Chapter 6 - The Man Who Should Have Been Missing
Royce found Nolan Pierce in the hospital parking structure.
He wasn’t escaping.
He was waiting.
That bothered me.
Men running from Cormack Hale did not normally wait beside concrete pillars.
“Where’s Yara?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer.”
Pierce looked exhausted.
“I came for the child.”
Royce moved.
I stopped him.
“Why?”
“To make sure they hadn’t activated it.”
The word chilled me.
“Activated what?”
Pierce stared at me.
“You really don’t know.”
“No.”
He laughed bitterly.
“Then Salcedo kept you blind too.”
He explained the prenatal procedure.
Our son’s heart abnormality had been real.
But the experimental device placed inside him was not standard treatment.
It was a miniature cardiac sensor capable of transmitting biometric information.
“Why put it inside an unborn child?”
Pierce shook his head.
“The sensor isn’t the important part.”
“What is?”
“The serial key.”
Each device carried a unique encrypted identifier.
Brin’s child had been assigned one particular number.
The same number on the ankle bracelet.
It wasn’t random.
It unlocked something.
Pierce didn’t know what.
“Who ordered it?”
“Rafael Salcedo.”
“Elias Vane.”
Pierce went white.
That confirmed enough.
Then footsteps echoed behind us.
Miriam approached with federal agents.
I stared at her.
“You called the FBI?”
“No.”
One agent showed identification.
“Mr. Hale, Dr. Pierce has been cooperating with us for six weeks.”
Pierce had not disappeared.
He had entered protective custody.
Tonight’s appearance had been authorized because the emergency delivery created a medical risk.
“What investigation?”
The agent looked at me.
“Lakefront Cardiac Systems.”
“Why?”
“Illegal human trials. Fraud. Missing patients. Device manipulation.”
My anger became something colder.
“And my son?”
“Potential evidence.”
I stepped closer.
“My son is not evidence.”
The agent didn’t flinch.
“No. He’s a child we intend to protect.”
Better answer.
Then his phone rang.
He listened.
His face changed.
“Where?”
He hung up.
“Yara Salcedo just entered Lakefront Cardiac’s research facility.”
“With who?”
“Rafael.”
So her disappearance had been voluntary.
Pierce shook his head.
“They’re going for the archive.”
“What archive?”
Brin had told federal investigators months earlier that Catherine Holloway left a hidden research archive somewhere inside Lakefront.
Nobody found it.
Until now.
Pierce looked at the serial number photographed from my son’s bracelet.
Then at me.
“That’s why they needed the baby.”
I understood.
“The number opens the archive.”
“Part of it.”
“Part?”
Pierce nodded.
“Catherine Holloway designed the security system.”
“What’s the other key?”
He hesitated.
“Brin.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Yara.
Her voice trembled.
“Cormack, listen to me. My father knows Brin survived.”
“Where are you?”
“You need to get her out of that hospital.”
“Why?”
A crash sounded behind her.
Then Rafael’s voice.
Yara screamed:
“Because he never sent that man to kill Brin.”
May you like
Silence.
“He sent him to bring her back alive.”
