Chapter 12 - The Door Marcus Broke.
.Marcus called Keller three times.
No answer.
Detective Ramirez ordered the penthouse team to report.
Static came back.
Then a single officer whispered through the channel.
"Man down."
Marcus stood so fast his chair overturned.
Claire caught his sleeve.
"Marcus."
He looked at her.
Every part of him wanted to run toward the penthouse.
The old instinct returned instantly.
Solve the threat himself.
Control the room himself.
Leave everyone else behind and call it protection.
Claire saw the decision forming.
"Don't."
He sat back down.
Ramirez gave orders over the radio.
A second police unit entered the penthouse from the service stairs.
Within six minutes, the feed returned.
Keller appeared with blood at his temple but conscious.
"What happened?" Marcus demanded.
"IT contractor hiding in the utility room."
"Name?"
"Mason Trent."
Marcus knew the name.
Trent maintained Vale Meridian's secure residential network.
Price had recommended him three years earlier.
"He attacked when we disconnected the nursery system," Keller said.
"Police have him."
"Did he say anything?"
Keller looked grim.
"He said we were too late."
Claire closed her eyes.
Ramirez leaned toward the screen.
"Too late for what?"
Trent had no answer on camera.
But his laptop did.
Police found a scheduled automation set to execute at 2:00 a.m.
It would send Claire's falsified fetal emergency data to three medical systems, an ambulance service, and the St. Arden intake desk.
At the same moment, another program would issue a security alert claiming an armed threat existed at Vale Memorial Hospital.
The hospital would enter lockdown.
Emergency vehicles would be diverted.
And Claire's electronic chart would show a pre-authorized transfer to St. Arden.
Price had built a crisis that could operate even after his arrest.
Ramirez checked the time.
1:43 a.m.
"Can Trent stop it?"
"He says the control server is not at the penthouse."
"Where is it?"
Keller looked toward someone off camera.
Then back at Marcus.
"Inside Vale Memorial."
The room went silent.
Marcus looked at the walls around them.
The enemy's final machine had been running inside the hospital the entire time.
Ramirez called hospital administration.
IT began isolating servers one by one.
At 1:49, the lights flickered.
At 1:51, an alarm announced a security incident on the maternity floor.
At 1:52, the electronic lock on Claire's room clicked shut.
Marcus reached the handle.
It would not move.
Dr. Morris checked the medical monitor.
Claire's real fetal tracing remained stable.
In the hallway, officers shouted.
A recorded voice came over the intercom.
"Armed intruder reported."
"Shelter in place."
Ramirez grabbed her radio.
"There is no confirmed intruder."
The system repeated the warning.
Marcus's phone changed from the false fetal alert to a countdown.
00:07:44.
Claire stared at it.
"What happens at zero?"
Marcus did not know.
Ramirez's radio crackled.
"Server room is sealed."
"Electronic lock."
"Facilities override failing."
Marcus looked at the floor plan on the wall.
The server room was thirty yards away, beyond two electronically controlled doors.
Ramirez ordered officers to breach it.
Claire suddenly gasped.
This contraction was stronger than the others.
Dr. Morris checked her.
Her calm expression disappeared.
"We may not have hours anymore."
Marcus knelt beside Claire.
"Stay with me."
She grabbed his collar.
"I am not the one trying to go anywhere."
Even in pain, she could still cut through him.
He almost laughed.
Then the medical system alarmed.
TRANSFER AUTHORIZED.
A mechanical sound came from outside the door.
Something heavy struck it once.
Then again.
Ramirez raised her weapon.
"Police!"
A voice answered from the hallway.
"Emergency transport."
The same trap.
Another false team.
The door lock released remotely for half a second.
A gloved hand forced into the gap.
Marcus threw his body against the door.
The person outside shoved back.
Claire cried out as another contraction hit.
Marcus looked at the countdown.
Four minutes remained.
He grabbed the metal emergency stand and drove its base into the electronic lock housing.
The plastic cover cracked.
Ramirez shouted, "Again!"
Marcus struck it.
Sparks flew.
He struck it a third time.
The lock died.
The door swung inward.
A man in a transport uniform stumbled through.
Ramirez put him on the floor before he could raise his hands.
Behind him, two city officers controlled the corridor.
The "armed intruder" had never existed.
The transport man carried no medical equipment.
He carried a Vale Security master key and a phone running Price's automation dashboard.
Ramirez cuffed him.
Marcus looked at the countdown.
00:01:09.
"Where is the server?"
The man smiled.
"You can't stop it from here."
Marcus showed him the broken lock.
"You keep misunderstanding what I'm willing to break tonight."
The man's smile faded.
Then Dr. Morris called from behind him.
"Marcus."
Claire was gripping the rails of the bed.
Morris looked directly at him.
"We're having this baby."
May you like
The countdown reached forty seconds.
And the operating-room doors across the corridor locked themselves.
