Chapter 17 - THE LAST PATIENT
Caleb Voss did not sell the vial.
He used it.
That was worse.
Three days after he disappeared, authorities found an abandoned ambulance outside Detroit.
Inside were two dead paramedics.
A hospital transport record had been stolen.
The patient was a former Northstar executive scheduled to testify.
His name was Thomas Keene.
Keene vanished.
Forty-eight hours later, his body was found in a motel.
No pulse.
No respiration.
Cold skin.
Police nearly sent him to the morgue.
Daniel intervened.
Claire recognized the pattern.
Keene received the reversal treatment.
He woke six hours later.
His first words were Caleb Voss.
Keene explained the final phase of Edward’s plan.
Orpheus-X was not intended merely to preserve life.
It was designed to create portable disappearance.
Drug someone.
Produce convincing death.
Move them legally as a corpse.
Revive them elsewhere.
Kidnapping without kidnapping.
Assassination without murder.
Witness relocation without records.
The implications terrified everyone.
Voss had a list of people who knew too much.
Samuel.
Margaret.
Claire.
Julian.
Rebecca.
Noah.
Daniel.
Lily.
They were targets.
The family moved into federal protection.
Daniel hated every minute.
Then Margaret disappeared.
No forced entry.
No alarms.
One note.
I CHOSE TO GO.
Samuel recognized her handwriting.
Daniel did not believe it.
Until security footage showed Margaret leaving alone.
She boarded a bus.
No one followed.
Claire found another note inside Margaret’s room.
This one addressed to Samuel.
I LOVE YOU.
BUT I WILL NOT SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE HIDING BECAUSE MEN ARE AFRAID TO DIE.
I KNOW WHERE CALEB WILL GO.
DO NOT FOLLOW ME.
Samuel sat down.
Daniel stared at him.
“You know where she went.”
Samuel nodded.
“Edward’s first laboratory.”
An abandoned medical facility beneath a church outside Milwaukee.
Margaret remembered it from twenty-four years ago.
Caleb would need equipment to stabilize Orpheus-X.
The first laboratory still contained compatible systems.
They followed her.
Of course they did.
Margaret reached the church first.
Caleb waited below.
He expected Samuel.
Instead he saw the woman whose stolen life had powered the project.
Margaret confronted him.
“Edward is gone.”
Caleb answered.
“Edward was weak at the end.”
“You still believe in this?”
“I believe death is a disease.”
Margaret smiled sadly.
“So did he.”
Caleb showed her six Orpheus-X vials.
He had synthesized more.
Samuel arrived.
Daniel.
Claire.
Ortiz.
Federal agents surrounded the facility.
Caleb held a detonator.
“If anyone enters, the lab burns.”
Samuel stepped forward.
“What do you want?”
“You.”
“Why?”
“To finish it.”
Caleb believed Samuel alone understood the neurological stabilization problem.
Samuel refused.
Caleb raised the detonator.
Margaret walked toward him.
“Then use me.”
Samuel shouted.
“No.”
Margaret looked back.
“For once, let me choose.”
Caleb hesitated.
That was the opening.
Noah, watching the ventilation system from outside, shut down oxygen flow to the burner line.
Ortiz ordered entry.
Agents breached.
Caleb pressed the detonator.
Nothing happened.
Daniel tackled him.
The vials scattered.
One broke.
Claire kicked another away.
Caleb fought with terrifying strength.
Then Margaret stepped between him and Samuel.
Caleb stopped.
Only for a second.
Enough.
Daniel restrained him.
Federal agents took over.
The final active Orpheus-X samples were secured.
Everyone believed it was finished.
But Samuel counted the vials.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
He looked at the broken glass.
“Where’s six?”
Daniel turned toward Caleb.
May you like
Caleb smiled.
“I mailed it yesterday.”
