Chapter 5 - The Locked Elevator.
.The first contraction came while Marcus was still on the phone with Vale Tower.
Claire's fingers closed around the bedsheet.
She did not scream.
That frightened Marcus more.
A nurse rushed to the monitor.
"Mrs. Vale, breathe slowly."
Claire looked at Marcus.
"I'm not ready."
He took her hand.
"Neither is he."
They had learned the baby was a boy six weeks earlier.
Claire had wanted to name him Noah.
Marcus had pretended to argue for three days before admitting he loved it too.
Now the name felt like something fragile they could lose.
The nurse called for a new obstetrician.
Dr. Lena Morris arrived within minutes.
She was calm, direct, and clearly unhappy with the chart she inherited from Halden.
"The contractions may stop," she said.
"But after abdominal trauma, we don't assume anything."
"Can we move her?" Marcus asked.
Morris looked at him sharply.
"Move her where?"
"Another facility."
"Not unless I decide this hospital cannot keep her safe."
Marcus almost laughed at the word safe.
Keller stepped into the room.
"Sir, we intercepted a document transfer from Vale Tower."
"What document?"
"A medical competency petition."
Claire went still.
Keller continued reluctantly.
"It names Mrs. Vale as temporarily incapable of making medical decisions."
"Based on what?" Morris demanded.
"An affidavit signed by Dr. Halden."
Marcus's anger became cold.
"When was it filed?"
"Seven forty this morning."
Before the fall.
Before the supposed psychiatric crisis.
Before Halden could possibly have evaluated Claire after any emergency.
Morris's face hardened.
"That is not medicine."
"No," Marcus said.
"It's preparation."
A warning tone sounded from Keller's radio.
He pressed the earpiece.
Then he looked at Marcus.
"Someone just used your executive code to request a neonatal transfer team."
Claire's monitor began beeping faster.
Marcus felt her hand go cold in his.
"Transfer to where?"
"St. Arden Private Center."
Morris swore.
"That center has no emergency maternal surgery department."
"So why would anyone send her there?" Claire asked.
No one answered.
They did not have to.
Marcus made a decision.
"We're locking this floor."
Morris shook her head.
"You can't turn a hospital into a fortress."
"I'm not trying to."
"I'm trying to stop someone from taking my wife under a forged order."
Keller nodded.
"I'll station two officers at both elevators and the stairwell."
Claire suddenly gasped.
Another contraction tightened across the monitor.
Morris checked the timing.
"Five minutes apart."
Marcus bent close.
"I'm here."
Claire's eyes filled.
"You didn't believe me before."
"I know."
"I need you to hear me now."
"I do."
"There is something else."
Marcus waited.
"Vivian wasn't alone the first time someone came into my room at night."
He stared at her.
"I heard two people whispering."
"One was a woman."
"And the other?"
"I thought it was a nurse."
Claire swallowed.
"But today, when Keller spoke..."
She stopped.
Keller's face tightened.
Marcus turned slowly.
Claire shook her head.
"Not him."
"I mean the radio."
"The second voice used a security call sign."
Keller immediately understood.
"Do you remember it?"
Claire closed her eyes.
"Orion Three."
Keller's expression changed.
Marcus had never seen fear on his security chief's face before.
"What?" Marcus asked.
Keller spoke quietly.
"Orion Three belongs to Daniel Price."
"Who is Daniel Price?" Claire asked.
"My deputy," Keller said.
"And he is currently commanding the officers outside this room."
At that exact moment, the elevator at the end of the corridor chimed.
Keller ran to the door.
Marcus followed.
The elevator doors opened.
The car was empty.
On the floor inside lay a hospital transfer badge.
Beside it was Daniel Price's security radio.
Its speaker crackled.
Then Vivian's voice came through.
"Marcus."
He stopped breathing.
"You should have signed what I gave Claire."
The elevator doors began to close.
Marcus lunged forward and jammed his arm between them.
The safety sensor did not respond.
The doors kept pushing.
Keller grabbed him and yanked him backward.
The steel panels slammed shut hard enough to shake the wall.
A red light appeared above the elevator.
SYSTEM LOCKED.
A hospital orderly at the far end of the corridor tried another elevator and found the same red warning.
Then the stairwell door clicked shut.
Keller tested his radio and heard only a repeating burst of encrypted static.
Someone was not simply controlling one lift.
They were shaping the entire floor into a corridor with only one destination.
May you like
Claire's room.
Then every light in the corridor went out.
