Chapter 8 - THE PATIENT WITHOUT A NAME
St. Augustine Clinic stood beyond a forested ridge two hours east of the city.
Emma, Hale, and Sabrina drove there before dawn.
Margaret remained with the children under the protection of two officers Hale trusted.
The clinic appeared peaceful from the outside. White buildings surrounded a stone courtyard. Patients walked beneath covered paths with nurses beside them.
Inside, security was heavier than any hospital Emma had worked in.
The nurse who called Emma introduced herself as Nora Voss.
She met them near a service entrance.
“I have fifteen minutes before the shift changes,” Nora said. “After that, they’ll know I contacted you.”
“Where is Daniel?” Emma asked.
“Restricted ward C.”
“How long has he been here?”
“Eleven months.”
Emma’s knees nearly failed.
Sabrina steadied her.
Nora handed them visitor badges.
“He was admitted the night of the crash under the name Patient Forty-Seven.”
“What injuries?”
“Head trauma, two broken ribs, burns on his left arm. Nothing consistent with the body recovered from the car.”
Hale asked, “Who authorized treatment?”
“Dr. Adrian Vale.”
They entered an elevator.
Nora used two access cards and a fingerprint scanner.
“Patient Forty-Seven was unconscious for three weeks,” she said. “When he woke, he remembered almost nothing. Dr. Vale ordered a series of experimental treatments.”
Emma thought of Daniel’s recording.
“Memory alteration.”
Nora looked at her.
“Yes.”
“Did it work?”
“That depends on what you believe the treatment was intended to do.”
The elevator opened to a silent corridor.
Nora led them to a room behind reinforced glass.
A man sat beside the window.
His hair was shorter.
A scar ran from his temple into his hairline.
He was thinner than Daniel had been.
But he was Daniel.
Emma pressed both hands against the glass.
For eleven months, she had forced herself to survive the knowledge that he was dead.
Now he lifted his head.
Their eyes met.
There was no recognition in his face.
Nora unlocked the door.
Emma entered alone.
Daniel watched her carefully.
“Hello,” she whispered.
“Are you the doctor?”
“No.”
He waited.
“My name is Emma.”
Something changed in his expression.
Not memory.
Pain.
He touched his forehead.
“I know that name.”
Emma struggled not to cry.
“You do?”
“I hear it in dreams.”
She sat across from him.
“My name is Daniel, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Dr. Vale says my name is Nathan.”
Emma looked toward the observation window. Hale and Sabrina stood behind the glass.
“Dr. Vale has lied to you.”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“He says everyone will tell me that.”
Emma took his wedding ring from her pocket.
His eyes fixed on it.
“You gave this to me twelve years ago.”
He did not reach for it.
“Were we married?”
“We are married.”
“Do we have children?”
Emma’s voice broke.
“Two. Grace and Connor.”
Daniel shut his eyes.
“Grace.”
“You remember her?”
“A yellow dress.”
Emma leaned forward.
“What yellow dress?”
“Birthday candles. Long hair. She is angry because her brother blew one out.”
It had happened on Grace’s seventh birthday.
Emma covered his hand.
Daniel flinched and pulled away.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“No. I’m sorry.”
An alarm sounded somewhere below.
Nora opened the door.
“They know.”
Hale entered.
“We have to move.”
Daniel stood but looked toward the ceiling speaker.
Adrian’s voice filled the room.
“Emma, removing him now could destroy what remains of his memory.”
She faced the camera.
“You destroyed his memory.”
“I saved his life.”
“You kept him prisoner.”
“I kept him hidden from people who wanted him dead.”
Sabrina shouted, “You ordered the crash.”
“No, Sabrina. Your mother did.”
Emma looked at Sabrina.
“She says he’s lying,” Sabrina said.
Adrian continued.
“Margaret arranged the meeting. Margaret changed the dental records. Margaret signed the authorization for treatment.”
Emma remembered the papers in Margaret’s safe.
“Why would she?”
“Because Daniel discovered what she did to Thomas Bell.”
The restricted-ward doors locked.
Red lights flashed.
Hale tried his access badge.
Rejected.
Nora led them toward a medication room.
“There’s a service stairwell.”
They reached the door.
Ethan Cole stood on the other side.
Three security guards waited behind him.
Sabrina stepped forward.
“Ethan, let us leave.”
He looked at her swollen eye.
“You always choose the wrong side.”
“You don’t have a side.”
“I have the winning one.”
Daniel stared at Ethan.
“I know you.”
Ethan smiled.
“You should.”
He pulled a pistol.
Hale reached for his weapon.
Daniel suddenly grabbed a metal cart and rammed it into Ethan. The gun fired into the ceiling. Hale tackled the nearest guard. Nora opened the service door.
Emma pulled Daniel into the stairwell.
They ran down four flights.
On the second floor, Daniel stopped.
A sign on the door read PEDIATRIC RESEARCH UNIT.
He stared through the narrow window.
Inside were six empty hospital beds.
Each had leather restraints.
Images struck him without warning.
He fell against the wall.
A boy crying.
A white room.
Adrian holding a syringe.
Margaret watching through glass.
Daniel screamed.
Emma held his face.
“Look at me.”
His eyes focused on hers.
For one second, recognition returned.
“Emma?”
“Yes.”
He touched her cheek.
“You came.”
Then the expression vanished.
Footsteps thundered above them.
Nora opened the exterior door.
They escaped into the forest as security vehicles surrounded the building.
Hale’s car waited beyond the fence.
Before climbing inside, Daniel turned toward the clinic.
A figure stood in an upper window.
Adrian.
He lifted one hand in farewell.
Daniel whispered, “He let us go.”
Hale started the engine.
“Why would he do that?”
Daniel looked at Emma.
“Because he knows where we’re going.”
“Where are we going?”
May you like
Daniel’s eyes filled with fear.
“To the place where your father is still alive.”
