Chapter 12 - The Ambulance That Never Left
Rachel bit down as hard as she could.
The person behind her cursed and pulled away.
She heard metal strike the floor.
Maya screamed.
A gunshot exploded in the darkness.
The hallway erupted with shouting.
Rachel rolled from the bed and hit the floor, pain tearing through her ribs.
Emergency lights flashed on.
Maya lay beside the wall with blood spreading across her scrub top.
A hospital guard stood in the doorway holding a pistol.
Marshal Ortiz fired once.
The guard fell backward.
Ward rushed inside and kicked the weapon away.
Dr. Cole dropped beside Maya and pressed both hands against the wound.
“She’s breathing,” he said. “Get a trauma team.”
Rachel crawled toward the old key.
Ortiz picked it up first.
“What is this?”
Rachel looked from Ortiz to Ward.
Maya had warned that one marshal might be compromised.
She could not safely answer.
The wounded guard wore a hospital security uniform, but his identification card was fake.
His fingerprints belonged to a private contractor previously employed by Daniel’s import company.
The lockdown had trapped him inside.
The power failure had been activated through a maintenance terminal near the morgue.
Dr. Cole accompanied Maya into surgery.
Before losing consciousness, she caught his wrist.
“Your name wasn’t Adrian,” she whispered.
“What?”
“Ask Evelyn what she took from you.”
The operating-room doors closed.
Rachel’s transfer began twenty minutes later.
She was placed inside an ambulance with Ward, a federal medic, and two tactical officers.
Ortiz remained at the hospital to supervise the other patients’ transfers.
As the ambulance moved through the underground exit, Rachel studied Ward’s face.
“Did you know my father before today?”
“No.”
“Did you know Daniel?”
“Only through the investigation.”
“Did you know Victor Hale?”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
Ward hesitated.
“He worked with us.”
“As an informant?”
“As a deputy marshal.”
Rachel stared at him.
Victor had not been merely a witness.
He had belonged to Ward’s agency.
“He disappeared while investigating Gray,” Ward continued. “We believed his identity had been compromised.”
“Why was the public told he was a witness?”
“To protect his family.”
“Does he have a family?”
“A daughter.”
Rachel thought of the false medical records and switched children.
“What is her name?”
Ward looked toward the rear windows.
“Rachel.”
The ambulance slowed unexpectedly.
The medic checked the navigation display.
“This isn’t the assigned route.”
Ward moved toward the driver compartment.
The tactical officer beside Rachel raised his weapon.
“Sit down.”
Ward stopped.
The second officer aimed at the medic.
Rachel’s stomach turned.
Both officers had been cleared through federal command.
But credentials meant nothing in a system built on replacement identities.
The first officer removed his helmet.
Victor Hale looked older than the photograph in Ward’s folder, but Rachel recognized him.
He wore the same silver watch.
“Hello, Ethan,” Victor said.
Ward’s hands remained visible.
“You attacked federal agents at the farmhouse.”
“I fired over their heads.”
“One was wounded.”
“Not by me.”
Victor looked at Rachel.
“We don’t have much time.”
“You kidnapped Ruth,” Rachel said.
“I kept Daniel from taking her.”
“You tied her to a pipe.”
“She hit me with a wrench.”
“She should have hit harder.”
Victor almost smiled.
Ward asked where they were going.
“To meet Michael Shaw.”
“Rachel’s father.”
“Yes.”
“And Laura?”
“Safe for now.”
Rachel touched the bandage on her face.
“Where is Daniel?”
Victor’s expression changed.
“Trying to kill Mother Gray before she activates the final protocol.”
“What protocol?”
“The complete erasure of the six children.”
Rachel looked at the moving streetlights beyond the rear window.
“Why?”
“Because the original drug trial did more than create a valuable blood marker. One of the children developed something the company could never reproduce.”
“What?”
Victor leaned closer.
“A natural resistance to cellular degeneration.”
Ward stared at him.
“You’re talking about delayed aging.”
“I’m talking about a discovery people have killed to possess for twenty-eight years.”
“Which child had it?” Rachel asked.
Victor’s eyes settled on her.
“That is what Daniel believes your blood can reveal.”
The ambulance turned into a tunnel beneath the river.
The lights inside flickered.
Victor checked his watch.
“We should have reached Michael by now.”
The driver did not respond.
Ward moved toward the front again.
A metal barrier dropped between the compartments.
The ambulance accelerated.
Victor struck the barrier.
“Who’s driving?”
A woman’s voice came through the intercom.
Calm.
Elderly.
Familiar to Rachel from childhood.
“Welcome home, little one.”
May you like
Rachel had heard that voice in old birthday recordings.
Her grandmother Evelyn was driving the ambulance.
