Chapter 6 - The Last Dose
Nathan ran.
“Claire!”
The corridor blurred.
Rebecca shouted for security.
Daniel was behind him.
Maya reached the room first and hit the emergency override.
Nothing happened.
“The lock's disabled!”
Nathan slammed his palm against the glass.
Inside, the man in the white coat stood beside Claire's IV pump.
His back was turned.
Silver hair.
Tall frame.
Calm hands.
Victor Hale.
Nathan saw a syringe between his fingers.
“No!”
Victor looked over his shoulder.
For one second, their eyes met through the glass.
Then he smiled.
Nathan grabbed a crash cart.
“Move.”
He rammed it into the door.
Once.
Twice.
The frame shuddered.
Rebecca arrived.
“Back!”
She fired one controlled shot into the locking mechanism.
The door released.
Nathan shoved through.
Victor dropped the syringe.
Rebecca aimed at him.
“Hands up!”
Victor calmly raised them.
Daniel rushed toward Claire.
Nathan stopped him.
“Don't touch anything.”
He checked the IV line.
The injection port had been pierced.
“Maya, clamp it.”
She did.
“How much went in?” Nathan demanded.
Victor smiled.
“You're the doctor.”
Rebecca cuffed him.
Nathan grabbed the syringe with forceps.
Almost empty.
“What was in this?”
Victor said nothing.
Nathan looked at him.
“What did you inject?”
“Perhaps nothing.”
Nathan wanted to kill him.
The thought was simple.
Immediate.
Terrifying.
Then Claire's monitor changed.
Premature beats.
One.
Two.
Three.
Nathan turned away.
“ECG now.”
The room filled with staff.
He ordered blood drawn directly from the central line.
He replaced the IV tubing.
Started treatment for the most likely agents.
Victor watched.
Calm.
Curious.
As if evaluating an experiment.
Daniel lunged toward him.
“You tried to kill my wife.”
Rebecca pushed Daniel back.
“Not helping.”
Victor smiled at him.
“You look like Thomas.”
Daniel froze.
“Where is my father?”
Victor's smile faded.
“Ask Samuel.”
Samuel appeared behind the officers.
Rebecca turned sharply.
“Who let him out?”
“No one,” Samuel said.
“You're not helping your case.”
“He knows where Thomas is.”
Victor looked at Samuel.
For the first time, his calm cracked.
Only slightly.
“You should have stayed dead.”
Samuel stared at him.
“So should you.”
Nathan barely heard them.
Claire's heart rhythm was worsening.
The delayed toxin combined with whatever Victor had attempted to inject was pushing her toward instability.
Nathan worked.
Magnesium.
Electrolyte correction.
Antiarrhythmic strategy.
Continuous monitoring.
Minutes became sharp fragments.
Claire's heart entered a dangerous rhythm.
“Everyone clear.”
Nathan delivered a synchronized shock.
Her body jerked.
The monitor paused.
Then a normal rhythm returned.
Daniel made a strangled sound.
Nathan stared at the screen.
“Stay with me, Claire.”
The rhythm held.
Twenty seconds.
Thirty.
One minute.
Maya exhaled.
Nathan didn't.
Not yet.
He checked the laboratory result from the syringe.
The substance was a concentrated version of the third compound.
Victor had intended to finish what the earlier exposures started.
Nathan turned toward him.
“You lost.”
Victor looked at Claire.
“Did I?”
Nathan hated the question.
Rebecca stepped closer to Victor.
“You're under arrest for attempted murder.”
Victor laughed softly.
“On what evidence?”
Rebecca held up the recovered syringe.
“This is a strong opening.”
“You'll find my fingerprints aren't on it.”
“You were holding it.”
“Were cameras recording?”
Rebecca didn't answer.
Victor smiled again.
Nathan understood.
He had disabled the room's surveillance.
Planned every detail.
But he hadn't planned for Nathan seeing him.
Or Rebecca.
Or Maya.
Or Daniel.
“You have witnesses,” Nathan said.
Victor looked at him.
“Witnesses can be unreliable.”
“Four?”
“People become confused under stress.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“What about Claire?”
Victor's gaze shifted toward her.
“She won't remember.”
“She already remembers enough.”
Victor's expression tightened.
