Chapter 197: Caleb's informat!

SEBASTIAN

The chaos hit us before we'd even parked, the entire hospital entrance swarming with movement, nurses wheeling patients out on gurneys, IV poles clattering against wheelchairs, ambulances lined up three deep along the emergency bay with lights strobing red and white against the darkening sky.

Security guards shouted directions over the noise, herding confused, frightened patients and their families toward makeshift triage stations set up in the parking lot.

"What the hell happened here?" Dave muttered as we climbed out of the car, staring at the scene unfolding around us.

"If the whole network's down," Leon said grimly, already moving toward the entrance, "every system tied to it fails at once. Life support monitors, medication dispensers, even basic door locks in some wings. They're probably evacuating anyone whose care depends on machines that just went dark."

We pushed forward through the crowd, and that's when Dave spotted her.

"Oh, brace yourself, bro," he muttered, just before Khloe came storming toward us, her face flushed with fury, and before I could get a single word out, she slapped me hard across the face.

"How could you do that to me?" she screamed, tears already streaming down her cheeks.

"How could you make me treat one of my best friends like she was the enemy, when she never was?"

"I'm sorry, Khloe," I said, reaching for her hands, holding them despite her attempts to yank away.

"But that was one of the ways we needed Peter and his people to believe I wasn't really with Layla. That I was genuinely hurt, genuinely angry at her."

"And if it hadn't worked?" she demanded.

"We would have made it work," Leon said flatly, and Khloe rounded on him instantly, a low growl escaping her throat.

"She's your sister," Khloe said, jabbing a finger toward his chest. "How could you let her be humiliated like that, watching me treat her like garbage in front of an entire courthouse?"

"It killed me every single day watching her hurt," Leon said, his voice tightening, "but it was the only way to…"

"Yeah, I heard it the first time," Khloe snapped, cutting him off before he could finish. She opened her mouth to continue, but Dave stepped in, catching her arm gently.

"Don't touch me," she snapped, wrenching away from him. "You're a terrible fiancé, keeping secrets like this."

"This is exactly how she's been treating me for the past two days," Dave said to us, exasperation heavy in his voice.

"And I'm going to fix it," I said, leaning in to press a quick kiss to Khloe's cheek despite her glare.

"But right now, I need to make sure my daughter and my…" My voice caught, trailing off before I could finish the sentence, the word still unfamiliar on my tongue in front of anyone outside our immediate circle.

Khloe rolled her eyes, though something in her expression softened slightly. "She's my best friend," she said simply. "Now lead the way."

We pushed through the chaos together, past overturned supply carts and harried staff shouting instructions into radios, past patients being wheeled past us with oxygen tanks clutched tightly to their chests.

The entire main floor of the hospital plunged into flickering emergency lighting as backup generators struggled to compensate for whatever the hackers had taken offline.

But the moment we reached the pediatric wing, everything changed.

The chaos simply stopped, like crossing some invisible threshold into an entirely different building.

The hallway here was calm, quiet, nurses moving with steady, practiced efficiency instead of panic, monitors humming softly on an isolated backup system Leon's team had apparently insisted on installing weeks earlier as a precaution.

Layla spotted us first, rushing toward Leon and pulling him into a tight hug. "Thank God," she breathed, before pulling back and spotting Dave behind him. "Dave, you're here too."

"Came to check on my second cousin," he said, gesturing toward Ellie's room, and then Layla's eyes landed on Khloe, standing slightly behind us.

"I know I can't fully explain everything right now," Layla started, but Khloe was already crossing the distance between them, pulling her into a fierce hug before either of them could say another word, both women clinging to each other, tears springing up in both their eyes.

The rest of us stood back, letting them reconnect, while Caleb approached from further down the hallway, his tablet tucked under one arm, his expression grim but controlled.

"Status," Leon said immediately.

"The hack hit most of the hospital's core systems," Caleb reported, "but the pediatric wing's backup network held, thanks to the isolated system we installed after the library incident. Ellie's monitors, medication schedules, all of it stayed operational."

"Thank God," I muttered, relief crashing through me.

"But something's off," Caleb continued, his brow furrowing.

"This wasn't a random attack. Whoever did this knew exactly which systems to target, exactly how to time it. It's too coordinated, too precise to be some independent hacker group looking for ransom money."

"Peter," I said flatly.

"That's my read too," Caleb said, "but I need to confirm it before we act on that assumption."

He glanced at his tablet again, something shifting in his expression. "I'm heading out."

"Out where?" Leon asked sharply.

"I've got a source who might have information on who's actually behind this," Caleb said, already turning toward the exit.

"I need to follow up in person. It's not something I can risk discussing over a compromised network."

"Caleb, the hospital's in chaos right now," I said, stepping toward him. "You're seriously leaving in the middle of this?"

"That's exactly why I need to go now," he said.

"While everyone's distracted by the evacuation, while Peter thinks his people have the advantage. I won't get a better window than this."

"At least take backup," Leon said, his voice hard.

"Can't," Caleb said. "Where I'm going, backup gets noticed. I need to move alone, quiet, and fast." He was already halfway down the hallway before any of us could argue further.

"Caleb!" Leon called after him, but he didn't slow down, didn't look back, disappearing around the corner and out of sight within seconds.

I turned to Leon, dread pooling cold in my stomach. "Do you trust him to handle whatever this is alone?"

Leon's jaw tightened, his eyes still fixed on the empty hallway where Caleb had vanished. "I trust him with my life," he said slowly. "That's exactly what worries me right now.”