Chapter 7 - The Dead List

Cole's hideout was an old river bait shop with boarded windows and a coffee maker that smelled like burned pennies. He parked the van behind a stack of crab traps and killed the lights.

"Not exactly witness protection," Ivy said.

"Didn't say it was," Cole answered.

Lena helped Maya onto a couch. Nora sat beside her, counting each breath out loud. The sound nearly broke Lena's heart. Thirteen-year-olds should count basketball points, not the breaths keeping their sisters alive.

"Start from the beginning," Cole said.

Maya rubbed her bruised wrist. "I worked in medical records. Night shift. I found discharge forms for people who'd died, except their meals were still being ordered and their insurance was still getting billed. I thought it was a computer glitch."

"And then?" Lena asked.

"Then I heard two orderlies talking about Basement Four. They said a patient woke up during transport and someone had to hold her down. I copied the records."

Ivy stood still. "There is no Basement Four. We're supposed to have three."

"There's a fourth," Maya said. "Behind the old sterilization unit."

"Why would they keep patients after declaring them dead?" Cole asked.

"I don't know. I wasn't trying to solve everything. I just wanted proof before I told somebody."

Nora pulled a small brass key from her sneaker. "You told me to hide this if anything happened."

Maya closed her eyes. "Locker 114. Bus station."

Cole took out a notebook. "What's in it?"

"The copy they don't know I made. Names, transfers, videos. The real files are on a tiny memory card."

Lena examined Maya's pupils and checked her breathing. The young woman's hands had gone cold again, though the room was warm.

"Whatever they gave you is still affecting your body," she said. "We need the drug name and a proper medical team."

Maya's phone vibrated. An old video file had finished downloading over the bait shop's Wi-Fi. Cole pressed play.

In grainy footage, Dr. Vale stood beside a covered stretcher. Someone asked if the patient was awake.

"For now," Vale replied. "Send the conscious ones to B4. Burn the rest."

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