Chapter 13 - the convoy from the north
Ortiz disconnected the computer from every cable.
Dr. Bell’s image remained on the screen.
The transmission was not coming through the hospital network.
It had been embedded in the memory card.
A timer appeared beneath his face.
02:17:44.
“What happens when it reaches zero?” Caroline asked.
Rachel looked through the ledger.
“I don’t know.”
Pierce checked Lily’s hospital band.
A faint green light pulsed beneath the plastic.
“There’s a tracker inside.”
Caroline cut the band from the blanket.
The light continued blinking.
Pierce scanned Lily carefully.
A second signal came from beneath the skin near her ankle.
“The needle mark,” he said. “Voss implanted a tracking capsule.”
Rachel’s face filled with guilt.
“I should have found it.”
“You were trying to keep two children alive while being drugged and threatened,” Caroline said. “Stop blaming yourself for his crimes.”
It was the first kindness she had offered Rachel.
Neither woman mistook it for forgiveness.
A state commander entered the room.
“Three vehicles are approaching from the north. Military plates, no authorization.”
Ortiz looked at the timer.
“Bell’s retrieval team.”
“Can the hospital be evacuated?” Caroline asked.
“The storm has closed the interstate. We have dozens of patients who cannot be moved.”
Pierce looked at Lily.
“If Bell wants the child, he may threaten the entire building.”
The state commander ordered defensive positions around the entrances.
Emily stood beside Caroline.
“You should hide Lily somewhere without machines.”
“Why?”
“Northstar tracked us through monitors. Voss always said machines tell the truth faster than children.”
Ethan looked toward the old wing.
“The dead room.”
Caroline understood.
The morgue had independent ventilation, thick walls, and no active patient-monitoring network.
They moved Lily, Ethan, Emily, Rachel, and Pierce into the mortuary while Ortiz remained above.
Donnelly, now conscious and bandaged, guarded the entrance.
“You saved my life,” he told Ethan.
Ethan looked surprised.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You helped them bring me out.”
The boy considered that.
Then he sat beside Lily.
Outside, the convoy entered the hospital grounds.
Dr. Bell’s voice came through the intercom.
“This is a federal medical-recovery operation. Surrender the infant designated C-7.”
Ortiz answered.
“She has a name.”
“Names are administrative conveniences.”
“She is a child under state protection.”
“She contains intellectual property owned by the Bell Research Directorate.”
Pierce pressed the intercom button from the morgue.
“A human genome cannot be owned.”
“The embryo was engineered using patented sequences.”
“Lily was born. Your patent does not outrank her life.”
Bell remained calm.
“You misunderstand. I do not intend to kill her.”
Rachel held Ethan closer.
Bell continued.
“I intend to replicate her.”
Caroline looked at the empty cribs in the video memory.
“He wants her cells to create more children.”
Pierce nodded grimly.
The timer reached ninety minutes.
Emily walked among the refrigerated drawers.
She stopped at one marked with a recent date.
“Someone’s inside.”
Donnelly opened it.
Dr. Voss lay restrained within the drawer.
Blood darkened his collar.
He had been removed from police custody without anyone noticing.
His eyes opened.
“Bell is going to erase the hospital.”
“How?” Pierce asked.
“The timer triggers a sterilization protocol in the oxygen system.”
Caroline looked upward.
The hospital’s central oxygen lines reached patient rooms, surgical suites, and intensive care.
“What does sterilization mean?”
Voss swallowed.
“An aerosolized compound. Everyone connected to oxygen will die quietly.”
Pierce seized his coat.
“You built that?”
“Bell required contingency measures.”
“How do we stop it?”
“The primary valve is beneath the old nursery.”
“Where Caleb found us,” Caroline said.
Voss nodded.
“The blue corridor.”
Donnelly restrained him again.
Caroline looked at the children.
She could not remain hidden while the hospital above became a death chamber.
Pierce read her decision.
“I’m coming.”
“No. Lily needs a doctor.”
“Emily can monitor her temperature. Donnelly can protect them.”
Rachel stood.
“I know the nursery controls.”
Ethan grabbed her hand.
“You said you wouldn’t leave.”
“I am coming back.”
“Caleb said that too.”
Rachel knelt.
“I am not Caleb.”
“Then don’t go.”
The fear in his voice nearly stopped her.
Caroline crouched beside him.
“We have to help the sick people upstairs.”
Ethan looked at Lily.
Then he removed the ambulance key from his pocket and gave it to Rachel.
“For coming back.”
Rachel closed her fingers around it.
Caroline, Rachel, Pierce, and Donnelly entered the service corridor toward the blue nursery.
Halfway there, the lights turned red.
Bell’s convoy had breached the hospital.
The intercom announced:
“Subject C-7 has been located in mortuary storage.”
Caroline stopped.
May you like
They had left the children exactly where Bell expected them to hide.
👉 Bell’s forces had tracked Lily to the morgue, separating the adults from Ethan just as the hospital-wide extermination timer continued to fall.
