Chapter 11 - THE CHILD BENEATH THE HOSPITAL
Emily heard the alarm from the recovery room.
She tried to stand.
Pain tore through her abdomen.
A nurse stopped her.
“My baby.”
“Security is searching.”
“My baby is gone.”
Raymond entered with blood on his sleeve.
It did not belong to him.
He had fought the man who attacked the officer.
The attacker escaped through a service elevator with Noah’s incubator.
The elevator descended toward the hidden neonatal unit.
Police locked every underground exit.
Raymond ordered the hospital placed in complete emergency lockdown.
Emily looked at him.
“You promised.”
His face broke.
“I know.”
“Bring him back.”
“I will.”
The live security feed showed officers entering the lower neonatal level.
The facility was active.
Warm lights illuminated rows of empty bassinets.
Modern equipment filled the rooms.
A wall displayed photographs of infants.
Several matched the children reported dead to their parents.
Each photograph carried a code.
No names.
No families.
Only numbers.
Noah’s incubator appeared on a camera near Laboratory Two.
Malcolm stood beside it.
His white coat was stained.
He spoke through the room’s intercom.
“Raymond.”
“I know you are watching.”
Raymond answered through the control system.
“Step away from the child.”
“He is medically unstable.”
“He needs treatment.”
“He needs his mother.”
“His mother is the source of the problem.”
Emily listened from upstairs.
Malcolm continued.
“Rose’s bloodline contains the answer we have pursued for decades.”
“This child may save thousands.”
Raymond’s voice became colder.
“You have already destroyed families in the name of saving people.”
“History forgives successful medicine.”
“No.”
“History remembers the bodies.”
Malcolm placed one hand on the incubator.
Noah moved beneath the blanket.
Emily’s milk had not come.
Her body shook with pain and rage.
She pressed the intercom button from the recovery room.
“Malcolm.”
He froze when he heard her voice.
“This is Emily.”
“You should be resting.”
“You stole my son.”
“I protected him.”
“You murdered my mother.”
Silence followed.
Then Malcolm said,
“Your mother was weak.”
Emily closed her eyes.
The confirmation entered every recording system in the hospital.
Malcolm continued speaking.
“She refused treatment when progress was finally possible.”
“She threatened to destroy years of work.”
“So you let her die?”
“I allowed nature to decide.”
Raymond looked toward the police commander.
They had enough.
Officers approached Laboratory Two from two corridors.
Malcolm saw them on the security screen.
He unlocked the incubator.
May you like
Then he lifted Noah into his arms.
“If anyone enters, I disconnect his oxygen.”
