CHAPTER 18 – The Woman in White
The alarm spread through the Icelandic military hospital in seconds.
Every corridor sealed.
Every exit locked.
Armed officers flooded the maternity wing.
Rebecca reached Claire's room first.
Claire sat on the hospital bed, screaming.
The blanket that had covered her daughter lay on the floor.
The bassinet was empty.
Emily stood frozen beside the window.
"I only looked away for a second..."
Security officers reviewed the surveillance footage.
The nurse had entered the room exactly four minutes earlier.
She smiled politely at the guard.
Scanned a valid ID badge.
Walked inside.
No hesitation.
No panic.
Three minutes later, she walked back out...
Pushing an empty medical cart.
No baby was visible.
The guard remembered holding the door for her.
He could have sworn the cart contained only folded linens.
Rebecca slammed her fist onto the control desk.
"Run facial recognition."
Within seconds, the system returned a match.
Then immediately erased it.
The analyst frowned.
"It disappeared."
"What disappeared?"
"The record."
Someone inside the database had remotely deleted the nurse's identity while they were searching.
Only one image remained in temporary memory.
Marcus enlarged it.
His expression changed instantly.
"I know her."
Everyone turned.
"You do?"
He nodded slowly.
"She trained me."
"Who is she?"
Marcus swallowed.
"When I joined the Justice Department..."
"My first instructor."
Rebecca stared.
"What's her name?"
He hesitated.
"I only knew her by one title."
"What title?"
The White Matron.
Victor closed his eyes.
"So..."
"They've finally sent her."
Claire looked at him through tears.
"Who is she?"
Victor answered quietly.
"The only person The Circle ever trusted with its children."
Meanwhile...
The White Matron drove calmly through Reykjavík in an ordinary delivery van.
Claire's daughter slept peacefully inside a temperature-controlled medical carrier.
The woman reached back and gently adjusted the baby's blanket.
"I'm sorry, little one."
"You were never supposed to leave."
Her voice carried no hatred.
Only sadness.
Twenty miles outside the city, she entered an abandoned lighthouse warehouse.
Another woman waited inside.
Older.
Elegant.
Silver hair tied neatly behind her head.
"The child?"
The White Matron nodded.
"Healthy."
The older woman smiled.
"Excellent."
She looked down at the infant.
"The bloodline continues."
Back at headquarters, Eleanor suddenly stood.
"I know where they're taking her."
Rebecca looked up.
"How?"
"The White Matron always follows the same protocol."
"What protocol?"
"Never keep a child in one location for more than ninety minutes."
Marcus quickly marked a map.
Within a ninety-minute radius...
Twenty-three possible locations appeared.
Too many.
Emily stared at the map.
Then quietly whispered,
"No..."
Rebecca looked at her.
"What?"
Emily pointed toward the coastline.
"They won't use buildings."
"They'll use ferries."
"Why?"
"Because Father taught us..."
She stopped.
"Taught you what?"
Emily looked ashamed.
"Water destroys evidence."
The Coast Guard immediately deployed patrol vessels.
Helicopters swept across the harbors.
Every ferry was inspected.
Every private yacht questioned.
Nothing.
Then radar detected something unusual.
A medical evacuation ship had departed thirty minutes earlier.
Destination listed as Greenland.
But...
No patient had ever boarded.
Rebecca smiled grimly.
"Found them."
The task force launched immediately.
Fast patrol boats cut through the icy sea.
Military helicopters closed from above.
The evacuation ship had nowhere to run.
As agents prepared to board...
The captain calmly radioed them.
"We surrender."
Rebecca frowned.
"It can't be this easy."
They boarded cautiously.
Doctors.
Nurses.
Crew members.
Everyone complied.
Every cabin was searched.
Every container opened.
The medical carrier was found.
Rebecca rushed toward it.
She slowly lifted the lid.
Empty.
Only a small music box rested inside.
The melody began playing by itself.
Claire recognized it instantly.
"The lullaby..."
Inside the music box was another envelope.
Addressed to me.
I opened it carefully.
One handwritten sentence appeared.
Stop chasing the child. Start looking for the mother.
Rebecca frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Before anyone answered...
Claire suddenly collapsed.
Doctors rushed to her side.
Her pulse was racing.
Blood pressure falling.
The lead physician looked horrified.
"This isn't emotional shock."
"What is it?"
He checked her surgical incision.
Then looked up.
"Someone operated on her."
Silence.
"What?"
He carefully examined the stitches.
"They've been reopened..."
"...and closed again."
Claire had been unconscious for less than two hours after the baby's return.
Someone had performed another operation...
Inside a secured military hospital.
Without leaving a trace.
The surgeon ordered an emergency CT scan.
Minutes later, the images appeared.
Everyone stared in disbelief.
There was something beneath Claire's skin.
A tiny object.
No larger than a grain of rice.
Rebecca whispered,
"A tracking chip?"
The radiologist slowly shook his head.
"No."
He zoomed in.
"It's much older than that."
"How old?"
The specialist adjusted the scan.
His voice became almost inaudible.
"Judging by the scar tissue..."
He looked toward Claire.
"...it's been inside her..."
"...since she was a child."
Every eye turned toward Emily.
She covered her mouth.
"I remember..."
Rebecca stepped closer.
"What do you remember?"
Emily's voice trembled.
"The day Claire stopped crying."
"The White Matron carried her into the infirmary."
"When she came back..."
Emily looked at Claire with tears streaming down her face.
"...she had a bandage."
The room fell completely silent.
Claire had never just been watched.
She had been marked.
Her entire life.
Then the hospital lights flickered.
Every monitor in the intensive care unit switched to the same message.
DO NOT REMOVE THE DEVICE.
May you like
SHE IS NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS IT.
The screen went black.
