Chapter 17 - THE MAN IN SCRUBS
Caleb was through the door before the automatic closer finished swinging.
The corridor beyond the medical unit split toward radiology, service elevators, and a stairwell.
The man in scrubs was already running.
Caleb saw only his back.
Gray hair.
Hospital shoes.
Blue scrub top.
But the posture was unmistakable.
Marcus Hale had spent his career trying to look calm in rooms where other people were afraid.
Now he ran like a man who knew the calm was over.
"Hale!"
The commander looked back.
That glance confirmed it.
He shoved a medication cart sideways across the corridor.
Caleb vaulted the lower corner instead of stopping.
Hale hit the stairwell door.
Caleb reached it three seconds later.
The stairwell echoed with pounding footsteps.
Hale was descending.
Caleb followed.
Behind him, Ruiz shouted for agents to seal the lower levels.
Abigail never heard the rest.
She was focused on Lucas.
His body jerked against the mattress.
The monitor screamed.
"Two milligrams lorazepam."
A nurse handed it over.
Abigail administered it while another clinician supported Lucas's airway.
"Get toxicology."
"Already called."
"Check glucose."
"Normal."
"Pressure?"
"Ninety-eight over sixty."
Too low for a frightened young man who had been hypertensive minutes earlier.
Abigail looked at the abandoned syringe.
Clear liquid.
No label.
No reason for it to exist in the room.
"Save everything."
"We are."
Lucas's convulsions began to slow.
His oxygen saturation climbed.
Abigail placed one hand against his shoulder.
"Stay with us."
He could not answer.
"You worked too hard to get out of that place."
His eyelids fluttered.
"You're not leaving now."
A respiratory therapist adjusted the mask.
"He's stabilizing."
Abigail exhaled.
Not safe.
Not yet.
But alive.
She looked toward the door where Caleb had disappeared.
Her instincts pulled in two directions again.
Patient.
Husband.
She stayed with the patient.
Caleb could take care of himself.
Lucas could not.
Three floors below, Hale burst through the stairwell into a service corridor.
An NCIS agent appeared from the opposite direction.
"Stop!"
Hale turned and ran toward the loading dock.
Caleb came through the door behind him.
"Marcus!"
Hale reached into his scrub waistband.
Caleb saw the motion.
"Gun!"
The agent dropped behind a concrete column.
Hale fired.
The shot hit a ceiling pipe.
Steam exploded into the corridor.
Visibility vanished.
Hale disappeared into the white cloud.
Caleb stopped instead of charging blind.
He listened.
Footsteps.
Right side.
Metal door.
A latch.
Then silence.
Caleb moved along the wall.
The loading dock door stood open.
Cold air poured in.
Outside, a box truck reversed toward a delivery bay.
Hospital workers shouted as Hale ran between vehicles.
Caleb followed.
Hale reached a parked sedan.
He yanked open the driver's door.
Locked.
He smashed the window with the butt of his pistol.
Caleb closed the distance.
"Marcus."
Hale turned and aimed.
Caleb was already moving behind the truck's rear axle.
A shot cracked across the loading area.
Workers scattered.
Hale tried to pull the sedan door open through the broken glass.
The lock held.
Caleb stayed behind cover.
"It's over."
Hale laughed.
"You have no idea what over looks like."
"Lucas is alive."
"Not for long."
Caleb's face went still.
"What did you give him?"
"Enough."
"What?"
Hale said nothing.
"If you want any chance of helping yourself, tell me what you injected."
"You think I care about helping myself?"
"You ran."
Hale fired toward the truck.
"I ran because fools were about to expose things they cannot understand."
"Nathan understood."
Silence.
Caleb pushed.
"Lucas understood enough."
Hale's voice sharpened.
"Lucas is a child."
"So were half the men Warren put through Redwater."
"They volunteered."
"For training."
"For service."
"Not for blackmail."
Hale slammed the pistol against the sedan roof.
"You still believe there is a clean line between the two."
"There is a line between service and exploiting people."
"Spoken like a man who retired before the world changed."
Caleb almost laughed.
"The world didn't invent corruption after I retired, Marcus."
An NCIS team moved into positions at both ends of the dock.
Hale saw them.
His breathing changed.
He looked toward the river road beyond the loading area.
Too far.
No cover.
No vehicle.
Ruiz called from behind another truck.
"Commander Hale, put the weapon down."
