Chapter 7 - Thirty Minutes

“He's going to kill the people who helped me,” Nora said.

Ethan grabbed the remote. The screen stayed on.

“It's not the television,” Eli said. “It's his feed. He uses emergency channels.”

The nurse on-screen looked terrified. Behind her, a patient lay asleep under a blue blanket. A small timer glowed against her uniform: 29:41.

“Why is she walking?” Celeste whispered.

“Because they told her her kids would die if she didn't,” Eli said. “That's how they do it.”

Ethan dialed the hospital switchboard and told the operator to clear the third floor. She thought he was making a prank call until he described the nurse's name badge and the camera angle.

“Who is this?” she demanded.

“Someone you can arrest later. Move people now.”

Nora called a reporter she trusted, Jasmine Reed, and sent the video. Within minutes emergency crews were racing to Mercy. But the countdown kept running.

Eli stared at the screen. “The bomb might be a fake.”

“That's a hell of a gamble,” Ethan said.

“Victor wants you at the hospital. He wants everybody there.”

“Why?”

Eli swallowed. “Because the real bomb isn't on the nurse.”

He pulled a folded city utility map from inside his shoe. A red circle marked the oxygen storage under Mercy's emergency wing. A narrow line connected it to an underground service tunnel.

“There's a remote trigger,” Eli said. “Nurse is a distraction.”

Ethan turned the van around so hard the tires squealed. Nora called the fire department, demanding they isolate oxygen and evacuate the lower floors. Over the phone, a dispatcher asked where she'd gotten the map.

“From somebody who knows the monster who drew it.”

They reached the hospital as staff pushed beds across the rain-soaked parking lot. Ethan and Nora entered the service tunnel while Eli stayed in the van with Celeste. Deep below the building, a soft beeping guided them to a steel cabinet.

Inside was a black receiver with a blinking light and a phone taped to it. The phone rang.

Ethan answered.

Victor spoke quietly. “I need you to understand something, Mr. Cross. The bomb was never about the hospital.”

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The screen lit up with a live image of Celeste and Eli inside the van.

“It's about what happens when you leave the people you love alone.”