Chapter 2 - The Doctor Who Prescribed Darkness
Marcus Vale stopped when he saw them.
For half a second, nobody moved.
Then Marcus smiled.
It was a physician’s smile.
Warm.
Measured.
Professional.
“What are you doing in here?”
Grant stood near the shelving.
Elena kept Lily behind her.
Grant held the flashlight casually at his side.
“Lily found the room.”
Marcus’s eyes went to the child.
Then the flashlight.
His smile tightened.
“I see.”
Grant nearly laughed at the choice of words.
“Do you?”
Marcus approached.
“This area contains medical supplies. It isn’t safe for children.”
Elena watched his right hand.
The syringe remained partly concealed beneath his sleeve.
Grant could not see it.
She had to warn him without warning Marcus.
“Lily almost touched one of the needles,” Elena said.
Grant understood.
His head turned slightly toward Marcus.
“What’s in your hand?”
Marcus froze.
“A vitamin injection.”
“You came into my coat closet carrying an injection?”
“I was looking for you.”
“In a hidden room?”
Marcus recovered quickly.
“You’ve been complaining about headaches.”
“No, I haven’t.”
A pause.
Marcus smiled again.
“You mentioned discomfort yesterday.”
“I said Daniel’s new security alarm was giving me a headache.”
Elena almost admired how quickly Grant could make another man uneasy.
Marcus set the syringe on a shelf.
“That’s fair.”
Grant held up the flashlight.
“Recognize this?”
Marcus’s face changed.
Only Elena saw it.
“No.”
“Sticker says M. Vale.”
“There are millions of Vales.”
“You’re the only one with a hidden pharmacy in my house.”
Marcus exhaled.
“Grant, this room exists because your treatment requires privacy.”
“My treatment for what?”
“Your neurological condition.”
“The one that blinded me?”
“Yes.”
Grant moved the flashlight from one hand to the other.
“And if I told you I can see light?”
Marcus did not answer quickly enough.
Grant heard the silence.
“Interesting.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“That can happen. Reflexive light perception doesn’t mean functional sight.”
“What about tracking movement?”
Marcus’s eyes sharpened.
Elena’s heart pounded.
Grant continued.
“A child moved a flashlight.”
Marcus looked toward Lily.
Lily waved.
“His eyes followed me.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“Children misunderstand things.”
“I did it three times.”
Elena almost smiled.
Marcus did not.
He crouched.
“Lily, sometimes eyes move even when people can’t see.”
Lily frowned.
“But he looked where the light went.”
Marcus stood.
“Coincidence.”
Grant nodded.
“Then we have nothing to worry about.”
Marcus relaxed slightly.
Grant held out his hand.
“Give me the injection.”
Marcus stared.
“What?”
“The syringe.”
Elena saw panic.
Marcus recovered.
“It isn’t prepared for you.”
“You said it was a vitamin injection.”
“It is.”
“For whom?”
Marcus did not answer.
Grant smiled.
It was not a pleasant smile.
“For whom, Marcus?”
Marcus stepped back.
“I’ll dispose of it.”
“No.”
Grant extended his hand again.
“Give it to Elena.”
Marcus looked at her.
Their eyes met.
Elena saw something unmistakable.
Warning.
She took the syringe.
Marcus forced a laugh.
“You’re acting paranoid.”
“For a blind man?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t need to.”
Grant moved toward the door.
“Dinner tonight. Eight.”
Marcus blinked.
“What?”
“You and Daniel. My office.”
“Why?”
“I’m restructuring security.”
Marcus seemed unconvinced.
Grant added, “Victor’s old accounts surfaced.”
Marcus became completely still.
There.
Grant heard the change in his breathing.
Elena saw his face pale.
“Victor?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Grant smiled faintly.
“Dinner. Eight.”
He walked out.
Elena followed with Lily.
Marcus remained in the hidden room.
They did not speak until they reached Elena’s staff apartment on the lower level.
Grant locked the door.
“Tell me.”
Elena placed the syringe on the table.
“He was terrified when you mentioned Victor.”
“I heard it.”
“He also looked terrified when Lily mentioned the flashlight.”
Grant nodded.
“And the syringe?”
“Clear liquid.”
“Bag it.”
Elena stared.
“I’m a maid.”
“You’re also the only person in this house I’m currently certain isn’t trying to poison me.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“It wasn’t intended to be.”
Lily climbed onto the sofa.
“Can I have crackers?”
Elena closed her eyes.
Grant almost laughed.
“Please feed your child before we dismantle a medical conspiracy.”
Ten minutes later, Lily sat at the kitchen counter eating crackers while Grant dictated a number from memory.
Elena used an old landline kept disconnected from the mansion network.
Dr. Rebecca Sloan answered personally.
Her tone changed when she heard Grant’s name.
“I thought you hated me,” Grant said.
“I do.”
“Excellent.”
Rebecca agreed to meet them at an abandoned clinic she still owned in Brooklyn.
No staff.
No digital records.
They left through a service garage.
Grant used a dark sedan registered to one of Elena’s cousins.
