Chapter 5 - The Gathering of Shadows
When I burst back into Room 412, Nicholas was already sitting up, his back resting against the elevated pillows, his breathing deep and measured. The transformation in his posture was incredible; the helpless patient was gone, and the general was back.
"You found it," he said, his eyes locking onto the blue bag in my hands.
"Mercer knows," I panted, locking the heavy deadbolt on the thick wooden door of the room. "He tried to stop me. He had a syringe, Nicholas. He's going to call Leo right now."
"Then we have exactly thirty minutes before this hospital becomes a war zone," Nicholas said calmly. He reached out, and I handed him the bag. He ignored the gun, pulling out the ledger and the three flash drives. "Connect the first drive to the hospital terminal over there. It’s linked to the secure network. We need to upload these files to the federal prosecutor's database before Leo's council meeting begins."
I rushed to the computer terminal near the sink, my fingers flying across the keyboard as I inserted the encrypted drive. The screen flashed red before a prompt appeared: Enter Security Cipher.
"Nicholas, it needs a code," I called out.
"The code is the date my daughter died," Nicholas said, his voice dropping into a low, resonant note of old grief. "04-12-2018. Room 412, Clara. That’s why I chose this room. It’s where I came to remember. And it’s where I will be reborn."
I typed in the numbers: 04122018. The screen immediately turned green, text scrolling down at blinding speed. Files titled Rossi Black-Market Ledger, Port Authority Bribes, and Judicial Extortion Logs began transferring to a secure external server marked Department of Justice.
"What about Matteo?" I asked, looking back at him. "We can't leave him behind."
"Matteo is smarter than Leo thinks," Nicholas said, sliding his legs over the edge of the bed. His movements were shaky, his muscles screaming from months of inactivity, but his face was a mask of pure determination. He reached into the bag and pulled out the silver pistol, checking the chamber with a practiced click. "He left a tracker in the security office on the ground floor. If Leo's men took him, they brought him down to the maintenance tunnels beneath the boiler room. It’s the only place in this building where sound doesn't travel."
Suddenly, the lights in Room 412 flickered violently before dying completely. The backup red emergency lights hummed to life, casting the room in a bloody, crimson glow. The heart monitor switched to battery power, its beep... beep... beep... sounding more like a countdown than a heartbeat.
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A heavy thud echoed against the locked door. Then another.
"Clara," Nicholas said, standing up on his own two feet for the first time in six months. He towered over me, a massive shadow in the red light, the gun held steady in his hand. "The wolves are at the door. Stay behind me, and do exactly what I say."
