CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 4
The Race Against Time
For the first time that night...
Dr. Daniel Brooks ran.
Not because Benjamin Foster's condition had suddenly worsened.
But because he finally understood the real objective.
It had never been about falsifying a DNA report.
It had been about delaying it.
He burst through the laboratory doors with Michael and Emily close behind.
The hospital corridors were unusually busy.
Doctors pushed crash carts toward the intensive care unit.
Nurses shouted medication orders.
A "Code Blue" announcement echoed through the building.
Benjamin Foster was dying.
As they reached the elevator, Daniel pressed the emergency override key.
The doors refused to close.
A stretcher blocked the sensors.
"Take the stairs!" he shouted.
The three of them sprinted upward.
Emily struggled to keep pace.
She wasn't used to running in high heels.
Halfway to the cardiac floor, she stopped.
"I need to tell you something."
Daniel didn't stop.
"If it's about the broker, it can wait."
"No..."
She caught her breath.
"It's about the money."
Daniel turned.
Emily's face had changed.
She no longer looked like the confident woman who had walked into the laboratory an hour earlier.
She looked frightened.
"I wasn't paid fifty thousand dollars."
Michael frowned.
"What?"
Emily shook her head.
"The cash wasn't mine."
"It was only supposed to convince anyone who caught me."
Daniel stared at her.
"What do you mean?"
Emily swallowed.
"The broker said security would be the weakest link."
"If someone interrupted me..."
"...I was to offer the money."
"And while everyone focused on the bribe..."
"...someone else would complete the real job."
Silence.
Daniel slowly looked toward Michael.
Then toward the ICU at the end of the hallway.
His expression changed instantly.
"Michael..."
"When you found Emily..."
"...where was the second security officer assigned to the genetics wing?"
Michael frowned.
"Derek?"
"Yes."
"I don't know."
Daniel's face hardened.
"Derek never answered his radio."
Before Michael could respond, his own radio crackled to life.
"Security to Unit Three..."
"Officer Derek Collins has not checked in for thirty-eight minutes."
Daniel didn't wait to hear the rest.
He was already running.
Outside Benjamin Foster's intensive care room...
Two nurses stood frozen.
One of them pointed toward the doorway.
"Doctor..."
"We thought you were already inside."
Daniel stopped.
"What?"
"You came through five minutes ago."
The hallway fell silent.
Daniel looked at Michael.
"I've been with you the entire time."
The nurse nodded nervously.
"I know..."
"But someone wearing your lab coat entered the room."
Every instinct Daniel had screamed the same conclusion.
Someone had impersonated him.
He pushed open the ICU door.
The room was empty.
Benjamin Foster was still unconscious.
The heart monitor continued its steady rhythm.
The ventilator was working.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
Then Daniel noticed the IV line.
A fresh injection port had been punctured.
He stepped closer.
The syringe was gone.
But a tiny air bubble drifted slowly through the clear tubing.
Daniel immediately clamped the line.
"Call pharmacy!"
"Now!"
The nurses rushed into action.
Michael searched the room.
No one.
The fake doctor had vanished.
Only one object remained behind.
A pair of disposable blue surgical gloves.
Daniel picked one up carefully.
Inside the cuff...
A tiny handwritten number.
3147.
Not a room number.
Not a patient number.
A locker number.
Emily stared at it.
Her face drained of color.
Michael noticed.
"You've seen that number before."
Emily nodded.
"It was written..."
"...inside the train station locker."
"The same locker where I collected the cash."
Daniel looked directly at her.
"Then the broker wanted you to find it."
Emily whispered,
"No..."
"He wanted you to find it."
For several seconds...
No one spoke.
Then Daniel quietly folded the glove into an evidence bag.
Everything suddenly fit together.
Emily had never been hired to switch DNA reports.
She had been hired to get caught.
Because while everyone watched the laboratory...
A man wearing Daniel's identity had walked into the ICU.
The DNA envelopes...
The fifty thousand dollars...
Even the security guard...
Had all been distractions.
The real crime had happened one floor above.
Daniel slowly looked at Benjamin Foster, whose heart rhythm had begun stabilizing again.
They had saved his life.
But somewhere inside the hospital...
The man wearing Daniel's face was already disappearing into the night.
👇 Chapter 5 – The Locker No One Was Supposed to Open
