Chapter 5
Paper That Should Not Exist
Registrar Soren Bell laid the two certificates beneath ultraviolet light.
Both were genuine. Their protected serials were sequential, printed seventy-nine seconds apart from a terminal assigned to Lena's audit credentials.
"I was in the delivery room," Lena said.
"The system says you were here."
Soren pulled entry-camera footage. No one entered his office. The credential request had arrived through St. Orison's trusted network and bypassed multifactor authentication under an emergency integration Celeste's foundation funded.
Ivy joined by secure call. She had remembered a detail from labor: the social worker wore no badge but knew the baby's temporary chart number before birth.
Soren froze the remaining certificate series. "That will alert whoever has access."
"Good," Lena said. "Let them move."
An alert arrived first. A revocation request accused Soren of issuing fraudulent records and demanded his suspension. Celeste had anticipated institutional defense.
Soren printed the access log before the screen locked him out.
At the bottom, the emergency integration listed a service owner.
The account did not belong to the hospital or the city.
It belonged to Rourke Family Placements.