Chapter 8 - The Officer Behind Lena
The corridor buckled.
Samuel dragged Caleb through the doorway as part of the ceiling crashed into Room 814. The oxygen panel disappeared beneath concrete and twisted pipe.
They ran.
The demolition arm struck again.
A wall split open to their right, sending gray dust across the hallway. Caleb covered his mouth with his sleeve and kept the waterproof case pressed against his ribs.
“Who ordered the machine?” he shouted.
Samuel did not answer.
They reached the stairwell as a section of floor collapsed behind them. Caleb shoved the door open and nearly collided with a man in a hard hat holding a radio.
The worker stared at them.
“What are you doing inside?”
“Who started demolition?” Samuel demanded.
“No one. The controls were locked.”
The worker spoke into his radio.
Only static answered.
Caleb looked through the stairwell window.
The demolition machine stopped moving.
Its driver’s cab was empty.
The controls had been operated remotely.
Samuel’s face tightened.
“We need to go.”
They exited through the loading dock and crossed the parking area. Caleb’s car remained where he had left it, but both front tires were flat.
Samuel unlocked a black sedan.
“Get in.”
Caleb stayed outside.
“Tell me about the officer.”
“Not here.”
“You said he sent Lena the medal.”
“I said he was responsible for the nomination.”
“The man standing behind her?”
Samuel hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Who is he?”
“Brigadier General Adrian Cole.”
Caleb remembered the officer’s face from the broadcast. Mid-fifties. Silver at the temples. Decorated black uniform. His hands had been careful as he lowered the medal over Lena’s head.
“Why would a general care about a hospital nurse?”
Samuel opened the passenger door.
“Because the twenty-seven patients she saved were part of a classified military medical program.”
Caleb stared at him.
“North River was treating soldiers?”
“Some of them.”
“And my newborn record?”
“Connected to the same program.”
Caleb climbed into the car.
Samuel drove before the door fully closed.
They left the hospital grounds through a service gate. In the mirror, two dark SUVs entered from the opposite direction.
Samuel accelerated.
“What program?” Caleb asked.
“A genetics study that began more than thirty years ago.”
“Was I part of it?”
“You were born because of it.”
The words left Caleb numb.
Samuel gripped the steering wheel.
“Your mother participated in an experimental fertility program funded through military research grants. Daniel believed the procedure used his genetic material.”
“It didn’t.”
“No.”
“Whose did they use?”
Samuel checked the mirror again.
“Adrian Cole’s.”
Caleb turned toward him.
“The officer is my father?”
“That is what Daniel discovered.”
The dark SUVs remained several cars behind.
“Did Margaret know?”
“Not at first.”
“When did she find out?”
“Shortly before Daniel died.”
Caleb looked down at the waterproof case.
“Why was my record still at the hospital?”
“The official file was altered. The original sample remained in cold storage.”
“And Lena found it?”
“She found discrepancies in the inventory after the fire.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
Samuel’s jaw tightened.
“She tried.”
Caleb remembered the unread messages, the blocked calls, the voicemail he had deleted.
Shame pressed against his chest.
Samuel turned onto the highway.
“The fire was intended to destroy the archive and make the old sample unusable. It should have remained contained inside the records room.”
“But it spread.”
“Someone changed the oxygen flow.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know more than you’re saying.”
“I know enough to understand that Margaret did not act alone.”
Caleb looked in the side mirror.
The two SUVs were closer.
Samuel reached beneath his coat and removed a second phone.
He placed it in Caleb’s lap.
“One number is programmed into it.”
“Whose?”
“General Cole’s private line.”
Caleb looked at the screen.
“Why give this to me now?”
“Because Daniel asked me to.”
Caleb’s head snapped up.
“My father has been dead twelve years.”
Samuel’s face tightened with grief.
“He gave me instructions before he boarded that boat.”
The first SUV pulled alongside them.
Its rear window lowered.
Samuel swerved across two lanes.
A black object appeared in the passenger’s hand.
Caleb ducked.
The side window shattered.
Samuel gasped and slumped against the wheel.
The car veered toward the guardrail.
Caleb grabbed the steering wheel.
May you like
Blood spread across Samuel’s shirt.
With his final strength, Samuel whispered, “Your father knew the boat was going to explode.”
