Chapter 12 - Basement Four

The service tunnel smelled of rust, hot water, and the dirty side of a hospital. Lena crouched behind Cole as they moved beneath St. Agnes, using a maintenance diagram Ivy had once photographed for a safety complaint.

"You really think the camera's still broken?" Cole asked.

"I think this place makes money by not fixing things," Lena said. "Ivy told me that."

They climbed through a hatch behind the old sterilization room. Beyond a second locked door lay a concrete staircase descending below the hospital's published floor plan.

B4 was real.

Its hallway was too clean for an abandoned wing. Fresh paint covered old water stains. The air smelled of disinfectant. Behind narrow windows, patients lay in beds under thin blankets. Some were conscious. Others barely moved. Each chart carried a red label: DECEASED.

Lena felt sick. "They're making people vanish while they're still breathing."

A man in bed seven pressed his palm to the glass. She recognized him from the video.

Daniel Keene.

He mouthed two words: HELP ME.

Cole took pictures of the charts while Lena tried the door. It opened with the key ring Ivy had grabbed from Pike at the loading dock. Daniel flinched when she approached.

"I'm Dr. Brooks," she whispered. "Michael sent me."

His face crumpled. "He's alive?"

"He's looking for you."

Daniel covered his mouth and wept without making a sound. His wrist was bruised from restraints, but he could speak and move. Lena took his chart and saw the words that explained Maya's condition: experimental cardiovascular suppressant, restricted protocol. No proper consent forms were attached.

"Where's Anna?" Lena asked.

Daniel stared at the floor. "They moved her. She woke up and started yelling. They took her through the red door."

At the end of the hall, a steel door carried a small red square. Beyond it, an electric pump buzzed beside rows of locked cabinets. Lena smelled the sharp chemical sting of a cleaning agent.

"Stay with Daniel," she told Cole. "Get him ready to move."

She pushed through the red door and froze.

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Ivy lay strapped to a narrow bed. A death certificate was clipped to the rail, and a transport tag hung from her wrist.

DISPOSITION: IMMEDIATE CREMATION.