Chapter 7 - The Interrogation of Shadows
By noon the following day, the story had broken across national news outlets, sending shockwaves through the global medical community:
FORMER CHIEF OF OBSTETRICS ARRESTED IN ILLEGAL HUMAN BIO-STASIS RING; MISSING MOTHER FOUND ALIVE IN SUBTERRANEAN VAULT.
While Sarah was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit at the University of Chicago Medical Center under federal protection, David sat in a high-security interrogation room at the FBI regional headquarters in downtown Chicago.
Across the stainless-steel table sat Special Agent Marcus Thorne, a veteran of the Bureau's Organized Crime and Medical Fraud division.
"Mr. Warren," Agent Thorne said, opening a thick manila file overflowing with financial records and court orders. "What Dr. Vance operated beneath your home was part of a syndicate that spans four continents. Apex Bio-Therapeutics was not a research firm. It was a boutique bio-harvesting operation catering to hyper-wealthy clients in Russia, Dubai, and Silicon Valley."
David sat with a cold cup of coffee between his hands. "How many others were there?"
Thorne’s expression turned solemn. "We executed simultaneous warrants on three other properties Vance owned in Illinois and Indiana last night. We recovered two other victims who had been reported dead following routine surgeries. Both are currently in critical but stable condition."
"And the babysitters?" David asked, his hands tightening around his mug. "The women who walked through my house every night while I slept?"
"Nurse Karen—real name Karen Miller—was arrested at O'Hare Airport trying to board a flight to Zurich," Thorne replied. "She’s cooperating. She confessed that Vance paid her twenty thousand dollars a month to manage Sarah's metabolic stability. She admitted that Ethan’s habit of pressing his face against that wall began when Sarah's neural activity began bleeding through the unshielded frequency of the internal monitoring system."
"The transmitter," David realized. "The green light in the nursery wall."
"It wasn't meant to be a speaker," Thorne explained. "It was an acoustic sensor installed to monitor Ethan’s room for vibrations or sounds that might wake Sarah from her induced coma. But when the sensor's frequency shielding degraded three weeks ago, it created a two-way bio-feedback loop. Sarah’s subconscious vocalizations were being amplified directly behind the drywall."
David leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes.
Ethan hadn't been hearing a ghost. He had been hearing his mother's real, living voice, whispered through a thin sheet of copper and plaster, calling out to her child through the darkness of her artificial sleep.
May you like
"Can I see my wife now?" David asked softly.
Agent Thorne smiled—a real, genuine warmth breaking through his stern professional demeanor. "Your car is waiting downstairs, Mr. Warren. And Dr. Mitchell is bringing Ethan to the hospital as we speak."
