Chapter 9 - Margaret Tests the Dead
Margaret bent over the coffin.
Daniel’s face remained still.
His eyelids did not flicker.
His chest barely moved.
The medication had slowed his body exactly as intended.
But Margaret had known Daniel since the day he was born.
She studied him differently than the others.
Victor approached.
“What is it?”
Margaret did not answer.
She placed two fingers against Daniel’s neck.
Claire’s heart stopped.
The paralytic protocol reduced his pulse, but it did not erase it.
Margaret waited.
One second.
Two.
Three.
Her expression changed.
“I felt something.”
Victor leaned closer.
Claire grabbed Margaret’s wrist and pulled it away.
“You have tormented me enough. Do not touch him.”
Margaret stared at her.
Then at Daniel.
Then back at Claire.
“What are you hiding?”
“Nothing.”
Margaret reached toward Daniel’s eyelid.
Claire shoved her hand away.
Victor grabbed Claire from behind.
Margaret lifted Daniel’s eyelid.
His eye remained unfocused because of the medication.
Still, she saw moisture.
A living eye.
Her mouth opened.
“He is alive.”
Victor’s face went blank.
For one stunned moment, neither moved.
Then Victor reached inside his coat.
Claire did not know whether he carried a weapon or another syringe.
She drove her heel backward into his shin.
Victor cursed and loosened his grip.
Claire pulled free, reached beneath the satin, and found the counteragent.
Margaret saw the syringe.
“She planned this!”
Claire removed the cap.
Victor lunged toward her.
Leonard struck Victor’s arm with the heavy legal folder.
The syringe stayed in Claire’s hand.
She pressed it into the medical port hidden beneath Daniel’s collar.
The counteragent entered his bloodstream.
Daniel’s fingers jerked.
His breathing deepened.
Margaret stumbled backward.
“You deceived me.”
Claire stood protectively beside the coffin.
“No. You exposed yourself.”
Victor recovered and grabbed the coffin lid.
“Close it.”
Margaret stared at him.
“What?”
“If he wakes up, everything is over.”
Together, Victor and one security guard began lowering the heavy lid.
Claire threw both hands against it.
“Stop!”
Daniel’s eyes remained closed.
The medication needed time to reverse.
May you like
The coffin lid descended toward his face.
👉 Claire had given Daniel the counteragent—but Victor was trying to seal the coffin before her husband could wake.
