Chapter 5 - The Hospital Alibi
I sprinted wildly across the dark backyard, ignoring the wet grass soaking my shoes.
I vaulted gracefully over the tall wooden fence just as heavy boots kicked in my front door.
I landed heavily in my neighbor's yard and kept running toward the adjacent street.
I had parked my secondary escape vehicle, an untraceable gray sedan, three blocks away exactly for this kind of emergency.
I reached the car, unlocked it with a key hidden in the wheel well, and threw myself into the driver's seat.
I sped away into the night, my heart pounding a furious rhythm against my ribs.
I needed to secure the primary evidence before Jack's syndicate friends realized I was already hunting them.
If Jack was claiming to be at an emergency surgery, his hospital office was the perfect place to hide his darkest secrets.
I drove across the city, avoiding all major highways and traffic cameras.
The towering glass structure of the regional hospital loomed over the quiet downtown streets.
I parked in the dimly lit physician's parking structure and pulled a stolen doctor's coat from my trunk.
I slipped the white coat over my shoulders and hung a fake identification badge around my neck.
I walked confidently through the emergency room entrance, perfectly blending in with the exhausted medical staff.
I took the staff elevator directly to the prestigious surgical wing on the fourth floor.
The hallway was completely empty, illuminated only by the harsh fluorescent overhead lights.
I found Jack's private corner office and used a master keycard cloner I always kept in my pocket.
The heavy wooden door clicked open, and I quickly slipped inside, locking the deadbolt behind me.
I turned on my flashlight and approached his massive mahogany desk.
I booted up his desktop computer and instantly recognized the heavy encryption software running on the screen.
It was a sophisticated program specifically used to mask high-volume dark web transactions.
I plugged a specialized decryption drive into the computer and bypassed the firewall in less than a minute.
The screen filled with thousands of highly classified patient medical files.
Jack was not just a cheating husband with a terrible gambling debt.
He was actively harvesting the sensitive medical data of his wealthiest patients and selling it to the highest bidder on the dark web.
He was using his status as a respected surgeon to fund the syndicate.
I initiated a massive data transfer, copying every single file to my secure drive to use as leverage.
Suddenly, the computer screen froze entirely, and a red warning message flashed across the monitor.
"Unauthorized access detected," the mechanical voice announced through the computer speakers.
The heavy wooden door of the office suddenly unlocked from the outside with a loud electronic beep.
The overhead lights snapped on, blinding me for a split second.
I spun around rapidly, dropping my hand to the tactical knife hidden in my waistband.
The hospital administrator, Doctor Harrison, was standing in the doorway holding a suppressed pistol.
He aimed the dark weapon directly at my head with hands that did not shake at all.
"Step away from the computer, Megan," Doctor Harrison commanded coldly.
I froze in place, realizing my husband's corruption had infected the entire hospital.
"You are working with Jack and the syndicate," I stated, staring at the gun.
Doctor Harrison laughed softly, a dry, humorless sound.
"Jack is a careless fool who became a massive liability to our operation," Harrison replied.
He slowly lowered the barrel of the gun toward the floor.
"I have actually been waiting for you to arrive, Ms. Vance," he said smoothly.
He used my real maiden name, the name I had buried a decade ago.
"My boss sends his absolute best regards, and he wants you to have this," Harrison added.
May you like
He tossed a thick, black burner phone onto the desk right in front of me.
The screen lit up instantly, displaying a live video feed of my children sitting in the back of an unknown van.
