Chapter 11 - THE HOSPITAL LOCKDOWN
Hospital doors locked automatically.
Police ordered patients away from windows. Ethan moved Samuel’s bed against the wall while I called Detective Morales.
“Victor’s transport vehicle was hit by a stolen truck,” she said. “One officer is injured. Victor took a uniform and weapon.”
“He is coming here.”
“We believe so.”
Samuel tried to sit up.
“I know where he will enter.”
Years earlier, Hawthorne Medical Systems had funded a private service tunnel connecting the hospital loading dock to an underground warehouse.
The tunnel had never appeared on public plans.
Ethan found an old evacuation map behind the door. A blank section beneath the east wing matched Samuel’s description.
We moved before police arrived, pushing Samuel in a wheelchair through a staff corridor.
At the service elevator, the doors opened.
Victor stood inside wearing a police jacket.
He raised the stolen weapon.
Ethan shoved me behind the wall as the shot struck the elevator frame. Nurses screamed and scattered.
Victor grabbed Samuel’s wheelchair.
“You should have stayed gone,” he said.
Samuel locked both hands around Victor’s wrist. The gun fired into the ceiling.
I hit the emergency alarm.
Ethan drove into Victor from the side. All three men crashed against the elevator wall. Samuel’s chair tipped, but I caught it before he fell.
Victor escaped through the lower corridor.
Police arrived seconds later.
“He’s heading for the tunnel,” Samuel said.
Detective Morales ordered a tactical team below. Ethan insisted on going because he knew the factory records Victor might be trying to reach.
I refused to stay behind.
The tunnel smelled of concrete and standing water. Emergency lights cast long shadows across the walls.
We found an underground storage room packed with old hospital machines. Victor stood beside a metal drum, burning papers.
“You cannot erase all of it,” I said.
He turned.
“I only need to erase the people.”
Detective Morales raised her weapon. “Drop it.”
Victor held a dead-man switch connected to several fuel containers.
“If I release this, the room burns.”
Samuel rolled forward slowly.
“You have spent thirty years threatening everyone because you are afraid of the truth.”
Victor laughed. “Truth belongs to whoever survives.”
“No,” I said. “Truth survives people like you.”
Ethan noticed water dripping from a sprinkler pipe above Victor. He whispered to the detective.
She fired once—not at Victor, but at the pipe.
Water exploded across the room.
Victor flinched.
Samuel struck the switch from his hand with a metal cane.
Police tackled Victor before he could reach it.
As they dragged him away, he stared at me.
“You think Richard was a hero?”
“He was more of a father than you were ever a brother.”
Victor smiled.
May you like
“Then ask why Richard signed the order that sent Samuel to prison.”
She Came Back
