Chapter 9 - The Woman in the Elevator
At St. Matthew’s, Nathan stood outside Emma’s intensive-care room.
Two hospital security officers guarded the corridor.
Leena reviewed the latest scan.
Most of the residual filaments had begun dissolving.
Emma’s condition was improving.
She ate three spoonfuls of applesauce and asked when she could go home.
Nathan told her soon.
He did not mention the missing capsule.
At 4:17 p.m., the intensive-care elevator opened.
Claire Bennett stepped out.
Nathan looked at her in surprise.
“That was fast.”
She smiled.
“Where is Emma?”
One security officer pointed toward the room.
Nathan stepped into her path.
“Did Reyes find the underground facility?”
Claire’s smile did not change.
“Yes.”
“What was inside?”
“Children.”
“How many?”
“Enough.”
Nathan studied her face.
There was no dirt on her coat.
No fear.
No anger.
Nothing Claire should have carried back from a hidden laboratory filled with missing children.
“Where is Melissa?” he asked.
“With the detective.”
“Why did you leave them?”
“I came for my daughter.”
Nathan noticed a thin black mark beneath her left thumbnail.
He stepped backward.
The false Claire tilted her head.
“You know.”
Security moved forward.
The imitation struck the first officer in the throat.
Her hand changed on contact.
Black filaments extended from her fingers and wrapped around his neck.
Nathan grabbed an emergency cart and rammed it into her.
She hit the wall.
Her face rippled.
For an instant, the features collapsed into a moving lattice of dark fibers.
Then Claire’s appearance returned.
The second guard activated the alarm.
The imitation leaped onto the ceiling.
It moved across the tiles like liquid shadow.
Nathan ran into Emma’s room.
“Lock the door.”
Leena pressed the emergency seal.
Emma sat upright.
“What happened?”
Nathan pulled the privacy curtain around the bed.
“Someone is trying to enter the unit.”
“Vera?”
“No.”
The ceiling above them creaked.
Leena looked up.
A black thread pushed through the ventilation grate.
Then dozens followed.
Nathan grabbed a canister of cryogenic spray from the emergency equipment cabinet.
The filaments dropped.
He sprayed them.
They stiffened and shattered on the floor.
The sealed door began bending inward.
Emma covered her ears.
“It is calling me.”
Nathan crouched beside her.
“Do not answer.”
“I’m not talking.”
“You don’t need words.”
Emma squeezed her eyes shut.
The residual fragments beneath her bandage began to darken.
On the other side of the door, the imitation spoke in Claire’s voice.
“Emma, open the door.”
Emma started crying.
“That is not Mom.”
“Good. Keep remembering that.”
The voice changed.
It became Melissa.
Then Patricia.
Then a little boy.
Finally, it used the voice of Emma’s father.
Claire had told Nathan that Daniel Bennett died in a construction accident when Emma was three.
“Emmy,” the voice said softly. “Daddy came back.”
Emma stopped breathing.
Nathan gripped her hand.
“That is not your father.”
The door bent farther.
“Daddy?”
“Emma, look at me.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“He called me Emmy.”
“It learned from your memories.”
“How?”
“The fragments connected you.”
The imitation continued.
“Open the door and I’ll take you home.”
Emma turned toward it.
Nathan blocked her view.
“Your father would never ask you to endanger yourself.”
The door split along the center.
Black fibers pushed through.
Nathan sprayed them.
The canister emptied.
Leena grabbed another, but the temperature alarm sounded.
The intensive-care unit’s oxygen system had malfunctioned.
A computer voice announced an evacuation order.
The emergency seal released automatically.
The imitation forced the door open.
Nathan pushed Emma’s bed toward the secondary exit.
Leena used the cryogenic spray to hold the creature back.
As they entered the service corridor, the elevator opened again.
The real Claire rushed out with Reyes and Melissa.
Emma screamed.
The imitation froze.
It stared at Claire.
Claire stared back at her own face.
May you like
Then the creature smiled.
“Now she has to choose.”
