Chapter 7
Twelve Minutes Missing
Daniel would not delay the premature baby's transfer to preserve evidence.
He changed the transporter instead. Mara called the regional neonatal service while Lena documented the duplicate authorization. Felix's crew arrived first and demanded the infant under the signed order.
"The destination accepts either licensed carrier," Daniel said. "Clinical authority chooses the safer unit."
Felix stepped close. "Your signature created Orison Blue."
Daniel did not deny it. During a hurricane three years earlier, he had approved an emergency workflow for neonatal evacuation. Celeste later converted the exception into a private placement channel.
The regional team wheeled the infant away under continuous care. Felix's men left empty-handed, but one photographed Mara's handwritten notes.
Lena traced the twelve-minute outage. The nursery system never stopped logging; its display layer had been redirected. A Rourke contractor could change what staff saw without altering the underlying device events.
"So the physical record survived," she said.
"If the device archive has not been wiped," Daniel replied.
Mara checked the retention console.
Deletion had begun eleven minutes earlier.