Chapter 22 - Jessica Wakes Up
Caroline reached into Rachel’s vest.
Rachel trapped her wrist.
Despite the injured ribs, she pulled Caroline forward and locked her arm against the wheelchair frame.
Caroline screamed for security.
No one came.
Black Echo had disabled the underground guards.
Jessica opened her eyes behind the glass.
She had been pretending to remain unconscious for nearly three minutes.
Caroline had underestimated her again.
Jessica slid from the bed, removed a medical sensor, and used its metal edge to cut the restraint around her wrist.
She activated the emergency release.
The glass door opened.
Caroline struggled.
Rachel could not hold her forever.
Jessica crossed the room and picked up the syringe Caroline had prepared.
She did not use it as a weapon.
She held it beyond Caroline’s reach.
“What is this?”
Caroline stopped fighting.
The syringe contained a drug capable of inducing a temporary coma.
Caroline planned to declare Rachel medically unstable, then move her under a false identity.
Black Echo would believe she died from complications.
The same method had erased other witnesses.
Jessica placed the syringe in an evidence bag.
Marcus entered with agents.
Caroline looked at Linda’s daughters standing together.
One injured.
One weak.
Neither obedient.
“You think arresting me ends Meridian?”
Rachel answered:
“No. Evidence ends your version of it.”
Agents secured the hospital records.
Hundreds of hidden patient identities were discovered.
Some belonged to missing witnesses.
Others were Meridian operatives declared dead.
Caroline was arrested.
Jessica sat beside Rachel’s wheelchair.
“You came for me.”
Rachel looked at her.
“Always.”
Jessica shook her head.
May you like
“No. This time I knew you would.”
Trust, once absent, had begun returning.
