Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN IN ROOM 17
Claire refused to sit down.
Dominic didn't lower his weapon.
“You implanted the device.”
Claire shook her head.
“I removed it.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I was the only person who knew exactly what they put inside you.”
She looked at Marcus.
“And now your son has found something that I spent three years trying to destroy.”
I pulled Marcus closer.
“What is happening?”
Claire looked at me.
“Your son has unusually good visual attention. He notices small movements, reflections, objects adults ignore.”
“So?”
“So the device wasn't designed to be visible.”
She pointed toward the tiny black object.
“It was designed to be mistaken for biological material.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“Who ordered it?”
Claire hesitated.
“Victor wasn't the person who designed the operation.”
Dominic's expression changed.
“Then who?”
Claire looked at him.
“You.”
Silence.
I stared at her.
Dominic didn't move.
“What?”
Claire swallowed.
“You ordered a contingency plan three years ago.”
“I would never authorize something like this.”
“You didn't know what you were authorizing.”
She explained.
Before the explosion, Dominic had been investigating money disappearing from his organization.
He had ordered several trusted people to create an emergency surveillance system to protect sensitive information.
Victor took control of that system.
Then he turned it against Dominic.
The original implant had two functions.
It blocked sound.
And it transmitted nearby conversations.
But there was something else.
Claire reached into her bag and removed an old medical file.
“Your hearing loss wasn't permanent.”
Dominic stared at her.
“The device was deliberately positioned to create the appearance of irreversible damage.”
“So you could have fixed me?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you?”
Claire looked down.
“Because they threatened my daughter.”
Dominic's face softened slightly.
“What happened to her?”
“She disappeared.”
The room became silent.
Claire continued.
“I spent three years looking for her.”
Then Marcus interrupted.
“She's in the room.”
Everyone froze.
I looked at him.
“What room?”
Marcus pointed at Claire's medical file.
“Room seventeen.”
Claire dropped the file.
Dominic picked it up.
Inside was an old hospital map.
Room 17.
Three years earlier.
Dominic's original medical ward.
But there was a second note written on the back.
SUBJECT TRANSFERRED.
Dominic looked at Claire.
“Your daughter was there?”
Claire nodded.
“Her name is Lily.”
Marcus suddenly walked toward the map.
He touched a small red mark.
“Here.”
Dominic looked.
The mark indicated an underground storage level beneath the hospital.
Claire's face drained of color.
“That level was sealed.”
Dominic's eyes hardened.
“Then that's where we're going.”
We reached the abandoned hospital that evening.
The building had been closed for years.
Inside, the air smelled of dust and disinfectant.
Dominic moved carefully.
Claire followed.
I held Marcus's hand.
We found Room 17.
Empty.
Except for a small tape recorder.
Dominic pressed play.
A man's voice filled the room.
“Dominic Cray will remain unaware.”
Then another voice.
Victor.
“Until when?”
The first voice answered.
“Until his replacement is ready.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
His replacement.
Someone hadn't merely wanted him deaf.
Someone had been preparing to take his entire organization.
Then the recording continued.
“Once Dominic is removed, the new leader will inherit the accounts.”
Claire whispered.
“Who was the new leader?”
The tape crackled.
A name followed.
Dominic's face went white.
“Impossible.”
I looked at him.
“Who?”
He didn't answer.
Then footsteps echoed in the hallway.
Claire grabbed my arm.
“Someone's here.”
Dominic switched off the recorder.
We waited.
A shadow passed beneath the door.
Then a man's voice whispered from the corridor.
“Dominic.”
Dominic raised his gun.
The voice continued.
“You've been looking for me for three years.”
Dominic's face changed.
Because he recognized it.
It belonged to the one man he had buried himself.
May you like
His younger brother.
Gabriel Cray.
