Chapter 15 - THE CAMERA ABOVE ELENA’S BED Federal agents reached the desert facility before sunrise.
It was empty.
Samuel and Lydia had been there recently. Beds remained warm, food sat untouched, and medical monitors were still running.
A wall displayed photographs of Elena’s hospital room.
Every visitor.
Every medication.
Every conversation.
The surveillance had continued after Marco disconnected the hospital network because one camera operated independently.
It was mounted above Elena’s bed.
Luke looked up when Marco called from the desert site.
The ceiling camera appeared identical to the others, but its lens contained a second transmitter powered through the emergency-light circuit.
Dr. Bennett ordered Elena moved immediately.
The camera rotated.
It followed the bed.
“No one touch it,” Marco warned through the phone. “It may contain a trigger.”
A message appeared on the heart monitor:
MATERNAL TRANSFER INTERRUPTED.
Elena gripped Luke’s hand.
The hospital doors locked.
Emergency lights replaced the bright room illumination. The city skyline remained visible beyond the glass, but the corridor outside fell dark.
Marco opened the final file in his father’s archive.
It contained an organizational chart for the original continuity program.
Luke’s father.
Evelyn.
Caroline.
Marco’s father.
And one unnamed director represented only by the initials:
E.M.
Luke looked toward Elena.
“Elena Mercer?”
She shook her head.
“I never signed anything.”
The initials predated their marriage.
Dr. Bennett removed the false camera housing with insulated tools.
Inside was a tiny storage card and a recent photograph.
Elena lay unconscious in the blue room.
A woman stood beside her holding the original handwritten envelope before Elena placed it inside the purse.
The woman’s face remained hidden.
But her wrist carried Elena’s wedding ring.
Luke stared at the photograph.
Elena still possessed the ring at the hospital.
The image showed another identical ring created before her escape.
The heart monitor began playing a recorded voice.
Elena’s voice.
“If Luke is hearing this, the wrong person found me first.”
Elena’s face drained of color.
“I never recorded that.”
The security doors opened at the far end of the corridor.
A mobile hospital bed rolled slowly into view.
Lydia lay strapped to it, unconscious but alive.
A sealed envelope rested on her chest.
Across the front, in Elena’s handwriting, were the words:
For Marco—Luke Must Never See the Final File.
Marco returned to the hospital feed and stared at the message.
Then Elena’s unborn baby’s heartbeat vanished from the monitor.
Dr. Bennett reached for the ultrasound scanner.
Before she could place it against Elena’s stomach, someone spoke through the camera above the bed.
“Now choose which Mercer heir you save.”
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To be continued...
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