Chapter 8 - the false ambulance
The ambulance crossed the hospital gates before security understood it had been stolen.
Caroline reached the emergency entrance in time to see its lights vanish into the rain.
“Track the vehicle,” Noah ordered.
Hospital dispatch attempted to activate the ambulance’s GPS.
The system showed it parked inside the garage.
“They cloned the signal,” Grace said.
Rachel slammed both palms against the divider inside the moving ambulance.
“Let her go!”
Vivian Cross remained composed.
Lily had begun waking. Her eyes moved slowly beneath heavy lids.
“She has just undergone surgery,” Rachel said. “She needs monitoring.”
“She is being monitored.”
Two men in paramedic uniforms sat beside the stretcher. Neither wore official county identification.
Rachel looked at Vivian.
“You intercepted Rebecca’s call.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Lily was hurt.”
“I knew a test had been interrupted.”
“She could have died.”
“Children are more resilient than adults imagine.”
Rachel tried to reach Lily.
A guard blocked her.
“What do you want from me?”
“Your cooperation.”
“You already have my daughter.”
“We need you to continue appearing as her legal mother until the final custody review.”
“What review?”
“The foundation has been preparing a judicial transfer for six years. Your signature is valid, but public scrutiny creates complications.”
Rachel stared at her.
“You planned to take her legally after experimenting on her in secret.”
“Legality is a matter of preparation.”
Lily opened her eyes.
“Mommy?”
Rachel leaned toward her.
“I’m here.”
Vivian watched them.
“Lily, Dr. Harrison is waiting.”
The child began trembling.
“No.”
“He can make your legs better.”
“He makes them hurt.”
“That discomfort helps us learn.”
Rachel lunged at Vivian.
One of the men restrained her.
Lily cried out.
The heart monitor accelerated.
At the hospital, Caroline confronted the administrator who had approved Vivian’s access.
“She chairs the ethics board,” he said defensively. “Her credentials cleared every restriction.”
“She used those credentials to kidnap a child.”
Noah entered with traffic maps.
“The real ambulance transponder was left in the garage. We’re checking road cameras.”
Grace pointed toward flood reports.
“Only two routes remain open for a vehicle that size.”
“One leads to the interstate,” Noah said. “The other to the abandoned Fairmont airfield.”
“The transfer order named a private airfield,” Caroline replied.
Police units raced toward Fairmont.
The storm worsened.
A river had overflowed across the main road, forcing the ambulance onto an old service route through the woods.
Vivian received a call.
“Roadblock ahead,” the driver said.
“Use the east bridge.”
“It may not support the weight.”
“Use it.”
Rachel looked out the rear window.
The bridge was narrow, rusted, and partly submerged.
“Stop the vehicle!”
Vivian ignored her.
The ambulance entered the bridge.
Metal groaned beneath the tires.
Halfway across, a support beam failed.
The vehicle tilted sharply.
Lily’s stretcher rolled sideways until the restraints caught.
Rachel threw herself against it to shield the child.
The driver accelerated.
The bridge collapsed behind them as the ambulance reached the far bank.
Police cars arrived seconds later and could not cross.
Noah watched the ambulance disappear through the trees.
“They know the terrain.”
Grace opened the map.
“There’s an old forestry road leading directly to the airfield.”
“We need another route.”
Caroline remembered a medical helicopter stationed at the hospital.
Within minutes, she, Noah, and Grace lifted above the flooded roads.
At Fairmont airfield, Malcolm Harrison stood beside a small private jet.
He had changed out of the hospital coat. Without the mask, he appeared older than his photographs, with silver hair and deep lines around his mouth.
Dr. Vivian’s ambulance arrived.
Malcolm watched as Lily was carried toward him.
“Subject L-7,” he said.
Rachel spat at him.
“She has a name.”
Malcolm studied Lily’s face.
“Lillian Harrison.”
“My name is Lily Miller,” the child whispered.
He smiled.
“Identity is something adults arrange for children.”
He touched the bandage near her hip.
“The implant is gone.”
Vivian nodded.
“They removed it.”
“Then the response window is closing.”
“We can stabilize her at the primary site.”
Rachel looked toward the jet.
“Where are you taking us?”
Malcolm did not answer.
Lily clutched Captain Buttons.
A faint sound came from inside the rabbit.
A beep.
Rebecca’s microphone had been removed, but hospital technicians had inserted a new emergency locator before returning the toy.
Caroline had insisted on it.
Noah’s helicopter detected the signal.
“There,” Grace said, pointing toward the runway.
The aircraft descended.
Malcolm looked up.
“Load the child.”
A guard carried Lily toward the jet.
Rachel kicked another man in the knee and broke free.
She grabbed the stretcher handle.
Vivian struck her across the face.
Rachel fell.
Lily screamed.
Noah fired a warning shot from the helicopter door.
“Step away from the child!”
The guards drew weapons.
Grace returned fire toward the ground beside them, forcing them behind the vehicles.
Caroline jumped from the helicopter before it fully settled.
She ran toward Lily.
Malcolm pulled the child from the stretcher and held an injector near her neck.
“Stop.”
Everyone froze.
“She has already received a compound that requires a stabilizing dose,” he said. “If I do not administer it within six minutes, her muscles may begin failing.”
Caroline looked at the monitor.
Lily’s heart rate was changing.
“You planned this.”
“I prepared for interference.”
“Give me the medication.”
“You don’t know the dose.”
“Then tell me.”
Malcolm smiled.
“Come with us.”
Caroline looked at Lily.
The child’s eyes were open, terrified but conscious.
“Don’t let him take Bunny,” she whispered.
The rabbit’s locator continued transmitting.
From inside the jet, another child began pounding on a window.
A boy’s face appeared behind the glass.
Then a second child.
Then a third.
May you like
Lily was not the only one being transferred.
👉 The private jet already held several missing children, and Harrison had chemically tied Lily’s survival to his escape plan.