Rebecca noticed.
“What did she find?”
He said nothing.
“The ledger?” Rebecca pressed.
Nothing.
Samuel stepped forward.
“She found the names.”
Victor looked at him.
“Then she understands why this is bigger than you.”
Rebecca turned to Samuel.
“What names?”
“People still in positions of power.”
“Government?”
“Some.”
“Medicine?”
“Yes.”
“Law enforcement?”
Samuel hesitated.
That was enough.
Rebecca's face hardened.
“Local?”
Samuel looked at Victor.
Victor smiled.
Rebecca understood.
“Someone in my department.”
Nathan felt cold.
“Who?”
Samuel said, “I don't know.”
Victor laughed.
Rebecca's jaw tightened.
Then her phone rang.
She answered.
Nathan watched her expression.
“What?”
A pause.
“When?”
She looked at Victor.
“Keep the station locked down. No one accesses evidence without my authorization.”
She hung up.
“What happened?” Nathan asked.
“The officer who transported Elliot Price was attacked.”
Maya gasped.
“Is Elliot alive?”
“Yes. Injured.”
“Victor arranged it,” Daniel said.
Victor said nothing.
“Where is Elliot now?” Nathan asked.
“Secure hospital.”
Samuel stared at Victor.
“You're running out of people.”
Victor smiled.
“You still think this is about me.”
Rebecca moved him toward the hallway.
“It is tonight.”
Before Victor left, he looked back at Nathan.
“You should ask your father what happened during those missing two years.”
Nathan froze.
Samuel's face changed.
Victor saw it.
His smile widened.
“Ah. He hasn't told you.”
Rebecca pulled him away.
Nathan turned toward his father.
“What happened?”
Samuel looked at Claire.
“Not now.”
Nathan stepped in front of him.
“You don't get to say that anymore.”
“Nathan.”
“Twenty-nine years of silence. We're done.”
Samuel looked old.
Exhausted.
“During those two years, Thomas and I tried to collect enough evidence to bring down Victor.”
“And?”
“We failed.”
“That's not the part he's talking about.”
“No.”
“What is?”
Samuel looked toward Daniel.
Daniel stared back.
Samuel closed his eyes.
“Thomas and I made a deal.”
“With whom?”
“Federal prosecutors.”
Rebecca returned.
“What deal?”
“Immunity in exchange for the archive.”
Daniel's face twisted.
“My father got immunity?”
“He was supposed to.”
“Supposed to?”
“Before the agreement was finalized, evidence disappeared.”
“Victor?”
“We believed so.”
Nathan crossed his arms.
“And then?”
“Federal investigators decided Thomas and I couldn't both disappear. Too suspicious.”
“So you entered witness protection.”
“Yes.”
“And Thomas stayed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To protect Daniel.”
Daniel stared.
Samuel continued.
“Thomas believed Victor would retaliate against his family if he vanished.”
“So he stayed for another twenty-three years and then faked his death?”
Samuel nodded.
“Why then?”
“Because Victor discovered Thomas had begun rebuilding the archive.”
Daniel's eyes filled.
“My father is alive.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“You were photographed with him six months ago.”
Samuel looked shocked.
Rebecca showed him the image.
His face changed.
“That wasn't six months ago.”
“What?”
“That photograph is older.”
“The metadata says otherwise.”
“Then the metadata was altered.”
“When was it taken?”
“Seven years ago.”
“Before Thomas supposedly died.”
“Yes.”
Rebecca studied the image.
“So Victor planted this in a federal database.”
“Or someone working for him did.”
She stared.
“That means the corruption is deeper than we thought.”
Samuel nodded.
Daniel looked crushed.
“So we still don't know if my father is alive.”
“No.”
A weak sound came from the bed.
Everyone turned.
Claire's eyes were open.
Nathan hurried beside her.
Her heart rhythm was stable.
He reduced sedation.
“Claire?”
She looked toward Daniel.
Her fingers moved.
Nathan gave her the board.
She wrote slowly.
THOMAS ALIVE.
Daniel stopped breathing.
“You saw him?”
Nod.
“In person?”
Nod.
“Five days ago?”
Nod.
Tears filled Daniel's eyes.
“Where is he?”
Claire wrote.
CHURCH.
“Which church?”
