Chapter 13 - The Hospital With No Patient RecordsSt. Martha Children's Hospital had been abandoned for eleven years.
No power.
No staff.
No signs that anyone had been there recently.
Yet Marcus found a side entrance recently unlocked.
Valentina stared at the rusted chain.
"Someone uses this place."
They entered.
The lobby smelled like dust.
Old posters hung on the walls.
The pediatric ward was empty.
Sofia walked beside Valentina.
"Do you think the other children are alive?"
Valentina couldn't answer.
Marcus searched the administration wing.
"I found something."
He pointed toward a server room.
The old machines were still connected to a backup system.
"This hospital has a private network."
"Can you access it?"
"Give me five minutes."
"You have three."
He smiled weakly.
"Fair."
Valentina and Sofia explored the records room.
Most files were gone.
Then Ellie stopped.
She stared at a wall.
"Mommy."
"What?"
"That sound."
Valentina listened.
A faint ticking.
Behind the wall.
Marcus returned.
"The files are encrypted."
He looked at Ellie.
"What did she hear?"
Valentina touched the wall.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
They found a hidden panel.
Inside was a black metal cabinet.
Seven folders.
Each marked only with a number.
Valentina opened Folder 1.
A child.
Female.
Transferred at birth.
Alive.
Folder 2.
Male.
Alive.
Folder 3.
Female.
Alive.
Valentina's hands shook.
"Marcus."
He opened the next folder.
Another.
Another.
All seven.
All alive.
All taken.
All assigned new identities.
Sofia looked sick.
"Why?"
Marcus found a spreadsheet.
At the top:
PROJECT LANTERN.
Underneath were payments.
Every child had generated income.
They were used as legal heirs.
Fake descendants.
Shell trusts.
Insurance claims.
Political donations.
Their names were inserted into financial structures.
Valentina stared.
"Children were used as legal identities."
Marcus nodded.
"And Ellie?"
He opened her file.
Ellie had been selected for a different reason.
Her name was attached to the largest trust.
Eighty-four million dollars.
Then another file appeared.
Sofia.
The same trust.
Both names.
Valentina understood.
The entire inheritance structure depended on keeping the sisters separated.
One child was visible.
One child was hidden.
If they reunited, the legal ownership would become complicated.
And the network would collapse.
Then Marcus found something else.
A recent transaction.
Not from years ago.
Three days old.
Someone had accessed the hospital system.
User:
MARA.
Location:
Caruso Estate.
Valentina whispered:
"She's been monitoring us."
Sofia pointed toward another entry.
"No."
"What?"
"Look."
A second login.
User:
ELLIE.
Valentina stared.
"That's impossible."
Ellie was six.
She didn't know passwords.
Marcus checked the timestamp.
"Someone used her identity."
"What did they access?"
He opened the file.
One sentence appeared:
"Locate all surviving children."
Valentina's stomach dropped.
All seven were being hunted.
Then the lights came on.
Not the hospital lights.
Emergency red lights.
One after another.
Across the dark corridor.
Mara's voice came through the speakers.
"You should have stayed home, Valentina."
Valentina looked around.
Doors began locking automatically.
Mara continued:
"Now you have found the one thing you were never supposed to find."
Sofia whispered:
"What?"
Mara answered:
"The children."
Then every computer screen in the hospital turned on.
Seven photographs appeared.
Seven adult faces.
Seven identities.
And in the center of the screen was a message:
"ONE OF THEM HAS ALREADY BEEN FOUND."
Valentina stared.
A photograph enlarged.
It was a young man.
The label read:
SUBJECT 7.
And beneath it:
"Currently employed by the Caruso family."
Marcus looked at Valentina.
Neither spoke.
May you like
Because they both knew what that meant.
One of the people hunting them was one of the missing children.
