Chapter 6
The Surgeon’s Warning
Julian Cross had learned to read bad news from the way hospital staff stopped speaking when he entered a room.
At St. Augustine Medical Center, the silence began outside the records department.
“The file was transferred,” the clerk said.
“To where?”
“Restricted archive.”
“Who restricted it?”
“I don’t have that information.”
The patient was listed as Q-17. No name. No insurance record. No family contact. The case had appeared on Julian’s transplant schedule two weeks ago, then vanished before he could examine it.
He had asked once.
His chief, Dr. Iris Vale, had told him not to ask again.
That had been before Mara’s phone call ended with the sound of a hospital alarm.
Julian used his staff card on the restricted archive.
The lock rejected him.
The screen flashed:
ACCESS CODE: QUINN MERIDIAN FOUNDATION
Julian photographed the screen.
“Doctor Lin.”
Iris stood behind him in a white coat.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither should that code.”
Her gaze dropped to his phone.
“Delete the photograph.”
“Tell me what Q-17 is.”
“A patient.”
“Why is the file using the code of a collapsed infrastructure company?”
“The hospital accepts donations from many companies.”
“Quinn Meridian’s foundation was dissolved nine months ago.”
Iris did not answer.
Julian stepped closer. “Mara is being threatened because of that code.”
“Mara is being threatened because she is the debtor of the century.”
“Someone accessed her hospital file last night.”
The color left Iris’s face.
“What file?”
“Her old emergency records. Her father’s death certificate. The genetic screening from when she was seventeen.”
Iris looked toward the corridor.
“Come to my office.”
She closed the door before speaking again.
“Q-17 is not a transplant candidate,” she said.
“Then why is it on the schedule?”
“It is an identity record.”
Julian’s pulse slowed.
“Whose?”
“A child brought into the hospital under a protected name.”
“Whose child?”
“I don’t know.”
“You signed the restriction.”
“I signed a nondisclosure order.”
“Who issued it?”
“A private donor.”
“Which donor?”
Iris removed her glasses.
“I cannot tell you.”
“You can tell me whether the donor is connected to Mercer Crown.”
Her silence answered.
Iris opened a drawer and removed a photocopied index page.
Three entries were listed:
Q-17.
QUINN MERIDIAN FOUNDATION.
NORTHBRIDGE CUSTODIAL SERVICES.
Julian looked at her.
“Northbridge.”
“You know it?”
“Mara’s creditors were transferred through it.”
Iris closed her eyes.
“Then you need to stop investigating.”
“A child is locked in a restricted archive.”
“The child is protected.”
“Protected from whom?”
She did not answer.
The office phone rang.
Iris listened and turned pale.
“Security found someone inside the records room.”
“Who?”
“They are checking the cameras.”
Julian took the index page and placed it inside his scrubs.
“Doctor Lin, give that back.”
“Not until I know who is trying to erase it.”
The office handle moved.
Iris stepped in front of him.
“Go out the side door.”
“You’re coming.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
Her voice dropped.
“Because I signed the order that put Q-17 here.”
Someone outside the door said, “Dr. Vale, the foundation representative is here.”
Iris looked at Julian.
She mouthed one word.
Run.
He opened the side door.
Before he left, the hospital lights went out.
His phone vibrated in the dark.
Mara had sent one message.
Adrian knows about the box. Do not come to the penthouse.
A second message arrived.
Someone at St. Augustine Medical Center knows about it too.
From the corridor came the sound of a child crying.