For the first time since beginning work for him, Elena drove while Grant sat beside her.
Lily slept in the back.
“You trust me with your life,” Elena said.
“No.”
She glanced at him.
“You just let me drive you out of your own building.”
“I trust you more than the alternatives.”
“That’s almost sweet.”
“Don’t ruin it.”
Rebecca Sloan was waiting.
She was sixty-one, silver-haired, sharp-eyed, and unimpressed by wealth.
She took the syringe first.
Then blood samples.
Then examined Grant.
She shone light into his pupils.
“Follow it.”
Grant did.
Rebecca stopped.
She repeated the test.
Then leaned back.
“This is not optic nerve destruction.”
Grant’s voice became colder.
“What is it?”
“Suppression.”
Elena crossed her arms.
“Medication?”
“Most likely.”
Rebecca took a retinal scan.
“Your eyes are functioning.”
Grant’s hands tightened.
“My doctors showed me scans.”
“They showed you somebody’s scans.”
Silence.
Rebecca continued.
“There is some damage. Probably temporary trauma from the explosion. But nothing that explains five years of total blindness.”
“How long?”
“If the compound leaves your system?”
She hesitated.
“Days before light sensitivity improves. Weeks or months before your brain fully adapts.”
Grant turned toward Elena.
He could make out brightness now.
Shapes occasionally.
Nothing more.
Rebecca studied the syringe.
“If this contains what I think it contains, someone has been maintaining your blindness deliberately.”
“Why?”
Rebecca looked at him.
“That’s not medicine. That’s motive.”
Grant sat back.
Elena looked through the clinic window.
A dark SUV had stopped across the street.
Her stomach tightened.
“Grant.”
“What?”
“We’ve been followed.”
Rebecca switched off the lights.
The SUV doors opened.
Three men stepped out.
Grant stood immediately.
“Back exit?”
“Hallway, second door.”
Elena grabbed Lily.
“She’s sleeping.”
“Keep her that way.”
Rebecca handed Grant a cane.
He rejected it.
“You’re blind.”
“I’ve had practice.”
Footsteps entered the clinic.
Grant counted.
Three.
No.
Four.
Rebecca opened the back door.
Elena carried Lily.
They moved through the hallway.
A man shouted from the front.
“Mercer!”
Grant stopped.
He recognized the voice.
Daniel Cross.
His own security chief.
“Grant, don’t move!”
Elena whispered, “He has a gun.”
Grant listened.
Daniel continued.
“Marcus told us you were kidnapped.”
Grant almost smiled.
“Did he?”
Daniel appeared at the hallway entrance.
Two guards behind him.
Elena knew both.
Grant lifted his hands.
“I’m standing here voluntarily.”
Daniel lowered the gun slightly.
“Why did you leave without security?”
“Because someone inside my house has been poisoning me.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“What?”
Grant listened.
Not panic.
Confusion.
Maybe genuine.
Then another vehicle screeched outside.
Rebecca looked toward the window.
“That isn’t mine.”
Gunfire shattered the glass.
Daniel lunged.
“DOWN!”
Grant hit the floor.
Elena covered Lily.
Rebecca crawled behind a desk.
Bullets struck the wall.
Daniel’s guards returned fire.
Grant listened to the pattern.
Two shooters outside.
Maybe three.
Daniel grabbed his shoulder.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
“We need to move.”
Grant paused.
Something lay near his hand.
A spent casing.
He touched it.
Daniel pulled him toward the rear exit.
They reached the alley.
A second SUV waited.
Daniel opened the door.
“Get in.”
Grant didn’t move.
“What?”
“What caliber were they using?”
Daniel stared.
“This isn’t the time.”
“Answer.”
“Suppressed nine millimeter.”
Grant held up the casing he had taken from the floor.
Daniel looked at it.
His face drained.
On the brass was a tiny engraved crown.
Mercer Security custom ammunition.
Only six people had access.
Daniel whispered, “That’s ours.”
Grant climbed into the SUV.
“Exactly.”
Back at the penthouse, Marcus Vale was gone.
The hidden room was empty.
Every file.
Every bottle.
Every photograph.
Gone.
Grant stood in the doorway while Daniel searched.
“Someone knew we were coming back.”
Elena looked at the bare shelves.
Then Lily tugged her sleeve.
“Mama.”
“What?”
“The picture man.”
Elena crouched.
“What picture man?”
Lily pointed at the empty wall.
“The man who comes here when Mr. Grant sleeps.”
Grant turned.
Daniel stared.
Elena felt her skin go cold.
“You’ve seen someone in this room?”
Lily nodded.
“Lots.”
“What does he look like?”
Lily thought carefully.
“He has Mr. Grant’s face.”
No one spoke.
Grant stepped closer.
“What did you say?”
Lily pointed toward a framed photograph across the hallway.
A photograph Elena had seen many times.
Grant standing beside his dead older brother.
Lily pointed at Victor Mercer.
“That man.”
Grant’s entire body went still.
Victor had been dead for six years.
Then the private elevator chimed.
May you like
The doors opened.
And a man who looked exactly like Victor Mercer stepped out.
