Chapter 12 - THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK
Daniel reached the neonatal room before security.
The clear bassinet stood beside the window.
The blanket remained warm.
Theo was gone.
A nurse lay unconscious behind the supply cabinet.
The emergency exit alarm had been disabled.
Daniel stared at the open stairwell door.
Marcus caught his shoulder.
“We find him.”
Daniel turned violently.
“You said that before.”
“I am saying it now.”
“You lose everyone you claim to protect.”
Marcus absorbed the words.
Khloe heard them through the open doorway.
She wanted to leave the bed.
Adrian blocked her.
“No.”
“They took Theo.”
“You cannot run through a hospital.”
“I can walk.”
“You can begin hemorrhaging.”
“Then bring a wheelchair.”
“Khloe.”
She looked at him with such fury that he stopped speaking.
A nurse brought the wheelchair.
Adrian connected a portable monitor and accompanied her.
Khloe moved into the corridor with a blanket around her shoulders.
Every security door had locked.
The person using Lucas’s badge remained somewhere inside.
Camera footage showed the disguised doctor carrying Theo toward the surgical elevators.
The face was hidden beneath a mask and cap.
The body appeared male.
The left hand carried no scar.
It was not Gideon.
The elevator stopped on the fifth floor.
When officers opened it, they found Lucas’s white coat and badge.
Theo was not inside.
A maintenance panel in the elevator ceiling had been removed.
The abductor entered the service shaft.
Hospital engineers tracked movement through motion sensors.
The path led downward.
Toward the old research wing.
St. Catherine’s had closed the wing fifteen years earlier.
Adrian carried the only current master key.
Or believed he did.
The wing’s cameras activated.
A figure carried Theo through a dark corridor lined with unused laboratories.
The baby was crying.
Daniel watched the feed.
“Zoom in.”
The technician enlarged the image.
A pale mark crossed the abductor’s left thumb.
Gideon.
He had disguised his height by bending his posture.
He had covered his scar earlier.
Now the edge of the artificial skin had peeled away.
Marcus looked at Ortiz.
“How did he enter?”
“Service tunnel.”
“From where?”
Adrian answered.
“The Cross Foundation clinic was built above an old utility line.”
Khloe turned toward him.
“You knew the buildings connected?”
“No.”
“Your hospital plans show the tunnels.”
“The records were sealed before I became chairman.”
Gideon reached a restricted laboratory.
The camera feed disappeared.
Adrian led security toward the research wing.
Marcus and Daniel followed.
Khloe remained inside the secured control room with Ortiz and two armed officers.
She hated every second of separation.
The portable monitor recorded another contraction.
Seven minutes after the last.
Adrian had warned that decreasing intervals might indicate labor.
Khloe did not tell him.
Not yet.
In the research wing, Marcus found the laboratory door open.
Inside stood an old neonatal chamber.
Gideon had placed Theo inside.
The child was unharmed.
Gideon stood several feet away holding a syringe.
Daniel entered behind Marcus.
“Step away from him.”
Gideon smiled.
“You look better than the last time I saw you.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“You saw me after the crash.”
“I carried you into the clinic.”
“Why keep me alive?”
“Helena believed you might reveal the ledger location.”
“She tortured a man with brain damage for eight years.”
Gideon shrugged.
“Your mother dislikes unfinished work.”
“She is not my mother.”
“No.”
Gideon looked toward Marcus.
“She belongs to him.”
Marcus took one step forward.
“What is in the syringe?”
“A sedative.”
“For Theo?”
“For whoever approaches first.”
Security officers appeared near the door.
Gideon pressed the syringe against the infant chamber’s medication port.
“Tell them to leave.”
Marcus lifted one hand.
The officers held position.
Daniel moved slightly to the left.
Gideon noticed.
“Still playing the black knight.”
Daniel stopped.
“What do you want?” Marcus asked.
“The Founders documents.”
“They are with federal agents.”
“Then you will make a call.”
“I no longer control the company.”
“You control Khloe.”
Marcus’s expression changed.
“No.”
Gideon smiled.
“That may be the first honest thing you have said.”
Daniel’s eyes moved toward the chamber controls.
Theo continued crying.
Gideon looked at him.
“Do you feel like a father?”
Daniel said nothing.
“You should thank Helena.”
“For stealing my body?”
“For giving it a legacy.”
“You created a child to steal shares.”
“Every powerful family creates children for ownership.”
Daniel’s voice became cold.
