Chapter 6 - The Mentor’s Shadow
I rushed to Dr. Harrison’s side and rolled him onto his back.
He had a deep, fatal stab wound perfectly placed between his ribs.
Cole burst out from his hiding spot behind the ventilation units and dropped to his knees.
He frantically applied pressure to his mentor’s chest, completely covering his own hands in blood.
Dr. Harrison coughed violently, his failing eyes searching the dark sky above him.
He weakly grabbed Cole’s wrist and tried to whisper his final words.
He said he was deeply sorry for stealing the security keycard from the office.
He gasped that she had promised to clear his gambling debts if he simply delivered the note to the lobby.
Before Cole could ask for a name, the older doctor’s chest stopped moving entirely.
Cole sat back on his heels, his hands shaking as the reality of the murder set in.
The stalker had used Dr. Harrison as a pawn and then executed him to frame us.
The loudspeakers mounted on the roof suddenly shrieked with a high-pitched feedback loop.
The automated emergency system broadcasted a terrifying new message across the entire hospital campus.
A calm, automated voice declared a "Code Silver" in effect.
An active shooter had been confirmed on the premises.
The broadcast explicitly named Doctor Cole Jacobs as the primary suspect, describing him as armed and highly dangerous.
I realized the villain had orchestrated this perfectly to ensure the police would shoot Cole on sight.
We were trapped on a freezing roof with a dead body and Cole’s blood-soaked hands.
Cole wiped his hands on his pants and sprinted to the locked steel door.
He pulled a small surgical scalpel from his pocket and began unscrewing the maintenance panel of the electronic lock.
He expertly crossed the internal wires, sending a spark flying into the dark air.
The heavy door groaned and finally unlatched with a heavy mechanical thud.
We slipped into the dimly lit stairwell just as we heard the sounds of heavy combat boots rushing up the steps below us.
We leaned over the railing and saw a dozen heavily armed SWAT officers storming the stairwell.
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Leading the police directly toward us was a woman crying fake, hysterical tears.
It was Doctor Evelyn Vance, Cole’s brilliant surgical partner and supposedly closest friend.
