Chapter 12: The Trap
Chapter 12: The Trap
The emergency lights cast the hospital corridors in an eerie red glow.
Marcus stared at William.
"You moved the DNA report... to Khloe's room?"
William nodded calmly.
"No one would expect the most valuable document in the hospital to be hidden in plain sight."
Marcus looked toward the maternity wing.
"But if Charles realizes the vault is empty..."
"He'll start looking elsewhere."
William's expression hardened.
"And Khloe could become his next target."
Marcus didn't wait another second.
He was already running.
On the maternity floor, Khloe sat alone, reading quietly while a nurse checked her blood pressure.
Dr. Amelia Brooks had insisted she remain in bed, but after days of confinement, even reading by the window felt like a luxury.
The nurse smiled.
"Everything looks much better today."
Khloe smiled back.
"I finally feel like myself again."
Before the nurse could answer, every light in the room flickered.
Then the power went out.
Only the red emergency lights remained.
The nurse frowned.
"That's odd."
Her hospital pager immediately buzzed.
Power failure. Report to Central Station.
"I'll be right back, Mrs. Thorne."
Khloe nodded.
"I'll be fine."
The door closed.
She was alone.
Three floors below, Charles Whitmore reached the Executive Records Vault.
One of his men used a portable cutting tool to slice through the electronic lock.
The steel door slowly creaked open.
Charles stepped inside.
Shelves of confidential files surrounded him.
He walked directly to a fireproof cabinet marked:
SEALED FAMILY RECORDS
His pulse quickened.
He unlocked the drawer.
Empty.
He searched another shelf.
Nothing.
A third.
Nothing.
His face darkened.
"No..."
One of his men looked over.
"Is it here?"
Charles slammed the drawer shut.
"He moved it."
"Who?"
"William."
Charles realized it instantly.
"This entire vault..."
He looked around the empty room.
"...was bait."
Meanwhile, Daniel Reyes and his security team reached the underground corridor.
"They're inside the vault," one officer whispered.
Daniel nodded.
"Seal every exit."
The officers spread out.
But before they could move into position—
A loud explosion echoed through the tunnel.
The blast wasn't large enough to collapse the hallway, but it filled the passage with thick gray smoke.
"What was that?"
"Smoke charge!"
Daniel coughed.
"They're trying to escape!"
Visibility dropped to almost nothing.
By the time the smoke cleared...
Charles and his men were gone.
Marcus sprinted through the stairwell toward Khloe's room.
His heart pounded harder with every step.
Something didn't feel right.
William had been correct.
If Charles discovered the vault was empty...
He would immediately think of the one person William would protect above everyone else.
Khloe.
Marcus burst through the maternity ward doors.
Several nurses looked up in surprise.
"Where's my wife?"
Room 712.
He ran.
Inside Room 712, Khloe heard another knock.
She assumed the nurse had returned.
"Come in."
The door slowly opened.
A man wearing hospital maintenance coveralls stepped inside carrying a toolbox.
Khloe frowned.
"I think you have the wrong room."
The man smiled politely.
"I'm just checking the electrical system after the outage."
She looked toward the ceiling.
"They usually send maintenance after the power comes back."
He took another step.
"It won't take long."
Something about him felt wrong.
His uniform looked new.
Too new.
His ID badge was hanging upside down.
Khloe instinctively placed a hand over her stomach.
"I'd rather you come back later."
The man didn't leave.
Instead...
He quietly closed the door behind him.
The smile disappeared from his face.
"I can't do that."
Khloe's pulse raced.
"Who are you?"
He set the toolbox on the floor.
"I'm here for a file."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I think you do."
He slowly looked toward the wooden bedside table.
Specifically...
The locked drawer.
Marcus reached the hallway just as he saw the closed door to Room 712.
Standing outside was an unfamiliar nurse.
She looked frightened.
"Mr. Thorne!"
He stopped.
"What's wrong?"
"I saw a maintenance worker go into your wife's room."
Marcus's blood ran cold.
"There wasn't supposed to be one."
Without another word, he slammed the door open.
The maintenance worker spun around.
For one brief second, he locked eyes with Marcus.
Then he reached into the toolbox.
Marcus expected a weapon.
Instead...
The man pulled out a small canister.
He threw it onto the floor.
A thick cloud of white powder instantly filled the room.
Smoke.
Marcus couldn't see.
"Khloe!"
"I'm here!" she coughed.
He pushed through the smoke toward her voice.
The stranger shoved past him and sprinted into the hallway.
Marcus started after him.
Then he heard Khloe cry out.
He stopped.
His wife.
Or the attacker.
There was no choice.
Marcus turned back.
Khloe was sitting on the floor beside the bed, coughing violently.
He dropped to his knees.
"Are you hurt?"
She shook her head.
"He never touched me."
Marcus wrapped his arms around her.
"It's over."
She looked at him with frightened eyes.
"No."
"He opened the drawer."
Marcus immediately looked toward the bedside table.
The drawer hung open.
Empty.
His heart sank.
"The report..."
Khloe slowly nodded.
"He took it."
At that same moment, Detective Bennett cornered one of Charles Whitmore's accomplices in the underground parking garage.
The man tried to run.
An officer tackled him to the ground.
Handcuffs clicked into place.
Bennett grabbed him by the jacket.
"Where's Charles?"
The man laughed.
"Too late."
"What does that mean?"
"He has what he came for."
Bennett's expression hardened.
"What was on that file?"
The man smiled through bloodied lips.
"I've never seen a man spend seven years chasing a single piece of paper."
He leaned closer.
"You should ask why."
Before Bennett could question him further, another officer hurried over.
"Detective!"
"What?"
"We just received a report from the maternity wing."
"What happened?"
"The confidential file is gone."
Bennett closed her eyes for a brief moment.
Charles had escaped the vault empty-handed...
Only because he had already sent someone to steal the real prize.
And somewhere in the city, Charles Whitmore sat alone in the back seat of a moving car.
He slowly opened the stolen folder.
The smile on his face faded almost immediately.
Inside wasn't a DNA report.
It was a single sheet of paper.
Typed neatly across the center were six words:
YOU WERE EXPECTED. THIS IS A COPY.
Charles's eyes widened.
William Carter had outplayed him.
Again.
The real document was still missing.
May you like
And now Charles knew something even more dangerous.
William had anticipated every move he made.
