Chapter 10 - THE HOSPITAL LOCKDOWNWe reached County Medical at 5:28 a.m.
The sky had begun to lighten, but the hospital entrance was chaos.
Police cars blocked the emergency bay. Security guards stood at every door. Nurses moved patients away from windows. An announcement crackled overhead, calm and meaningless.
“Security lockdown in effect. Please remain in your assigned areas.”
I jumped from Torres’s truck before it fully stopped.
She shouted my name.
I kept running.
Pediatric emergency was on the third floor. The elevators were locked down, so I took the stairs two at a time, lungs burning, legs screaming. Pike was behind me. Torres was ahead of both of us.
When we burst through the stairwell door, Rachel’s scream cut through the hallway.
“Liam!”
A man in a suit had Ava’s carrier in one hand.
Another man had Rachel pinned against the wall.
Marcus Vane stood at Liam’s room door holding a court order.
He looked almost bored.
Two hospital security guards stood uncertainly nearby, trapped between the paper in Marcus’s hand and the terror in Rachel’s face.
“This order grants temporary protective custody,” Marcus said. “The mother is under investigation for neglect.”
Rachel fought against the man holding her.
“You left them in that car!”
Marcus glanced at her.
“No, Rachel. You did.”
Liam’s room door was open.
Inside, Liam lay awake, eyes wide, too weak to run.
Madison had told him fear was forever.
Marcus had come to prove it.
Torres drew her weapon.
“Step away from the child.”
Marcus lifted the court order higher.
“Detective, I advise you to lower your weapon before every camera in this hospital records you threatening a lawful guardian.”
“You are not his guardian.”
“A judge disagrees.”
Pike moved toward the man holding Ava’s carrier.
“Put the baby down.”
The man smiled.
Then the hospital lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
The monitors screamed.
Every alarm on the floor began shrieking at once.
Marcus moved.
He shoved the court order into Torres’s face and stepped into Liam’s room.
I didn’t think.
I ran.
The man holding Rachel released her to intercept me. He was bigger. Younger. Trained.
But he made one mistake.
He thought I cared about winning a fight.
I cared about reaching the kid.
He hit me in the ribs hard enough to knock air from my lungs. I crashed into a supply cart, grabbed the first thing my hand found, and swung.
A metal IV pole caught him across the shoulder. He stumbled. Pike tackled him into the wall.
I reached Liam’s room as Marcus bent over the bed.
Liam was trying to pull away, IV line stretching.
Marcus whispered something in his ear.
Liam went still.
I grabbed Marcus by the back of his shirt and threw him away from the bed.
He hit the wall, shocked more than hurt.
For the first time since I had met him, Marcus Vane looked human.
Then he smiled.
“You really do have a hero problem.”
I stood between him and Liam.
“You really do talk too much.”
Torres entered behind me, gun steady.
“Marcus Vane, you’re under arrest.”
He laughed.
“For what?”
The monitors screamed louder.
A nurse shouted from the hallway that backup power was failing in one wing.
My eyes moved to the ceiling vent.
The air had stopped.
Not slowed.
Stopped.
The pediatric floor’s cooling system was down.
My stomach dropped.
Marcus saw my face and smiled.
“You know heat, Daniel.”
I stepped toward him.
“What did you do?”
He looked past me at Liam.
“Ask the boy how long babies last when the air stops.”
Rachel lunged with a sound like an animal.
Torres caught Marcus first.
Pike cuffed the man who had carried Ava.
The baby was safe.
Liam was safe.
But somewhere in the hospital, the AC system had been sabotaged.
And this was Phoenix in August.
I ran for the maintenance corridor.
Because Marcus was right about one thing.
I knew heat.
And I knew what it did to children.
The hospital engineer met me outside the mechanical room, pale and sweating.
“You can’t be in here.”
“I’m HVAC.”
“System locked us out. Building automation is dead. Chillers are cycling offline.”
“Show me.”
He did.
The main control panel flashed red.
Manual override rejected.
Remote command active.
Someone had taken control of the system.
Not to destroy the hospital.
To create panic.
To open doors.
To move children.
I looked at the engineer.
“Where’s the server room?”
His face went white.
“Basement.”
Torres’s voice crackled over my radio.
“Daniel, we found Madison’s phone. Marcus sent one message before we arrested him.”
“What message?”
“Three words.”
May you like
I already knew I would hate them.
Torres said, “Take the six.”
