Chapter 73
Alex’s POV
"She’s gone."
Rick’s words echoed in my head like a gunshot.
Gone.
I didn’t waste time screaming. Didn’t curse. Didn’t panic.
I moved.
\---
We were back at the hospital in eight minutes.
Two cars. Four armed guards. Me and Rick.
The front entrance had already been secured by my people. Nurses were pulled aside. Visitors locked down. Security staff detained. Every floor was being swept.
And still, Nell was nowhere.
I stood in the center of the ICU wing, watching the surveillance footage over and over again. My fists clenched tighter every time.
1:18 a.m. — A woman in scrubs entered Nell’s room.
1:23 a.m. — She wheeled her out on a gurney, covered under a blanket. Her ID checked out.
1:24 a.m. — They vanished down corridor 6B. No exit footage.
"Where the hell did they go?" I demanded.
"It was a blind spot," Rick said. "Someone tampered with the hallway feed. It loops back two minutes. They had inside help."
I took a breath, sharp and cold.
"Get facial mapping on the nurse. Cross-check every hospital database. Run it through Langston’s contacts too."
Rick nodded and started barking into his comms.
\---
Twenty minutes later, we had something.
"They exited through the morgue tunnel," one of my men said. "Security badge override. There’s a van parked behind the emergency wing."
I was already outside before he finished.
The van was gone. But we had a license plate.
Spoofed.
"Pull traffic cams within a ten-mile radius. Backtrack every vehicle that left this location in the last forty-five minutes. I want plate matches, shape matches, even partial silhouettes."
\---
We tracked the van for seventeen minutes on scattered CCTV.
Then it disappeared near the edge of Eastbridge.
Rick tapped the screen. "This industrial area? It overlaps with the abandoned depot where Nell was heading before."
"Reed’s territory."
"We thought it was burned. But this—"
"No," I cut in. "This is something else."
Langston walked in as if summoned.
"It’s not the depot," he said calmly. "It’s what’s beneath it."
I stared at him. "Talk. Now."
\---
Langston set his briefcase down on the conference table.
He opened it.
Inside: blueprints. Files. Thumb drives.
"They called it Echo-6," he said. "It was designed as a backup facility in case the primary labs were compromised. Phase Three was relocated there five years ago."
"Why didn’t you tell us this before?"
"Because I wasn’t sure it still existed. Reed had help—military grade. After Phase Two was botched, everything went dark. But the files I gave you last night? They confirmed Echo-6 is still active."
"And now they have Nell."
Langston nodded. "And if they brought her there, they’re not just trying to erase her. They want to finish what they started."
I looked down at the blueprints. "Where is it?"
"Underground. Access point is buried under a freight terminal outside the city. Looks abandoned, but it’s not. Guarded entry. Sealed doors. Reinforced corridors."
"How many inside?"
"Ten. Maybe fifteen. Highly trained."
"We’re going in."
Rick stiffened. "You want to breach a secret government facility?"
"They took Nell. I’m not asking."
\---
I wore a black tactical vest beneath my coat. Inside the SUV, I loaded the weapons myself.
Rick checked comms with our entry team.
Langston rode silently beside me.
"You sure you want to do this?" he asked.
I stared ahead. "The only thing I’m sure of is I’m not losing her again."
\---
We arrived at the terminal at 3:11 a.m.
It was dead silent. Fog drifted low over the cracked pavement.
A single warehouse stood at the end of the yard. Lights off. Windows covered.
My men split into two teams. Rick led the east flank. I went west.
Langston waited in the truck with comms. Watching the cams. Feeding us inside data.
"Breach point is 14 meters ahead," he said in my ear. "Steel hatch. Electronic lock."
We found it beneath a rusted loading dock.
I knelt. Punched in the code Langston provided.
The hatch hissed. Opened.
We descended.
\---
The facility beneath was cold. Industrial. Buzzing with fluorescent lights.
Echo-6.
It smelled like bleach and electricity.
Every door was labeled. LAB A. TESTING CHAMBER 1. OBSERVATION.
And finally—
MEDICAL.
I raised a fist. My team stopped.
We advanced quietly.
I peeked through the window.
My heart nearly stopped.
Nell.
She was strapped to a metal table.
Monitors beeped around her. Wires connected to her temples.
A woman stood beside her.
Lab coat.
Red hair pulled into a tight bun.
Dr. Evelyn Cross.
"She’s waking up," Evelyn said to someone behind the glass. Her voice was eerily calm. "But this time, she might not remember him at all."