Chapter 5 – Darkness Has Witnesses
The room plunged into darkness.
Khloe instinctively reached for her stomach as every monitor around her emitted a sharp warning tone before switching to backup power. Outside, hurried footsteps echoed through the hallway.
Marcus was already on his feet.
"Stay behind me," he whispered.
David pulled a compact flashlight from the emergency cabinet mounted beside the door. A narrow beam of white light cut through the darkness.
The doorknob moved.
Slowly.
Once.
Then again.
Marcus exchanged a glance with David.
Neither man spoke.
The door opened only a few inches.
A shadow slipped inside.
Before the intruder could take another step, Marcus lunged forward.
The two men slammed into the wall with enough force to knock over a medical cart. Metal trays crashed across the floor, filling the room with deafening noise.
The stranger fought fiercely.
He wasn't trying to escape.
He was trying to reach Khloe.
David grabbed the man's arm while Marcus pinned him against the wall.
"Security!" David shouted.
Within seconds, officers rushed into the room from both ends of the corridor.
The intruder finally stopped struggling.
His face remained hidden beneath the maintenance cap.
One officer pulled it away.
Marcus frowned.
"I don't know him."
Rebecca Collins arrived moments later, breathing hard from climbing the emergency stairwell.
She looked at the man's wrists.
"No hospital ID."
"No fingerprints on file."
She turned to one of the agents.
"Search him."
Inside the man's tool bag, agents found no repair equipment.
Instead, they recovered:
A loaded syringe.
A pair of latex gloves.
A burner phone.
And a forged maintenance badge.
The syringe was immediately sealed into an evidence container.
Dr. Caldwell examined the label.
His face turned pale.
"This isn't medication."
Rebecca looked at him.
"What is it?"
"A concentrated potassium chloride solution."
Marcus felt a chill run through his body.
"What would it do?"
Dr. Caldwell answered quietly.
"If injected into a healthy patient..."
He hesitated.
"It could trigger sudden cardiac arrest."
Silence swept through the room.
Khloe stared at the syringe from her hospital bed, unable to speak.
The man hadn't come to threaten her.
He had come to make sure she never left the hospital alive.
Rebecca stepped in front of the intruder.
"Who sent you?"
No answer.
She asked again.
Still nothing.
The man simply stared at the floor.
Rebecca smiled faintly.
"You've been trained."
David crossed his arms.
"Professionals rarely work for free."
Rebecca nodded.
"Trace the burner phone."
An agent powered it on.
Only one number appeared in the recent call log.
No name.
Just an outgoing call made twelve minutes earlier.
Rebecca immediately requested a live trace.
The room waited in silence.
Less than a minute later, the technician looked up.
"We've got a location."
"Where?"
He swallowed.
"The phone signal leads to a luxury office building..."
His fingers froze over the keyboard.
"Registered to Voss International Holdings."
Marcus slowly turned toward David.
Neither man needed to say the name aloud.
Damian Voss had just made his first mistake.
Because for the first time, federal agents had evidence placing one of his operatives at the scene of an attempted murder.
Across the city, Damian stood in his office watching the skyline when his private phone vibrated.
He answered calmly.
Instead of hearing his employee's voice...
He heard only silence.
Then the line disconnected.
Damian lowered the phone.
For the first time in years—
His confidence faltered.
He realized the game had changed.
May you like
And this time...
He was no longer the only one making moves.
