Chapter 13 - Forty-Seven Minutes Until Midnight
Rachel backed away.
The door opened.
Margaret stepped inside.
Rachel exhaled.
“Mom?”
Then she saw the gun against Margaret's back.
Helen Brooks entered behind her.
She was seventy, elegant, composed, and utterly calm.
“Hello, Rachel.”
Rachel kept Caleb's call connected in her pocket.
Helen noticed.
She took the phone.
“Caleb.”
She ended the call.
“You've inherited Daniel's irritating courage.”
“You murdered him.”
“Marco did.”
“You ordered it.”
Helen smiled.
“Language matters.”
Rachel wanted to attack her.
Instead, she remembered her training.
Assess.
Stabilize.
Wait for an opening.
Helen wanted Daniel's original key.
Rachel realized the brass key had another purpose.
M-317.
Medical archive.
But also a bank-style security key.
Daniel had hidden something else.
Helen forced Rachel and Margaret downstairs.
A car waited.
They drove to Harbor Mercy.
The hospital had been partially evacuated after an anonymous bomb threat.
Helen had created it.
She led them into M-317.
Behind one cabinet was a second lock.
The brass key opened it.
Inside was a small safe.
Rachel entered Daniel's number.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Then she understood.
47 seconds.
The number written on Caleb's chart.
Not random.
Someone had known about Daniel's code.
Rachel entered 24347.
Caleb's declared time of death and the seconds until his heartbeat returned.
The safe opened.
Inside was a flash drive.
Helen smiled.
Rachel grabbed it first.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
Helen aimed at Margaret.
Rachel handed it over.
Helen inserted it into a laptop.
Files appeared.
Daniel's final evidence.
Then a video automatically played.
Daniel looked into the camera.
“Helen, if you're watching this, you finally found it.”
Helen froze.
“The files you want were copied years ago.”
Her composure broke.
Daniel continued.
“This drive contains the distribution key. Opening it sends authenticated copies to every recipient I selected.”
Rachel looked at the screen.
Upload progress.
12%.
Helen slammed the laptop shut.
Upload continued.
25%.
She smashed it.
38%.
“You can't stop it,” Rachel said.
Helen struck her.
Margaret attacked Helen.
The gun fired.
Margaret fell.
“Mom!”
Rachel dropped beside her.
Blood spread across Margaret's blouse.
Helen ran.
Rachel pressed her hands against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
Margaret struggled to breathe.
“Go.”
“No.”
“Rachel—”
“I don't leave patients.”
Footsteps thundered down the hallway.
Caleb appeared.
Behind him came Enzo and Isabella.
Caleb saw Margaret.
Then Rachel.
“Where's Helen?”
Rachel looked toward the stairwell.
“Going to the roof.”
Isabella chased her.
Caleb stayed.
Rachel looked at him.
“Go.”
“I'm not leaving you.”
“My mother needs an OR. Helen needs stopping.”
Enzo lifted Margaret carefully.
Rachel ran with Caleb.
They reached the roof.
Helen stood near the edge.
Isabella faced her.
Sirens surrounded the hospital below.
Helen held a detonator.
“Everyone stays back.”
Caleb stopped.
Rachel saw the timer.
00:47.
Forty-seven seconds.
Helen smiled.
“Daniel always loved symbolism.”
00:39.
Isabella whispered:
“Where are the explosives?”
Helen pressed her thumb against the trigger.
“Everywhere that matters.”
00:31.
Rachel looked around.
Then she noticed Helen wasn't watching the hospital.
She was watching the parking structure across the street.
Rachel understood.
The bomb wasn't beneath them.
It was somewhere else.
00:20.
Caleb saw Rachel's expression.
“What?”
Rachel whispered:
“The evidence.”
Federal agents had moved the vault records into armored vehicles in the parking structure.
00:12.
Helen smiled.
Rachel ran toward the roof door.
00:08.
Caleb followed.
00:05.
Rachel grabbed the handle.
Locked.
00:03.
From the other side, someone began unlocking it.
May you like
00:02.
The door opened.
