Chapter 4 - THE LOCKED HOSPITAL FLOOR
Daniel reached the door before the stranger could enter.
He slammed his shoulder against it.
The handle jerked violently from the other side.
Noah grabbed a chair and wedged it beneath the lever.
Claire tried pulling herself upright.
“Get me out.”
“You can barely stand.”
“Daniel.”
Her voice sharpened.
“Get me out of this room.”
The lights remained dead.
Only emergency strips glowed along the floor.
The person outside stopped forcing the handle.
For several seconds there was silence.
Then footsteps retreated.
Daniel looked through the narrow window.
Empty hallway.
Noah said, “We need security.”
Daniel called.
No service.
Claire pointed toward the bedside phone.
“Landline.”
Daniel lifted it.
Dead.
“This wasn’t a normal outage.”
“No.”
Claire swung her legs over the side of the bed.
Noah caught her as she nearly fell.
“What are you doing?”
“Leaving.”
Daniel removed the chair.
He opened the door carefully.
No one waited outside.
The nurses’ station fifty feet away was empty.
That frightened him more than seeing someone would have.
“Where is everybody?”
A faint alarm sounded from another floor.
Claire supported herself against Noah.
“The elevators?”
“Probably locked.”
Daniel looked toward the stairwell.
They moved slowly.
At the corner they found a nurse lying beside a supply cart.
Daniel dropped beside her.
She was breathing.
A small puncture mark showed on her neck.
Claire saw it.
“Same method.”
Daniel looked up.
“They drugged her?”
Claire nodded.
Noah whispered, “They’re clearing the floor.”
Daniel checked the corridor.
“For Claire.”
They reached the stairwell.
The fire door would not open.
Someone had electronically locked it.
“That’s illegal,” Noah said.
Daniel almost laughed.
At this point illegal seemed irrelevant.
Claire pressed her forehead against the wall.
“There’s another way.”
“How?”
“The research wing.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You want to go toward the place they took you?”
“It connects to the old service elevator.”
“Claire—”
“If they locked the regular exits, the abandoned systems may still be manual.”
Noah said, “Where?”
Claire pointed.
“End of the hall.”
The entrance to the research wing was hidden behind temporary construction panels.
Daniel pulled one loose.
Behind it stood a steel door.
Claire typed a code.
Nothing.
She tried another.
The lock clicked.
Daniel looked at her.
“How do you know that code?”
“Marcus never changed it.”
Inside, the air smelled stale.
Dust covered the floor.
Plastic sheeting hung across darkened laboratories.
Daniel used his phone flashlight.
Noah supported Claire.
They passed Room 12.
Then Room 14.
Claire stopped at Room 16.
“What?”
She stared through the glass.
“This is where I woke up.”
Daniel shone the light inside.
A hospital bed remained against the wall.
Leather restraint straps hung from the frame.
Noah went still.
“Why would a sleep study need restraints?”
Claire said nothing.
They continued.
At the old elevator Daniel found a manual service panel.
Noah pried it open.
The motor system still had emergency power.
He crossed two wires.
The elevator groaned.
Daniel stared at him.
“You know how to do that?”
“My mother taught me electrical work.”
The doors opened.
They entered.
Before Daniel could press the lobby button, Claire said, “Basement.”
“What?”
“Take us to B2.”
“That’s not the exit.”
“I know.”
“Claire.”
“There’s something you need to see.”
The elevator descended.
B1.
Then B2.
The doors opened onto a dark corridor.
Claire led them toward a secure storage room.
The lock had been broken recently.
Daniel saw fresh scratches around the latch.
Someone had already been there.
Inside stood rows of metal cabinets.
Most were empty.
Claire moved toward one in the far corner.
Cabinet 17.
She pulled it open.
Nothing.
Her face fell.
“No.”
“What was here?”
“A patient archive.”
“Gone?”
Claire began searching the shelves.
Then Noah noticed a paper caught behind the cabinet.
He pulled it free.
A photograph.
Twelve people stood in a laboratory.
Participants.
Claire was among them.
Marcus stood behind the group.
Julian was beside him.
Noah moved the flashlight lower.
A woman in pharmacy scrubs stood near the edge.
Rebecca Hale.
His mother.
Noah’s hands began shaking.
“She was there.”
Claire touched his shoulder.
“I told you.”
Daniel studied the photograph.
Then he saw another face.
Someone he recognized.
He lifted the photograph closer.
“No.”
Claire looked.
Her expression changed.
At the center of the back row stood a man in a white coat.
Tall.
Gray-haired.
Smiling.
Daniel knew him.
Everyone in the Mercer family did.
Dr. Samuel Mercer.
Their father.
The man who had supposedly died of a stroke eleven years earlier.
Daniel stared at Claire.
“You said Marcus didn’t start the project.”
Claire’s voice became almost inaudible.
“He didn’t.”
Daniel held the photograph.
“Our father did?”
Claire nodded.
Noah looked between them.
“But he died before my mother disappeared.”
Claire shook her head.
“That’s what we were told.”
Daniel felt the room shrink around him.
“You’re saying Dad was alive three years ago?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
A metal sound came from the corridor.
Someone had entered the basement.
Daniel switched off the flashlight.
Footsteps approached.
Slow.
Controlled.
Claire whispered.
“We need to move.”
They slipped behind the storage cabinets.
The footsteps stopped outside.
A flashlight beam swept across the room.
Daniel saw the silhouette of a man.
The stranger entered.
He walked directly toward Cabinet 17.
He already knew where to look.
Daniel waited until the man passed.
Then Noah suddenly stared at the intruder’s wrist.
A tattoo showed beneath the sleeve.
Three black vertical lines.
Noah grabbed Daniel.
He whispered so softly Daniel almost missed it.
“I saw that tattoo before.”
May you like
“When?”
“The night my mother disappeared.”
