairs.
Lydia stood frozen.
Emma stared at Evan's message.
"Who is he?"
Jack pulled the curtain across the window.
"Could be the man from the hill."
A shadow moved outside.
Emma's heart hammered.
Someone tried the door handle.
Once.
Twice.
Then a calm male voice came through the door.
"Mrs. Carter?"
Jack lifted a metal IV stand.
No one answered.
"Mrs. Carter, hospital security."
Jack mouthed, Do not speak.
The handle turned again.
Then stopped.
Footsteps moved away.
Lydia whispered, "Maybe it really was security."
Jack shook his head.
"No hospital security officer announces himself without using the call system during a blackout."
Emma's phone vibrated.
Another message.
ROOM 318.
Emma looked at the wall.
Her room number was 318.
The messages stopped.
Jack moved toward the door.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking."
He opened it an inch.
The hallway glowed red beneath emergency lamps.
Nurses hurried between rooms.
No stranger.
Jack stepped out.
Emma called after him.
"Don't."
"I need to see where he went."
He disappeared.
Lydia moved to Emma's bedside.
"You believe him?"
"Jack?"
"Yes."
"I believe he saved my life."
"That doesn't answer the question."
Emma studied Lydia.
"What are you trying to say?"
"Daniel never mentioned Jack."
"Apparently Daniel didn't mention a lot of people."
"Exactly."
Emma understood.
"You think Jack could be involved."
"I think everyone who suddenly knows pieces of this story deserves suspicion."
Emma could not disagree.
The lights came back.
Seconds later, Jack returned.
"Stairwell door was open."
"Anyone inside?"
"No."
Marcus entered immediately behind him.
His hand rested near his holster.
"What happened?"
Emma showed him the texts.
Marcus read them.
"Where's the phone now?"
"Evan's?"
"Yes."
"I don't know."
"We'll trace it."
Jack asked, "Power failure?"
Marcus nodded.
"Someone pulled the emergency cutoff for this wing."
"Hospital camera?"
"Disabled during the outage."
Emma laughed bitterly.
"Convenient."
Marcus looked toward the hall.
"I'm moving you."
"Where?"
"Private floor."
"No."
"Emma."
"I'm leaving."
"You haven't been discharged."
"Then arrest me for walking out."
Marcus sighed.
Thirty minutes later, against Dr. Patel's recommendation, Emma signed discharge papers.
She left the hospital in a wheelchair wearing donated clothing and an orthopedic boot.
Jack drove.
Marcus followed in an unmarked police SUV.
Lydia insisted on coming.
At 5:41 a.m., the storm weakened.
Dawn turned the mountains gray.
The Carter cabin sat alone in a clearing surrounded by tall pine trees.
Emma had visited it hundreds of times.
It had never looked dangerous before.
Marcus stopped them fifty yards away.
"Nobody enters until I clear it."
He and another deputy searched the property.
Ten minutes later, Marcus waved.
"No one inside."
Jack pushed Emma's wheelchair up the wooden ramp.
The cabin smelled exactly as it always had.
Cedar.
Cold stone.
Daniel's old coffee.
Emma's chest tightened.
His jacket still hung beside the door.
She had never removed it.
Lydia touched the sleeve.
Jack moved toward the fireplace.
"The map said below here."
Marcus examined the stonework.
"No obvious mechanism."
Emma rolled closer.
Fourteen opens the door.
The phrase returned.
Her eyes moved over the stones.
Most were irregular gray granite.
One was slightly darker.
A small carved circle appeared near its edge.
Emma had seen it many times.
She had assumed it was natural.
She reached toward it.
Marcus said, "Don't touch anything."
Emma pressed her thumb against the circle.
Nothing happened.
Then she remembered something.
Not a thought.
A memory.
A child's hand turning something.
Emma rotated the stone clockwise.
A deep click sounded beneath the floor.
Everyone froze.
The fireplace hearth shifted forward half an inch.
Lydia whispered, "Oh my God."
Jack pulled.
The stone slab moved aside.
Beneath it was a metal staircase descending into darkness.
Marcus drew his weapon.
"Stay here."
He switched on his flashlight.
Jack took another.
They descended.
Emma refused to remain upstairs.
Lydia helped her down.
The staircase ended at a heavy steel door.
There was no handle.
Only a small black panel.
Emma stared.
A green light appeared.
Then a mechanical voice said:
"Subject Fourteen recognized."
May you like
Everyone looked at Emma.
The door unlocked.
