Chapter 7 - The Breach
Through the small, wire-reinforced window of Room 402, Lily watched the nightmare unfold.
Three men in heavy trench coats rounded the corner, their silenced weapons drawn. They moved with a terrifying, synchronized precision that belonged on a battlefield, not a surgical ward.
Arthur Vance was standing behind them, clutching a clipboard to his chest like a pathetic shield, his face pale and sweating.
"Open it," the lead thug ordered, pointing his weapon at Vance.
Before Vance's shaking hand could touch the keypad, the overhead fluorescent lights in the hallway suddenly shattered into a shower of sparks and glass.
Total darkness consumed the corridor.
"What the—" the lead thug started, but a suppressed gunshot severed his sentence. He dropped heavily to the linoleum, clutching a shattered kneecap.
From the shadows of the adjacent stairwell, Cole emerged. He didn't yell. He didn't hesitate. He was a ghost draped in charcoal wool.
Cole moved with brutal efficiency, disarming the second man with a crushing strike to the throat, using him as a human shield as the third man blindly opened fire into the dark.
Bullets tore into the drywall, sending plumes of white plaster dust into the air.
Vance screamed, dropping his clipboard and sprinting blindly down the hall in absolute terror.
Cole neutralized the final shooter with two rapid, efficient taps to the chest. The hallway fell dead silent, save for the ragged breathing of the man on the floor.
Cole marched over to the door of Room 402. He pulled a small, encrypted keycard from his pocket—a master override Mercer had cloned months ago—and swiped it.
The heavy door clicked and swung open.
"We have to move," Cole ordered, his breathing completely even, grabbing Lily by the elbow. "The gunshot wasn't suppressed well enough. The whole hospital is about to wake up."
May you like
Lily clutched the black leather ledger to her chest. "They're going to kill Arthur."
"Arthur made his bed," Cole said coldly, dragging her toward the emergency stairwell. "Don't let him drag you into it."
