Chapter 16 - THE ISLAND WITHOUT A NAME
Mercer’s aircraft landed in the Caribbean.
Then disappeared.
No customs record.
No filed departure.
Victor spent forty-eight hours tracing shell companies until Roman found an island owned by a medical-research corporation.
Clara read the company name.
“Orpheus Biomedical.”
Rebecca went pale.
Nathan’s files mentioned Orpheus seventeen times.
Victor wanted Clara to remain home.
Clara laughed for almost ten seconds.
They flew south.
The island contained a private clinic.
Luxury accommodations.
Operating theaters.
And no registered patients.
Victor’s team entered at dawn.
The facility had been abandoned hours earlier.
Clara walked through the operating wing.
Something felt wrong.
Not criminal wrong.
Medical wrong.
Beds with restraints.
Unapproved drugs.
Patient numbers instead of names.
She opened a refrigerated storage room.
Hundreds of blood samples.
Roman swore.
Clara whispered:
“This isn’t laundering.”
Victor looked at her.
“What is it?”
“Research.”
“On what?”
Clara examined the labels.
Immunotherapy.
Gene editing.
Experimental oncology compounds.
“People.”
A sound came from behind a locked door.
Clara ran.
Inside they found eleven patients.
Alive.
Terrified.
One was a fourteen-year-old girl.
Clara knelt.
“What’s your name?”
“Emily.”
“Where are your parents?”
The girl began crying.
“They said I was getting cancer treatment.”
Clara closed her eyes.
Mercer had recruited desperate patients through charity programs.
Experimental treatment in exchange for consent forms families could barely understand.
But some patients had never consented at all.
Victor stared through the glass.
He had seen violence his entire life.
This disturbed him differently.
“These people came for help.”
“Yes.”
“And he used that.”
“Yes.”
Victor looked at Clara.
“Tell me what you need.”
“Doctors.”
“How many?”
“All of them.”
Within six hours, Victor had flown in specialists from Miami.
Clara coordinated evacuations.
She forgot to eat.
Forgot to sleep.
Victor remembered for her.
At midnight he placed a sandwich beside her.
She looked at it.
“Is this an order?”
“A marital suggestion.”
“Dangerous.”
“Eat.”
She took a bite.
Then Roman entered.
“We found Mercer’s destination.”
“Where?”
Roman hesitated.
“New York.”
Clara stared.
“He went back?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Victor understood first.
“He wanted us here.”
His phone rang.
Security alert.
Nathan Hayes Community Medical Center.
Clara answered.
Nothing.
Then a child’s voice.
“Dr. Hayes?”
Clara recognized it instantly.
“Eli?”
“He’s here.”
“Who?”
A pause.
“Dr. Vale.”
Clara stood.
May you like
Then Eli whispered:
“He says if you want your hospital back, come home.”
