Chapter 5 - The Ambulance
The paramedics stabilized Emma’s airway without touching the black line.
One of them, Luis Moreno, had worked in emergency medicine for twenty years.
He took one look beneath Emma’s chin and stopped speaking.
“What is it?” Claire asked.
“I don’t know.”
“That is what everyone keeps saying.”
“We need imaging immediately.”
As they transferred Emma onto the stretcher, Ashford sat against the wall holding his injured wrist.
The security officer stood over him.
Melissa pointed toward the syringe.
“He tried to use that.”
Ashford shook his head.
“They attacked me.”
Patricia stared at him.
“You locked a sick child in this room.”
“I was protecting the district.”
“From an ambulance?”
“From misunderstanding.”
Claire followed the stretcher into the hallway.
Students had been moved into classrooms.
Teachers watched from doorways.
Near the main entrance, Claire saw Vera’s gray cardigan lying on the floor.
Her identification badge had been placed neatly on top of it.
No one had seen her leave.
Outside, police cars blocked the driveway.
Luis opened the ambulance doors.
Claire climbed in beside Emma.
Melissa approached.
“I’m coming.”
“You should stay and speak with police,” Claire said.
“I heard what Vera whispered to her. I saw Ashford come out of that closet. I’m not leaving you alone.”
Claire nodded.
Melissa climbed inside.
As the ambulance pulled away, Emma opened her eyes.
“Mom?”
“I’m here.”
“Is Mrs. Crane here?”
“Yes.”
Emma looked toward the teacher.
“Don’t let them take her too.”
Melissa reached for her hand.
“Who would take me?”
“The people downstairs.”
Claire leaned closer.
“What people?”
“At school.”
“Where downstairs?”
Emma’s eyes drifted closed.
“The room under the garden.”
The monitor beside her began beeping faster.
Luis adjusted the oxygen mask.
“Emma, stay with me.”
The child’s eyelids fluttered.
“The roots are listening.”
Her heart rate dropped.
“Emma.”
Claire grabbed her hand.
Luis called to the driver.
“Notify St. Matthew’s we need pediatric surgery and infectious disease standing by.”
The ambulance accelerated.
Claire looked through the rear window.
A black sedan had pulled away from the school.
It remained three vehicles behind them.
At each turn, it followed.
Melissa noticed it too.
“Do you recognize that car?”
“No.”
The black sedan moved closer.
Luis glanced toward the rear doors.
“Police escort should be behind us.”
“There isn’t one,” Melissa said.
The ambulance radio crackled.
A dispatcher’s voice filled the compartment.
“Unit fourteen, divert to Westridge Community Hospital. St. Matthew’s pediatric intake unavailable.”
Claire grabbed the radio handset.
“That isn’t true. I work at St. Matthew’s.”
Luis took the handset from her.
“Dispatch, confirm authorization.”
“Divert immediately.”
The signal broke into static.
Luis looked at Claire.
“That did not sound like our dispatcher.”
The ambulance driver called through the partition.
“Black sedan is trying to overtake.”
The vehicle appeared beside them.
Its rear window lowered.
A masked passenger raised something metallic.
Luis shouted.
“Get down.”
The ambulance swerved.
A sharp impact struck the side panel.
Not a gunshot.
A magnetic device clamped against the exterior wall.
The cardiac monitor went dark.
The overhead lights failed.
Emma gasped beneath the oxygen mask.
The black line under her skin began moving rapidly.
Claire pressed the manual ventilation bag against the mask.
“What did they do?”
“Electromagnetic pulse,” Luis said. “It killed the electronics.”
Melissa looked out the rear window.
The black sedan fell behind.
Luis grabbed a manual blood-pressure cuff.
“We can keep her stable without the monitor.”
The ambulance engine sputtered.
The driver cursed.
The vehicle slowed.
The sedan approached again.
Then another car slammed into its side.
The black sedan spun across the intersection and crashed into a barrier.
The vehicle that struck it continued forward, damaged but moving.
Claire recognized the driver.
Nathan Cole.
He pulled alongside the ambulance and pointed urgently toward the next exit.
Luis shouted to the driver.
“Follow him.”
They left the main road and entered the service entrance behind St. Matthew’s.
Hospital security closed the gate after them.
The ambulance stopped beneath the emergency canopy.
Nathan jumped from his car.
He opened the rear doors before the paramedics could.
Claire stared at him.
“How did you know?”
“The specimen reacted when you called from the school.”
“What does that mean?”
“It started growing.”
Emma moaned.
Nathan looked beneath her chin.
His face changed.
“How long has the line been moving upward?”
“Since the nurse found it.”
“We’re out of time.”
“What is it?”
May you like
Nathan met Claire’s eyes.
“It is looking for her brain stem.”
