Chapter 5 - THE DOCTOR WHO NEVER DIED
Official records claimed Adrian Vale died in 2007.
Private records said something different.
By dawn, Mason had assembled enough material to prove at least three governments had believed Vale alive after his supposed death.
One report placed him in Prague.
Another in Buenos Aires.
A third in Alberta.
The last confirmed sighting had been fourteen months ago.
Denver.
Ethan looked at the photograph.
Vale had aged, but there was no mistaking him.
Silver hair.
Sharp nose.
Calm eyes.
The type of face people trusted in a hospital.
“He accessed Jake’s records?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re becoming as useful as my wife.”
Christine flinched.
Mason ignored it.
“We need to move Jake.”
“Where?”
“Secure facility.”
“No.”
“Ethan.”
“No government facility.”
“This hospital is compromised.”
“And you want me to trust another building owned by the same system that declared me dead?”
Mason had no answer.
Ethan called someone else.
A woman named Rachel Pike answered.
“Walker?”
“I need a doctor.”
“You have a hospital.”
“I need one who doesn’t ask questions.”
Rachel paused.
“How many bodies?”
“None.”
“Then you’re getting soft.”
“Rachel.”
Her tone changed.
“What happened?”
“My son.”
Thirty minutes later, a private medical transport arrived under the name Mountain Pediatric Services.
Mason frowned.
“You trust her?”
“With Jake.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“It’s the only one that matters.”
Rachel Pike had been a trauma surgeon attached to special operations units before leaving military medicine after accusing senior officials of falsifying casualty reports.
She now operated a private rehabilitation clinic in the mountains west of Denver.
Ethan had saved her life once.
Rachel had saved his twice.
That was enough.
They transferred Jake before sunrise.
Christine traveled separately with Mason.
Ethan stayed beside his son.
During the drive, Jake stared through the tinted window.
“Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Were you a soldier?”
Ethan looked at him.
“Why?”
“I saw the pictures.”
Ethan had always told Jake he served briefly when he was younger.
Nothing else.
“Yes.”
“Did you fight bad guys?”
“Sometimes.”
“Did you win?”
“Not always.”
Jake thought about that.
“Grandpa said you were a monster.”
Ethan’s face remained calm.
“What did you say?”
“I said he was a liar.”
A faint smile appeared on Ethan’s face.
“Good answer.”
Jake looked at his bruised hand.
“Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“A monster?”
Ethan considered lying.
Instead he said, “I’ve done things I’m not proud of.”
Jake looked at him.
“But would you hurt me?”
“Never.”
“Mom let them.”
Ethan’s heart tightened.
“Your mother made a terrible decision.”
Jake turned toward the window.
“She didn’t even tell them to stop.”
Ethan had no defense for Christine.
Neither did Christine.
At Rachel’s clinic, Jake was placed in a private room.
Security cameras covered every entrance.
Two former medics guarded the property.
Rachel examined Jake personally.
She emerged forty minutes later.
“He’ll heal.”
Ethan closed his eyes briefly.
“Thank you.”
“But.”
His eyes opened.
Rachel handed him a radiology image.
“What?”
“There’s something under his left shoulder.”
Ethan frowned.
“What something?”
“Small metallic object. About three millimeters.”
“A fragment?”
“No.”
She pointed.
“It’s too symmetrical.”
Ethan stared at the image.
“When was it implanted?”
“I can’t tell from imaging.”
“Could it be recent?”
“Possible.”
Christine approached.
“What is it?”
Rachel looked at Ethan.
He answered.
“Something inside Jake.”
Christine went pale.
Rachel said, “I can remove it.”
“Do it.”
“Ethan, we should identify it first.”
“No.”
“If it’s transmitting, removing it might alert whoever planted it.”
“That is why you remove it in a Faraday enclosure.”
Rachel smiled slightly.
“You haven’t forgotten everything.”
Ethan didn’t smile back.
They performed the procedure thirty minutes later.
The object came out easily.
Tiny.
Black.
No visible manufacturer.
Rachel placed it inside a shielded evidence container.
Mason arrived and examined it.
“This isn’t commercial.”
Ethan said, “I know.”
Christine whispered, “How did it get inside him?”
Nobody answered.
Jake had undergone only two surgeries in his life.
Tonsil removal at five.
Appendectomy at seven.
Mason checked both hospitals.
Nothing.
Then Rachel found a scar.
Not near the implant site.
On the back of Jake’s neck.
Barely visible beneath his hair.
Ethan frowned.
“What is that?”
Christine stared.
“I’ve never seen it.”
Rachel touched the skin gently.
“Old.”
“How old?”
“Years.”
Jake woke an hour later.
Ethan asked him the question carefully.
“Buddy, do you remember anyone ever giving you medicine and making you sleep when Mom and I weren’t there?”
Jake thought.
“No.”
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
“There was camp.”
Christine frowned.
“What camp?”
“Grandpa’s summer camp.”
Ethan looked at her.
“What summer camp?”
Christine went white.
“Dad took him for one weekend when he was six.”
“You told me Jake was with your sister.”
Christine covered her mouth.
Ethan stepped away from the bed.
“Why?”
“Dad said he wanted time with him.”
“And you lied to me.”
“I knew you wouldn’t allow it.”
“You were right.”
Jake whispered, “There were doctors.”
The adults turned.
“At camp?”
Jake nodded.
“What doctors?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did they do?”
Jake rubbed the back of his neck unconsciously.
“They said it was a game.”
Ethan felt rage rising.
“What game?”
“They showed pictures really fast and asked what I remembered.”
Mason whispered, “Recognition conditioning.”
Jake continued.
“They gave me orange juice.”
“And then?”
“I got sleepy.”
Christine started crying.
Ethan did not look at her.
Jake stared at his father.
“When I woke up, Grandpa said I won.”
“What did you win?”
Jake thought.
“A coin.”
“Do you still have it?”
“At home.”
Ethan’s phone buzzed.
An alert from his house security system.
Motion detected.
Ethan opened the camera.
A figure stood inside Jake’s bedroom.
Not Frank.
Not Brian.
Not Scott.
An elderly man in a dark coat.
He looked directly into the camera.
May you like
Adrian Vale.
Then the screen went black.
