Chapter 4 - The Empty Car
Police arrived at 9:42 that night.
By ten-thirty, officers were searching the neighborhood.
By midnight, Robert was officially listed as a missing person.
Emily sat beside Maya on the living room sofa while Detective Lena Ortiz asked questions.
"Any marital problems?"
Emily almost laughed.
"Apparently fifteen years of them."
Ortiz studied her.
"Meaning?"
Emily handed over Robert's note.
The detective read it slowly.
When she reached the phrase St. Gabriel, her expression changed.
"You know it?"
Ortiz folded the paper.
"No."
"That wasn't a no."
The detective looked at Maya.
"Would you mind giving me a minute with your mother?"
Maya stood.
"I'm fifteen. Whatever happened is about me."
Ortiz hesitated.
Then nodded.
"Fair enough."
She opened a small notebook.
"Four years ago, I worked a financial crimes case involving a medical shell company. One of the entities used the name Gabriel Clinical Holdings."
Emily leaned forward.
"What did they do?"
"We never proved it."
"Why not?"
"The witness disappeared."
Maya swallowed.
Ortiz continued.
"The company moved money through private pediatric research centers. Some legitimate. Some questionable."
"Questionable how?"
"Children enrolled under falsified consent forms."
Emily's blood went cold.
"Where?"
"Several states."
"Was there a Dr. Adrian Vale?"
Ortiz looked sharply at her.
"Who told you that name?"
"Robert."
The detective closed her notebook.
"Your husband knew Adrian Vale?"
"He said Vale recruited him fifteen years ago."
Ortiz stood.
"We need to move faster."
"Why?"
"Because Adrian Vale is officially dead."
Maya stared.
"When?"
"Eleven years ago."
Emily looked toward Robert's abandoned phone on the evidence table.
"Then who has been contacting my husband?"
Ortiz didn't answer.
An officer entered.
"Detective."
He held up a plastic evidence bag.
Inside was a small black device.
"Found this under the rear bumper of the wife's vehicle."
Ortiz took it.
Emily immediately understood.
"A tracker."
The officer nodded.
Maya gripped her mother's hand.
Ortiz turned toward them.
"You aren't staying here tonight."
At 1:15 a.m., police escorted Emily and Maya to a hotel registered under another name.
The ultrasound appointment was at ten.
Emily didn't sleep.
At 5:03, Maya woke crying.
Emily rushed to her.
"The pain?"
Maya nodded.
This episode was worse.
Her stomach appeared swollen.
Emily called the hospital.
A nurse told her to come immediately if symptoms became severe.
Emily looked at the clock.
Five hours until the scheduled scan.
She wasn't waiting.
Detective Ortiz arranged an escort.
They reached St. Vincent Medical Center at 5:47.
Emergency physicians examined Maya.
Bloodwork returned abnormal.
Her hemoglobin had dropped.
One doctor wanted a CT scan.
Emily showed him Robert's note.
Do not let them remove it until federal authorities are present.
The doctor frowned.
"Remove what?"
"I don't know."
He looked skeptical.
Emily couldn't blame him.
It sounded insane.
Then the hospital's electronic system suddenly failed to load Maya's records.
The nurse tried twice.
"That's strange."
"What?"
"Her patient profile was here five minutes ago."
Emily's pulse accelerated.
"Can records disappear?"
"Not normally."
The physician walked over.
"Call IT."
The nurse did.
Then she frowned at the screen.
"What?"
"The system says the account was merged."
"With whose?"
She clicked.
Her face changed.
"No name. Just an old research ID."
Emily leaned closer.
"What ID?"
The screen displayed a sequence.
SG-0417-MT.
Maya whispered, "SG."
Emily understood.
St. Gabriel.
The physician's skepticism vanished.
He ordered the room restricted.
At 6:20, Detective Ortiz arrived.
At 6:35, two men wearing dark suits entered the emergency department and identified themselves as federal health investigators.
Ortiz asked for credentials.
Their badges looked real.
Their names checked out.
But Ortiz still refused to let them near Maya.
"Why?" Emily asked quietly.
Ortiz watched the men through the glass.
"Because nobody notified them."
"Maybe the hospital did."
"I asked."
Emily's stomach tightened.
One of the men approached the nurses' station.
He spoke calmly.
"We need access to the patient before imaging."
Ortiz stepped into the hallway.
"No."
The man smiled.
"Detective, this falls under federal jurisdiction."
"Show me the case number."
His smile disappeared.
"Excuse me?"
"The case number."
The second man moved slightly.
Ortiz's hand drifted toward her weapon.
"Both of you against the wall."
The first man ran.
Chaos erupted.
Hospital security tackled him near the elevator.
The second man reached inside his jacket.
Ortiz drew her weapon.
"Hands!"
He froze.
Police restrained both.
Emily stood inside Maya's room, shaking.
Maya whispered, "Mom?"
Emily turned.
"What if Dad wasn't taken?"
"What do you mean?"
"What if he went to meet them?"
Emily didn't know which possibility frightened her more.
At 7:02, Ortiz returned.
"They're not federal agents."
Emily already knew.
"What are they?"
"We don't know."
The detective held up a phone recovered from one suspect.
"There was one active message thread."
Emily braced herself.
Ortiz showed her.
The last outgoing message read:
THORNE FAILED. MOTHER PROCEEDING WITH SCAN. PREPARE CONTAINMENT.
Below it came the reply.
If imaging confirms survival, initiate Protocol Seventeen.
Maya stared at the screen.
"Survival of what?"
No one answered.
May you like
Three hours later, Dr. Harris placed the ultrasound probe against her abdomen.
And the room went silent.
