Chapter 5 - LOCKDOWN
Daniel rolled from the bed despite his shoulder wound.
Lisa grabbed the emergency chair and shoved it beneath the door handle.
The first impact shook the frame.
The second cracked the upper hinge.
Daniel reached for the call button.
Nothing happened.
The hospital network had been disabled.
Lisa understood immediately.
“This isn’t a power failure.”
“No.”
Daniel looked toward the window.
“They came for both keys.”
The door buckled again.
Lisa opened the hospital tablet and disconnected it from the dead network.
She switched to a maintenance radio channel.
Static.
Then a voice.
“Level six lockdown initiated.”
Captain Cole.
Lisa pressed transmit.
“Room six fourteen.”
A pause.
Then Cole answered.
“Stay inside.”
The attackers hit the door again.
Daniel looked at Lisa.
“You trust him?”
“I trust evidence.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Before she could answer, gunfire cracked somewhere down the corridor.
The pressure against the door stopped.
Seconds later Captain Cole identified himself from outside.
Lisa removed the chair.
Three military investigators entered.
One attacker had escaped through a stairwell.
The other was dead.
No identification.
No phone.
No fingerprints in any government database.
Captain Cole looked at Daniel.
“Professional?”
Daniel nodded.
“Sentinel.”
Lisa stepped forward.
“You said Orion requires both of us.”
Daniel explained that their father had secretly helped design the earliest architecture eventually inherited by Lisa’s company.
Years later, Lisa unknowingly reused fragments of his mathematical model while building Orion.
Rebecca discovered the connection.
She realized Orion could locate every hidden Sentinel account.
But because Lisa had designed Orion with dual authorization for highly sensitive operations, Rebecca needed Lisa and a genetically verified emergency administrator.
Daniel.
Lisa stared at her brother.
“You’re my emergency administrator?”
“You didn’t choose me.”
“Then who did?”
Daniel gave her the answer.
“Claire.”
That afternoon, federal agents raided Claire Morgan’s apartment.
It was empty.
Her passport was gone.
Her laptop had been burned in the bathtub.
But she left one thing behind.
A photograph.
Lisa and Claire at Lisa’s wedding.
On the back, Claire had written four words.
I TRIED TO STOP HER.
Lisa read it twice.
Captain Cole said nothing.
Daniel did.
“She’s lying.”
Lisa looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Because Claire knew who I was.”
“When?”
“Before you met her.”
Lisa’s skin prickled.
Daniel explained that Claire had served as a civilian analyst attached to a military intelligence unit.
Her records had been erased after Sentinel discovered her.
Daniel believed Claire originally infiltrated Lisa’s company to watch Rebecca.
But somewhere along the way, her loyalties changed.
“To whom?”
Lisa asked.
Daniel shook his head.
“That’s what I never figured out.”
Captain Cole’s phone rang.
He listened.
Then he looked toward Lisa.
“They found Ryan’s hidden account.”
Lisa expected another financial betrayal.
Instead, Cole placed a transaction history on the table.
Every month, two days after Lisa sent Marcus six thousand dollars, Marcus transferred exactly six thousand dollars into another account.
The beneficiary was not Ryan.
Not Rebecca.
Not Claire.
The account belonged to Daniel Bennett.
Lisa slowly turned toward her brother.
Daniel stared at the page.
“That’s impossible.”
But Captain Cole’s next words were colder.
“The account has been active for seven years.”
May you like
He looked directly at Daniel.
“And someone used your biometric verification to withdraw money yesterday.”