Hale looked toward the voice.
"Agent Ruiz."
"We know you injected Lucas Bell."
"Do you?"
"The syringe is in evidence."
Hale's expression twitched.
"Then you know nothing until the lab speaks."
"You were seen leaving the room."
"By a retired SEAL with a personal vendetta?"
"By two cameras."
That was a lie.
Caleb knew it.
Hale did not.
His face changed.
Ruiz continued.
"You can surrender now or keep making this worse."
Hale looked at Caleb.
"You think this protects her?"
Caleb's eyes narrowed.
"Who?"
Hale smiled.
"Abigail."
Caleb's blood went cold.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing."
"Marcus."
"Yet."
Caleb almost stepped out from cover.
Ruiz shouted.
"Caleb, stay put."
Hale laughed.
"There it is."
He raised his pistol toward the hospital windows above.
"Pressure Point One."
Caleb's voice dropped.
"If you ever say that about my wife again—"
"What?"
Hale smiled.
"You'll kill me?"
"No."
Caleb's answer surprised him.
"You'll live long enough to explain every name in Anchor."
Hale's smile faded.
"You still think Anchor is the danger."
"Warren said the same thing."
"Then for once Daniel told the truth."
Ruiz called out.
"Put the gun down."
Hale ignored him.
"Harbor Glass was not built to sell secrets."
Caleb listened.
"Dane sold access because he was greedy."
"Keene used files because he was weak."
"Warren hurt trainees because he enjoyed control."
Hale's voice became strangely calm.
"But none of them understood what the project became."
Caleb said, "You did?"
"I had to."
"Then explain it."
"Not here."
"You don't have another room."
Hale looked toward the agents surrounding him.
"You think these people are protecting you."
"They're protecting everybody from you."
"No."
Hale's eyes moved toward Ruiz.
"One of them is Mirror."
Ruiz stiffened.
Caleb stayed still.
"Which one?"
Hale laughed softly.
"That's the beauty of leverage."
"You never know who already belongs to it."
A cell phone rang inside the sedan.
Not Hale's.
The car belonged to a hospital employee.
The sudden sound distracted everyone for less than one second.
Hale used it.
He sprinted toward the dock edge.
Ruiz shouted.
"Stop!"
Hale fired behind him without aiming.
Agents returned fire.
One round struck the pavement.
Another hit the sedan.
Hale reached the edge and jumped.
He disappeared into the river below.
Caleb ran to the railing.
Dark water churned around pilings.
No head surfaced.
Ruiz reached him.
"Divers."
Agents rushed toward the lower dock.
Caleb stared into the water.
"He planned that."
"Maybe."
"No."
Caleb pointed.
A small maintenance boat was drifting away from the underside of the loading platform.
Its engine had just started.
A man climbed over the stern.
Hale.
"Boat!"
Ruiz ran toward the river access stairs.
The maintenance boat accelerated.
Another vessel intercepted from the right.
Harbor patrol.
Hale turned sharply.
The boats collided at low speed.
Hale fell.
Patrol officers boarded.
Within seconds he was on the deck in handcuffs.
Caleb exhaled.
Ruiz's phone rang.
He answered.
Abigail's voice came through speaker.
"Lucas is stable."
Caleb closed his eyes.
"What was it?"
"Sedative and potassium mixture."
Ruiz swore.
Abigail continued.
"We caught it fast."
"Will he recover?"
"I think so."
Caleb leaned against the railing.
"Thank you."
"Come upstairs."
"We're coming."
Before Ruiz ended the call, Abigail added one more sentence.
"And Caleb?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't hit him."
Ruiz laughed despite everything.
Caleb looked at the patrol boat where Hale sat soaked and furious.
"No promises."
"Caleb."
"Fine."
He ended the call.
When Hale was brought onto the dock, Caleb stood ten feet away.
He did not touch him.
Hale looked almost disappointed.
"She controls you."
Caleb shook his head.
"No."
"She reminds me who I am."
Hale laughed.
"Same thing."
Ruiz escorted him inside.
During the search, agents found a waterproof pouch beneath Hale's clothing.
Inside was a small encrypted drive.
And a handwritten list of seven names.
One name was crossed out.
Nathan Cross.
One was circled.
Lucas Bell.
One had an arrow beside it.
Caleb Preston.
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And the final name on the page belonged to Special Agent Aaron Ruiz.
