Chapter 11 - The Hospital Fire
Mark held a small remote in one hand.
Red lights blinked across Hailey’s heart monitor.
He claimed the remaining particles in her body could be activated electronically.
If security approached, he would trigger a fatal reaction.
Dr. Adler did not know whether he was bluffing.
No one moved.
Mark lifted Hailey from the bed and placed her on the transport gurney.
She was weak from surgery.
But her eyes remained clear.
“You killed my dad,” she said.
Mark leaned close.
“Your father killed himself when he refused to understand the value of his work.”
“You cut his brakes.”
“I gave him a choice.”
“You sound like a coward.”
Mark’s face hardened.
I saw the opening.
I stepped toward him.
He aimed the remote at me.
“Do not make me hurt her.”
“You already did.”
“I kept her alive for fourteen months.”
“You needed her alive.”
“That is not the same as caring.”
The fire-suppression sprinklers activated.
Water fell through the corridor.
Mark’s remote sparked.
He covered it instinctively.
Hailey rolled from the gurney.
Dr. Adler pulled her behind the nurses’ station.
Security rushed forward.
Mark struck one guard and ran toward the service stairs.
Detective Brooks followed him.
I stayed with Hailey.
Her heart monitor stabilized.
The remote had been a bluff.
The particles could not be triggered from a handheld device.
Mark reached the parking structure.
Police surrounded every exit.
Then an ambulance exploded near the eastern ramp.
The blast created a wall of smoke.
Mark escaped in a maintenance vehicle.
The hospital fire was contained.
It had been started inside a medical-storage room.
Investigators discovered the room contained tissue samples removed from Hailey.
Every sample was destroyed.
Mark had not come only to abduct her.
He had come to erase evidence.
But Hailey had hidden one piece before surgery.
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A thread from the clinic blanket remained inside her old camera bag.
It carried Dr. Voss’s blood.
