Chapter 74: The Medical Crash

I stood in the hospital hallway, the sterile air cold against my skin. The text about the cabin was still glowing on my phone screen, a digital taunt. But before I could move, before I could tell Ben about the hunting lodge, a scream echoed from Leo’s room.

Not a child’s scream. A man’s.

I shoved the phone into my pocket and ran. Ben and Lucia were right behind me.

We burst into the room.

The police officer who had been guarding the door was on the floor, clutching his throat. His face was purple, his eyes bulging.

And standing over Leo’s bed was a nurse.

She wasn't adjusting his IV. She was injecting something into the line.

"Hey!" Ben shouted, lunging forward.

The nurse spun around. It wasn't a nurse.

It was the mechanic. The man from the airfield.

He dropped the syringe and pulled a knife from his waistband.

"Back off!" he yelled, waving the blade. "Or the kid gets it."

I looked at Leo. He was pale, his breathing shallow. The monitor beside him was beeping erratically.

"What did you give him?" I demanded, stepping closer.

"Just a little something to slow his heart," the mechanic said, a twisted smile on his face. "Edith sends her regards."

"Get away from him," Ben growled.

"Make me," the mechanic said.

He lunged at Ben.

Ben sidestepped, grabbing the man's wrist. He twisted it, hard. The knife clattered to the floor.

But the mechanic was strong. He headbutted Ben, sending him stumbling back. Then he turned to me.

He didn't have a weapon anymore. He just had his hands.

He grabbed my throat.

His fingers were like steel bands, crushing my windpipe. I clawed at his hands, my vision spotting.

"You should have died in the house," he hissed.

Then, a crack.

The mechanic stiffened. His eyes went wide.

He fell to the floor.

Standing behind him was Lucia. She was holding a heavy oxygen tank.

"Stay away from my sister," she said, breathing hard.

I gasped for air, rubbing my bruised throat. Ben was already at Leo’s side, checking the IV.

"He stopped the injection," Ben said. "Most of it didn't go in."

But Leo wasn't waking up. His skin was gray, clammy.

"We need a doctor!" I screamed.

Dr. Patel ran into the room, followed by two more nurses. They swarmed the bed.

"Code Blue!" one of them shouted. "Get the crash cart!"

I watched, helpless, as they worked on him. My son. My brother. My blood.

"Sarah," Ben said, pulling me back. "Let them work."

"He was fine," I whispered. "He was stable."

"He's fighting," Lucia said, taking my hand. "He's a Sterling. We survive."

The monitor flatlined. A long, high-pitched whine that cut through the room like a knife.

"Clear!" Dr. Patel shouted.

*Thump.*

Nothing.

"Clear!"

*Thump.*

I held my breath. The world narrowed down to that single, green line on the screen.

Then, a blip.

Then another.

*Beep. Beep. Beep.*

"He's back," Dr. Patel said, wiping sweat from her forehead. "Stabilize him. Get him to ICU."

She turned to me.

"Whoever did this knew what they were doing," she said. "That was potassium chloride. Another two seconds, and his heart would have stopped permanently."

I looked at the mechanic, who was being handcuffed by the recovering officer.

"He didn't know," I said. "He's just a hired gun. Edith told him what to do."

"Edith is in the wind," Ben said.

"Not for long," I said. "I know where she is."

"The cabin?" Lucia asked.

"The cabin," I said. "But we can't just go there. She'll be waiting. She'll have traps."

"We need leverage," Ben said.

"We have it," I said. "We have the baby."

"You want to use the baby as bait?" Lucia asked, horrified.

"No," I said. "I want to use the *idea* of the baby."

I looked at the mechanic. He was glaring at me as the cops dragged him out.

"He has a phone," I said. "In his pocket."

The officer patted him down and pulled out a burner phone. He handed it to me.

I opened the messages. There was only one number saved.

*Mother.*

I typed a message.

*Job done. Boy is dead.*

I hit send.

"She thinks she won," I said. "She thinks the competition is gone. She'll relax. She'll get careless."

"And then?" Ben asked.

"And then we go to the cabin," I said. "And we end this."

"What about Leo?" Lucia asked. "He's still critical."

"He's safe here," I said. "The police are swarming the hospital. Edith won't try again. Not if she thinks he's dead."

I looked at Leo one last time. He looked so small in the big hospital bed. So fragile.

But he was alive.

"I'll be back," I whispered to him.

I turned to Ben and Lucia.

"Let's go hunting."

We left the hospital, moving through the back corridors to avoid the press. The SUV was waiting where we left it.

We drove north, toward the mountains. The city faded behind us, replaced by the deep greens and browns of the wilderness.

"The cabin is off the grid," I said, consulting the map in Clara's journal. "No cell service. No internet. Just a satellite phone."

"Perfect place for a monster," Ben said.

"And a perfect place for a grave," I added.

We drove for four hours. The sun began to set, casting long shadows across the road. The air grew colder, biting.

We reached the turnoff just as darkness fell. It was an old logging road, overgrown and rutted.

"We walk from here," I said.

We parked the car in the brush and covered it with branches. We checked our weapons. Ben had a tire iron. Lucia had her taser, recharged. I had the gun Mark had given me—Edith's gun.

We moved through the woods, guided by the moonlight. The silence was absolute. No birds. No crickets. Just the wind in the trees.

And then, we smelled it.

Smoke.

Woodsmoke.

"She's there," Ben whispered.

We crested a ridge. Below us, in a small clearing, was the cabin. It was rustic, built of rough-hewn logs. Smoke curled from the chimney.

But there was something else.

Outside the cabin, in the center of the clearing, was a freshly dug hole.

And next to it, a small mound of dirt.

"She's digging," Lucia said.

"What for?" Ben asked.

"Not what," I said. "Who."

I looked at the mound. It wasn't big enough for an adult.

It was small.

Just big enough for a canister.

"She's burying the samples," I realized. "She's hiding them."

"Why?" Ben asked. "If she thinks Leo is dead, she doesn't need to hide them. She can start over."

"Unless she knows," I said. "Unless she knows I lied."

My phone buzzed.

I pulled it out. No signal.

But then I remembered. The mechanic's phone.

I pulled it out of my other pocket. It had one bar.

A message from *Mother*.

*Liar. The monitor is still beeping.*

She had tapped the hospital feed. She knew Leo was alive.

"It's a trap," I said.

Before I could move, a floodlight snapped on.

Blindingly bright. It illuminated the entire clearing, freezing us in its glare.

"Welcome home, Sarah," Edith's voice boomed from a loudspeaker.

And then, the shooting started.