Chapter 9 - THE FREQUENCY
Dr. Mercer shut down the ultrasound machine.
The countdown on Sarah’s laptop did not stop.
Agent Reyes ordered the maternity wing evacuated.
Bradley remained beside Vanessa despite repeated instructions to leave.
“You’re not touching her without telling me exactly what is happening.”
Vanessa looked at him in disbelief.
“Now you want to protect me?”
Bradley turned.
“This is not the time.”
“It wasn’t the time when you lied to Sarah either.”
“I did not know any of this.”
“You knew you were married.”
The words silenced him.
Dr. Mercer studied the capsule through a portable imaging device that did not use ultrasound.
“It contains two compartments,” he said.
Reyes stood at the door. “Can you remove it?”
“Not safely in this room.”
“What will it release?”
“Based on the density, either a concentrated medication or biological material.”
Vanessa gripped the bedrail.
“Will it hurt the baby?”
“I don’t know.”
The room lights flickered.
Every monitor turned on simultaneously.
A high-pitched tone filled the suite.
Dr. Mercer rushed toward the ultrasound console.
“It’s activating remotely.”
He pulled the power cord from the wall.
The machine continued running.
“Backup battery,” he said.
Bradley grabbed the console and tried to push it away from the bed.
The wheels had locked.
The countdown appeared on its monitor.
00:07:41.
Reyes spoke into her radio. “Cut power to the entire wing.”
The lights went dark.
Emergency lamps activated.
The ultrasound monitor stayed on.
Vanessa cried out.
A sharp pain spread across her abdomen.
Dr. Mercer checked the capsule image.
“It is heating.”
“Do something,” Bradley shouted.
“We need an operating room.”
Security rushed Vanessa’s bed into the hallway.
As they moved, Margaret appeared at the far end under police escort.
She had convinced an officer that she knew how to stop the device.
Reyes stepped in front of her.
“Talk.”
Margaret looked toward Vanessa.
“The capsule responds to the fetal heartbeat.”
Dr. Mercer frowned. “That makes no sense.”
“It was designed to open when the pregnancy reached a specific developmental threshold.”
“What is inside?”
“A viral carrier.”
Vanessa screamed.
Bradley lunged at his mother.
Two officers restrained him.
“You put a virus inside her?”
“It does not cause disease.”
“What does it do?”
Margaret looked at Dr. Mercer.
“It activates dormant genetic markers.”
Mercer’s face changed.
“The Marrow sequence.”
Margaret nodded.
Reyes demanded, “Explain it.”
Mercer spoke quickly as the bed continued toward surgery.
“Some experimental gene therapies use modified viruses to deliver instructions to cells. If Marrow created a carrier, it might be intended to activate or suppress a particular gene.”
“In Vanessa or the fetus?”
“Both.”
The countdown reached six minutes.
Sarah’s voice came through Reyes’s phone on speaker.
“Margaret, how do we stop it?”
Margaret looked toward the device.
“There is a cancellation tone.”
“What frequency?”
“I don’t know.”
Bradley shouted, “You expect us to believe that?”
“Adrian never gave me the complete sequence.”
Sarah’s voice sharpened.
“You said you completed what my father started.”
Margaret’s confidence faltered.
“He promised the carrier would prove which traits survived.”
“You let him use Vanessa.”
“I did what was necessary.”
Vanessa lifted her head from the bed.
“You selected me because I was part of the program.”
“Yes.”
“You used my body because you thought I belonged to you.”
Margaret did not reply.
Vanessa’s fear turned into fury.
“You were wrong.”
She ripped the fetal monitor from her abdomen.
The machine alarmed.
Dr. Mercer grabbed the sensor.
“Wait.”
The countdown stopped.
00:05:12.
Everyone froze.
Mercer looked from the disconnected monitor to the capsule image.
“It isn’t responding to the fetal heartbeat.”
“What stopped it?” Reyes asked.
“The external monitor.”
He examined its transmitter.
“The activation signal was piggybacking on the wireless fetal sensor.”
Reyes ordered every wireless device removed from the room.
The countdown remained frozen.
For several seconds, relief spread through the hallway.
Then Lily’s voice came through Sarah’s phone.
“Mom, the woman has the same machine.”
Sarah spoke rapidly. “What woman?”
“The one driving us.”
The video feed returned on the laptop in the farmhouse.
Inside the children’s vehicle, a portable fetal monitor sat on the passenger seat.
It displayed a heartbeat.
Noah stared at it.
“There’s no pregnant person here,” he said.
Daniel understood first.
“It isn’t reading a fetus.”
The driver turned toward the camera.
She wore a mask, but gray hair showed beneath it.
Evelyn.
Sarah stared at the screen.
She had watched Evelyn remain behind the flood door.
She had believed Evelyn sacrificed herself.
But here she was, driving the children.
Evelyn removed the mask.
“I am sorry, Sarah.”
The monitor’s heartbeat continued.
Sarah whispered, “Whose heartbeat is that?”
Evelyn looked into the camera.
May you like
“Room Zero.”
The countdown began moving again.
