Chapter 7 - The Hospital Lockdown
Daniel tore the sheet from Lily's bed, soaked it beneath the sink, and pressed it over her nose and mouth. Voss did the same for herself while dragging the unconscious nurse into the bathroom, where the ventilation grille was smaller.
The chemical had a bitter almond edge beneath the hospital disinfectant. Not cyanide. Daniel recognized the heaviness gathering in his muscles.
"Aerosol sedative," he said. "Fast acting."
Voss jammed a chair beneath the bathroom door and fired twice into the ceiling grille. Metal buckled. Daniel climbed onto the toilet, ripped the vent cover free, and found a narrow maintenance shaft beyond it.
Lily could not crawl. Her jaw was wired, her ribs broken, and every movement risked internal bleeding.
Daniel looked at the monitor, then at the bed.
"We move her, she could die," Voss said.
"We leave her, Bennett takes her."
Lily tapped Daniel's wrist. Her eyes were fierce. Go.
He disconnected the portable monitor and lifted her with the sheet supporting her spine. She made no sound, but tears ran across her bruised face. Voss pushed the emergency oxygen cylinder ahead of them while Daniel carried Lily into the bathroom.
The room door burst inward behind them.
Men in tactical respirators entered the ICU.
Voss fired through the bathroom wall, forcing them down. Daniel climbed into the shaft with Lily cradled against his chest. Every inch reminded him how small she had once been. He had carried her from the hospital after her birth with both hands beneath her head, terrified of dropping the most precious thing he had ever touched. Now he dragged her through darkness while armed men searched below.
The shaft opened above an old records corridor. Rourke waited beneath it with a stolen gurney.
"You left me underground," Daniel said as he lowered Lily.
"The doors sealed. I found another route."
"Convenient."
"Save the interrogation. Bennett has control of the new wing. The old wing still uses mechanical systems."
They moved through abandoned halls lined with boarded patient rooms. Somewhere above, Bennett's teams searched floor by floor. Rourke led them into a disused hydrotherapy room where rusted tubs stood beneath cracked tiles.
Voss checked Lily's pupils. "She needs a real ICU."
"There is a field clinic under Saint Agnes Church," Rourke said. "Kline maintained it for Sanctuary survivors."
Daniel stared at him. "How many survivors?"
"More than your government admitted. Fewer than Anna hoped."
Rourke opened a locked cabinet. Inside were medical packs, respirators, and a radio. He tuned it to an emergency frequency.
Bennett's voice came through first.
"All units, Mercer is armed and unstable. Detective Voss has been compromised. The patient is contagious and must remain isolated. Lethal force is authorized if they breach containment."
Voss laughed once without humor. "He turned the whole city against us in thirty seconds."
Daniel removed his hospital wristband. "Then we stop moving like patients."
Rourke unfolded a map of tunnels beneath the hospital. One passage connected to a storm drain beyond the parking structure. Another ended at the original morgue.
Lily tapped the map and pointed to the morgue route.
"No," Daniel said.
She pointed again, then wrote on the edge of the paper.
MOM SAID DEAD ROOMS HAVE NO CAMERAS.
Rourke looked at her with something close to pride. "Anna taught you well."
Daniel hated hearing him speak Anna's name with familiarity.
They entered the morgue passage. Halfway through, a phone rang inside one of the covered body drawers.
Daniel opened it.
A prepaid phone lay on the steel tray beside an empty body bag.
He answered.
Anna whispered, "Do not trust Elias."
A shot cracked behind them.
Rourke fell against the wall, blood spreading across his shoulder.
Voss stood with her pistol raised.
May you like
But she had not fired.
At the far end of the tunnel, a masked gunman chambered another round.