ST MICHAEL.
Samuel whispered, “Thomas's old church.”
Daniel grabbed his phone.
Rebecca stopped him.
“No calls.”
“He could be there.”
“If Victor knows Claire found him, it's dangerous.”
“That's my father.”
“And Claire is your wife.”
Daniel looked toward her.
Rebecca continued.
“Choose which one you're going to endanger by acting emotionally.”
Daniel lowered the phone.
Nathan almost admired her ability to cut through panic.
Claire wrote again.
BASEMENT.
Rebecca leaned closer.
“Church basement?”
Nod.
Then Claire wrote.
LOCKER 47.
Samuel stared.
“The archive.”
Claire nodded.
Rebecca's entire posture changed.
“If that's true, we secure it now.”
“I'll go,” Daniel said.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because someone is framing you.”
“Exactly why I need to help.”
“Exactly why you stay where I can see you.”
Nathan looked at Claire.
Her hand moved again.
She wrote.
NATHAN.
“What?”
GO.
Nathan shook his head.
“I'm not leaving you.”
She wrote again.
PLEASE.
He stared at her.
“No.”
Claire pointed at Samuel.
Then wrote.
WITH HIM.
Nathan looked at his father.
“No.”
Samuel stepped forward.
“I know the church.”
“I don't care.”
“I know where Thomas hid things.”
Rebecca considered it.
“I'll send officers.”
Samuel shook his head.
“If there are compromised officers, announcing the location is dangerous.”
Rebecca hated that he was right.
Nathan hated it more.
Finally Rebecca made the decision.
“I go. Nathan and Samuel come. Two officers I trust. No radio traffic with the address.”
Daniel protested.
Rebecca ignored him.
Nathan stood beside Claire.
“I'll come back.”
Her eyes softened.
He squeezed her hand.
Then he leaned toward Daniel.
“If anything changes, call me.”
Daniel nodded.
“Nate.”
“What?”
“I never put that patch on her.”
Nathan looked at his oldest friend.
“I know.”
It was the first time he had said it.
Daniel's face broke.
Nathan put a hand on his shoulder.
Then left.
St. Michael's Church stood dark beneath the early morning sky.
Rebecca parked two blocks away.
Nathan, Samuel, and the two officers followed her through a side entrance.
No alarm.
Samuel led them downstairs.
The basement smelled of old stone and furniture polish.
Rows of storage lockers lined one wall.
Numbers painted in black.
Nathan's heartbeat increased.
They stopped.
The lock had already been cut.
Rebecca drew her weapon.
Samuel whispered, “We're too late.”
Nathan opened the locker.
Empty.
Almost.
A small recorder sat on the floor.
Red light blinking.
Rebecca picked it up with gloves.
A speaker activated automatically.
Thomas Bennett's voice filled the basement.
“Daniel, if Claire survived, then Nathan found the patch.”
Nathan froze.
Samuel stared at the device.
The recording continued.
“If Nathan is hearing this, Samuel has finally come home.”
Samuel closed his eyes.
Then Thomas said something none of them expected.
“The archive is safe. Victor never understood what Forty-Seven really meant.”
Rebecca looked at Samuel.
“What does that mean?”
Thomas answered from the recorder.
“It isn't a project number.”
Nathan's pulse quickened.
“It is a room number.”
Samuel whispered, “No.”
Thomas continued.
“Room forty-seven is where the original human trials took place.”
Nathan looked at his father.
“Where?”
Samuel's face had gone white.
The recorder crackled.
Then Thomas said the location.
Nathan recognized it.
So did Rebecca.
Room 47 was inside their hospital.
The oldest sealed wing.
Closed for renovation twenty years earlier.
Samuel whispered, “We have to go back.”
Nathan's phone rang.
Daniel.
He answered immediately.
“What happened?”
Daniel's voice was barely audible.
“Nate.”
“What?”
“Claire's gone.”
Nathan stopped moving.
“What do you mean gone?”
“I stepped outside for thirty seconds.”
His voice broke.
“When I came back, her bed was empty.”
Nathan's blood turned to ice.
Then Daniel whispered the final words.
“Someone left a note on her pillow.”
“What does it say?”
A pause.
May you like
Daniel read it.
ROOM 47.
