Chapter 10 - The Trap Springs Shut
The trap was set precisely at 11:00 PM on the fourth night, orchestrated through a quiet, invisible collaboration between Audrey’s clinical vigilance and Callum’s ruthless intelligence network. Audrey had deliberately charted a temporary medication change on Patrick’s public clipboard, signaling an artificial vulnerability that would tempt anyone looking to finish the job before the old man fully recovered. She sat quietly in the dim light of the nurses’ station, keeping her eyes fixed on the security monitor feed mirroring the hallway outside Room 3. Around 11:45 PM, a figure in a standard white hospital coat and a surgical mask pushed a small utility cart down the corridor, moving with practiced familiarity past the resting guards who had been quietly swapped out by Callum’s trusted loyalists. The figure slipped through the door of Trauma Room 3, closing it silently behind them. Audrey stood up immediately, her heart pounding against her ribs as she walked down the hall with deliberate, silent steps. She pushed the door open just wide enough to catch the intruder red-handed.
Dr. Vance’s primary assistant, a junior pharmacist named Miller, was standing over Patrick’s bed with a syringe half-empty, preparing to inject a concentrated potassium solution directly into the primary IV port.
“Drop the syringe, Miller,” Audrey commanded, her voice cutting through the dark room like a scalpel.
Miller spun around with a gasp, his eyes wide with blind panic as he lunged toward the door to escape. Before he could take two steps, the heavy oak door swung open completely, blocking his exit. Callum stood in the doorway, his massive frame completely filling the frame, his face carved from cold, unyielding stone.
“Going somewhere?” Callum asked softly, taking a slow, deliberate step forward into the room.
Miller dropped the plastic syringe, his knees buckling beneath him as he realized there was no escape from the trap they had meticulously laid.
“Mr. Ror... I was just—the board member, Mr. Vance, he told me to—!”
“Shut your mouth,” Callum interrupted coldly, grabbing Miller by the collar of his white coat and lifting him effortlessly until his feet barely touched the floor.
Audrey stepped forward, quickly grabbing the dropped syringe and placing it into a sterile evidence bag to preserve the chemical trace for the authorities.
“Don’t break his neck yet, Callum,” Audrey warned calmly. “We need him conscious to tell us everything about Malcolm’s arrangement.”
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Callum stared at the terrified pharmacist for another terrifying second before shoving him hard against the wall, pinning him in place with one heavy forearm across his chest.
“Start talking,” Callum demanded, “or your next hospital visit won’t be in a bed, it’ll be in a morgue.”