“Not like this.”
Gideon looked toward Marcus.
“Your brother always believed morality made him different.”
“It only made him weak.”
Marcus stepped forward.
Gideon touched the syringe to the port.
“Stop.”
Marcus froze.
Daniel spoke softly.
“You left Emilia alive.”
Gideon looked at him.
“That was Helena’s decision.”
“No.”
“You wanted her alive.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew where the nursery recording was hidden.”
Gideon’s expression shifted slightly.
Daniel continued.
“She never told you.”
“She told me enough.”
“She lied.”
“About what?”
“The ledger index was never beneath the crib.”
Gideon’s eyes narrowed.
Marcus understood Daniel’s strategy.
He was pulling Gideon’s attention away from the chamber.
Daniel moved another inch.
“The floor compartment contained only a copy.”
“Where is the original?”
“In the black knight.”
Gideon looked toward the chess piece attached to Daniel’s wheelchair bag.
Daniel lifted it slowly.
“The base opens.”
Gideon’s focus moved completely.
Marcus lunged.
Gideon pushed the syringe into the port.
Daniel threw the chess piece.
It struck Gideon’s wrist.
The syringe fell.
Marcus drove him into the wall.
Security officers rushed forward.
Gideon fought with surprising strength.
Daniel reached the infant chamber and shut the medication valve.
Theo’s cries remained strong.
Gideon slammed Marcus against a steel table.
Marcus recovered and struck him once.
Then again.
Daniel shouted.
“Stop.”
Marcus’s fist remained raised.
Gideon laughed through a split lip.
“There he is.”
“Helena’s son.”
Marcus lowered his hand.
Security officers restrained Gideon.
Ortiz arrived moments later.
She read him his rights.
Gideon smiled at Marcus.
“You think this changes the hearing?”
“You will be in custody.”
“For kidnapping?”
“Yes.”
“Then explain why the child’s legal guardian authorized me to move him.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“I am his father.”
“Genetically.”
Gideon’s smile widened.
“Not legally.”
He looked toward the doorway.
Helena stood there with two attorneys and a federal marshal.
She held a court order.
Judge Shaw had granted her emergency temporary guardianship over Theo.
The order recognized the child as an unprotected beneficiary of the Founders Trust.
It also named Gideon as Helena’s authorized medical representative.
Ortiz stared at the document.
“This order was signed fourteen minutes ago.”
Helena looked at Theo.
“Release my grandson.”
Daniel moved in front of the chamber.
“He is not going anywhere.”
“You have no legal identity.”
Helena’s voice remained calm.
“Daniel Thorne was declared dead eight years ago.”
“You cannot be recognized as a parent until a court restores your status.”
Daniel looked toward Marcus.
Marcus stepped beside him.
“My mother will not take the child.”
The marshal lifted one hand.
“I am required to enforce the order.”
Ortiz contacted the district attorney.
The response came quickly.
The order remained valid until challenged.
Gideon was taken into custody for assaulting hospital staff and unlawful entry.
The kidnapping charge became legally complicated by Helena’s authorization.
Helena approached the infant chamber.
Theo began crying harder.
Khloe’s voice came through the control-room speaker.
“Do not touch him.”
Helena looked toward the camera.
“Khloe.”
“You planned my death.”
“You are under considerable stress.”
“You created a child using my dead mother.”
“I preserved a family legacy.”
“You stole from her body.”
“I used material your uncle abandoned in storage.”
Adrian entered.
“Nothing was abandoned.”
Helena smiled.
“You signed the research authorization.”
“Not for reproduction.”
“Consent is often a matter of interpretation.”
Khloe’s voice became sharper.
“You will never raise either child.”
“You may not be alive to decide.”
Every officer heard the threat.
Ortiz stepped toward Helena.
“Repeat that.”
Helena looked at her calmly.
“I was referring to Mrs. Thorne’s medical condition.”
“No,” Khloe said through the speaker.
“You were not.”
Helena reached toward the chamber.
The fetal monitor beside Khloe suddenly alarmed through the audio feed.
Adrian turned.
“Khloe?”
She did not answer.
Another nurse came over the line.
“There is bleeding.”
Marcus ran from the laboratory.
Daniel remained in front of Theo.
Helena held the guardianship order.
The marshal waited.
Khloe’s voice returned, weak but clear.
“Marcus.”
He stopped in the corridor.
May you like
“I am here.”
“The baby is coming.”
