Chapter 6 - The Doctor Who Did Not Exist
Emergency power restored the hospital lights after twelve seconds.
By then, the red-haired woman was gone.
Security locked down every exit.
Police searched stairwells, supply closets, treatment rooms and parking garages.
They found a discarded set of blue scrubs in a laundry cart on the third floor.
Inside one pocket was a plastic identification badge.
The badge named the woman as Dr. Miriam Vale.
The hospital had no employee by that name.
The state medical board had no physician by that name.
Federal records showed that a Miriam Vale had worked for Meridian Reproductive Systems eighteen years earlier.
She had officially died in a laboratory fire.
Valeria stared at the photograph attached to the old record.
The face was the same.
No signs of aging.
No difference in the eyes.
Nothing.
“She should be in her sixties,” Bell said.
“She looked forty,” Evelyn replied.
Elena sat near the window under guard.
“She always looked the same.”
Bell turned toward her.
“You met her seventeen years ago?”
“She gave Valeria to us.”
“And she has not aged?”
“I thought it was cosmetic surgery.”
Bell did not answer.
The missing phone was a serious loss, but Evelyn had taken photographs of several files before sealing it as evidence.
The hospital’s network had also captured a temporary backup when a forensic technician attempted to connect the device.
Most of the data remained encrypted.
One audio file had transferred successfully.
Bell played it in Valeria’s room.
At first, there was static.
Then Daniel’s voice.
You promised the pregnancy would stabilize her.
Holloway answered.
It did stabilize her. The rejection came from the transplant tissue.
Valeria gripped the sheets.
Daniel spoke again.
She is bleeding. Elena is losing control.
Holloway sounded bored.
Then erase the interval and return her home.
A third voice entered the recording.
Dr. Vale.
Seven is remembering too quickly. We should terminate the line.
Daniel’s reply came immediately.
No. You said she was the viable one.
The recording ended.
Valeria looked at Elena.
“What did they transplant?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who was the father?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did Dad care whether I was viable?”
Elena shook her head.
“He was promised money.”
“How much?”
“A trust.”
“What trust?”
“If you reached eighteen and completed the program, Daniel would receive control of a medical patent trust.”
Bell leaned forward.
“What value?”
“Hundreds of millions.”
Valeria laughed bitterly.
“My birthday is in three weeks.”
Elena nodded.
The timing was no coincidence.
The secret procedures.
The untreated infection.
The effort to destroy the phone.
The attempt to discredit Valeria before she could speak.
Daniel had not simply feared exposure.
He feared losing the trust.
“What happens if I die before eighteen?” Valeria asked.
Elena’s mouth opened, but no sound emerged.
Bell answered.
“Who becomes beneficiary?”
Elena looked at the seven photographs.
“The next viable subject.”
Valeria pointed toward Celeste.
“V-4?”
“No. Four was considered unstable.”
“Then who?”
Elena’s voice lowered.
“V-8.”
Valeria stared at her.
“There are eight?”
“There were supposed to be.”
“What does that mean?”
“The final embryo was never transferred.”
Bell looked at the dates on the photographs.
“Could it have been implanted later?”
Elena began trembling.
“I don’t know.”
The door opened and a uniformed officer entered.
He handed Bell a folder recovered from the lake house.
Inside was a recent utility bill under a false company name.
The service address matched the house.
The contact telephone number belonged to a prepaid device activated two months earlier.
Police traced its last signal to an abandoned church outside Briarwood.
Bell ordered a team to the location.
Valeria tried to rise.
“I’m going.”
“You just had surgery.”
“There might be another girl.”
“You cannot leave intensive care.”
“She might be there because of me.”
“No,” Evelyn said. “She might be there because of the people who hurt you.”
Valeria looked toward the old photograph of Dr. Vale.
The broken-circle pendant rested against the woman’s white laboratory coat.
“What does that symbol mean?”
Elena looked away.
“Mom.”
“I only saw it once before Meridian.”
“Where?”
“At the adoption ceremony.”
“What ceremony?”
Elena stood too quickly.
The officer beside her reached for his radio.
She raised both hands.
“I’m not running.”
“Then answer,” Valeria said.
Elena stared at the broken circle.
“It means the sequence is incomplete.”
Before anyone could ask what sequence, Bell’s phone rang.
The team had reached the abandoned church.
They found the basement door locked from the outside.
Inside the basement was a hospital bed.
Restraints.
Medical equipment.
Fresh blood.
May you like
And a message written across the wall.
SEVEN WAS NEVER THE PATIENT.
