Chapter 8 - THE CLEAN ROOM
My physical badge remained sealed in an evidence bag.
The access code was another clone.
Hospital security and Chicago police reached the old sterilization wing within minutes.
The clean room was empty.
A wheeled hospital laundry bin stood near an open service elevator.
Inside were Mia’s jacket, an adult man’s shoe, and fresh blood.
The elevator descended to an underground loading tunnel connecting St. Jude’s with a privately operated medical-waste building across the street.
Greg’s courier company held the waste contract.
Security cameras had been disabled through Pierce’s administrative account.
Pierce disappeared from his office.
His attorney claimed he left to seek medical care after experiencing chest pain.
No hospital had admitted him.
Police issued warrants for Greg and Pierce.
A nurse reported seeing a man in surgical scrubs pushing the laundry bin toward the waste building. A small child sat inside beneath folded sheets.
The witness assumed the transport involved infection control.
Uniforms and confidence had hidden another child in plain sight.
Chloe examined the old access maps.
“There is a second exit here.”
She pointed to a tunnel leading toward an abandoned parking structure scheduled for demolition.
Detectives entered from both ends.
They found Eric Sanderson tied inside a utility room.
He was injured but conscious.
Mia was gone.
Eric said Greg had taken her into a white medical van ten minutes earlier.
Pierce stayed behind long enough to inject Eric with a sedative before fleeing through another stairwell.
Eric heard them arguing.
Greg wanted to kill every witness.
Pierce wanted to move the children and preserve leverage.
“They kept saying they needed Lily,” Eric whispered.
Lily was under armed hospital protection with a confidential room assignment.
Only a limited team knew the location.
The hospital immediately moved her to a secured pediatric unit under a new identity marker. Nora was transferred separately.
Rachel Kim remained with Lily.
I was prohibited from knowing the new room number because the investigation still involved my cloned credentials.
The restriction hurt.
It was also correct.
That night, an ambulance arrived at the secured entrance with an electronic transfer order for Lily Bennett.
The document directed transport to a pediatric rehabilitation hospital.
It carried Dr. Naomi Chen’s digital signature.
Naomi had issued no order.
Security stopped the ambulance before anyone reached Lily’s floor.
The driver fled and was arrested outside the gate.
The woman riding beside him wore paramedic clothing and carried a syringe loaded with sedative.
She was a former employee of Greg’s courier company.
Police recovered her phone.
A message from Greg read:
IF YOU CANNOT GET LILY, TAKE THE SURGEON. PIERCE CAN TRADE HIM FOR THE CARD.
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I had spent my career believing children were safer when adults placed themselves between them and danger.
For the first time, the safest thing I could do for Lily was disappear from every place she might be found.
