Chapter 6 - The Team in White Coats
Four people entered the preparation room wearing white medical coats over dark clothing.
None displayed hospital identification.
At their center walked Dr. Elaine Voss.
She was in her early sixties, thin, composed, and dry despite the rain outside. Silver-framed glasses rested low on her nose. She looked at Alina before acknowledging anyone else.
“Step away from the table,” she said.
Marcus did not move.
Voss's gaze settled on him.
“Mr. Hale, your wife is in a highly unstable therapeutic state.”
“You declared her dead.”
“I did not.”
“Your name is on the transfer.”
“As a consultant, not the certifying physician.”
“You approved this.”
Voss glanced toward Harold.
“The transfer was supposed to terminate before chamber entry.”
The words were clinically chosen.
Marcus heard what she avoided saying.
“Terminate where?”
“At a secure medical facility.”
“You sent a living pregnant woman to a crematory as transport?”
Voss's expression tightened.
“The hospital's research wing was compromised. We needed an unmonitored route.”
Dana stepped forward.
“You removed emergency supplies and locked the building.”
“To prevent well-intentioned interference.”
Harold stared at her.
“The chamber started by itself.”
“That was not our action.”
For the first time, Voss appeared concerned.
She crossed to the control panel and examined the lights. One of the men behind her opened a hard medical case and prepared portable monitors.
Marcus blocked him.
“No one touches her until someone explains everything.”
Voss lowered her voice.
“Your wife developed a rare malignant arrhythmia triggered by pregnancy. The patch is keeping her heart from entering irreversible fibrillation. If it is removed incorrectly, she will die within seconds. The fetus may also be dependent on the induced rhythm.”
“Then why did Kessler tell me they were both dead?”
Voss did not answer immediately.
That pause contained guilt.
“He was not supposed to tell you that.”
Marcus felt his hands close into fists.
“What was he supposed to tell me?”
“That she required an emergency transfer.”
“Why didn't he?”
“Because someone changed the protocol.”
One of Voss's team connected a wireless scanner to the patch. The screen showed corrupted data.
Voss looked toward the chamber.
“The control signal is being overridden.”
Owen spoke from behind the technician's station.
“By what?”
“A duplicate transmitter.”
Someone else was controlling the patch.
The same person might also be controlling the chamber.
Marcus asked Voss who had access.
She named three people: herself, Dr. Kessler, and the research division's chief engineer, Nathan Crowe.
Crowe had disappeared the previous month after alleging the hospital falsified safety data.
Voss claimed he stole a transmitter prototype.
Marcus did not trust her.
But the monitor confirmed a faint, organized rhythm from Alina's heart.
A second sensor detected fetal movement, though no stable fetal heartbeat appeared.
The uncertainty was unbearable.
Voss's team began preparing to move Alina onto their gurney.
The emergency phone rang again.
This time everyone heard the unaltered voice because Marcus switched on the speaker.
It belonged to Dr. Kessler.
“Do not let Voss take her.”
Voss's face became still.
Kessler continued.
“She caused the arrest. She needs Alina alive long enough to erase what happened.”
One of the medical team members reached for the phone.
Marcus pulled it away.
Voss said Kessler was lying to protect himself.
Kessler said Voss had enrolled Alina without consent after discovering a genetic marker in the baby's prenatal testing.
Then the chamber doors opened fully behind them.
May you like
Inside the dark chamber, attached to the rear wall, a small transmitter blinked blue in perfect rhythm with the patch on Alina's chest.
Someone had placed it there before she arrived.
