Chapter 5 - The Inside Man
By dawn, we had relocated to a secure FBI safehouse on the outskirts of the city. The local police department was compromised—Marcus had walked through the hospital security grid with codes he shouldn't have possessed.
I was pouring a cup of terrible coffee in the safehouse kitchen when my cell phone buzzed. It was Dr. Aris, the Chief of Staff at the hospital.
"Nolan, where are you?" Aris demanded, his voice strained. "The police are tearing the hospital apart. You abducted a patient."
"I saved his life, Aris," I snapped. "The foster father came back with a gun."
"You need to bring the boy back. Now. I have child protective services here ready to transfer him to a specialized trauma facility."
I paused. "Which facility?"
"Crestview Manor," Aris replied smoothly. "They are equipped to handle this."
My blood ran cold. Crestview Manor was an elite, private psychiatric facility out in the agricultural belt. Surrounded by massive, white grain silos.
"Aris," I said slowly, "how did you know the foster father had a gun? The police haven't released that to the press yet."
Dead silence on the line.
"You're one of them," I whispered, the realization hitting me like a physical blow. The Chief of Staff of the largest trauma center in the state was feeding them medical profiles of vulnerable kids.
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"Bring him back, Nolan," Aris’s voice changed, losing all its warmth, becoming flat and reptilian. "If you don't, Marcus won't just kill you. He'll kill everyone you've ever cared about."
I hung up the phone, smashed it against the granite countertop, and threw it into the sink. The rot went deeper than we ever imagined.
