Chapter 12 - THE HOSPITAL BOMB
The entire floor was evacuated.
Caleb refused the wheelchair.
The nurse forced him into it anyway.
Grant pushed him down the corridor.
“Slow down.”
“There’s a bomb.”
“And you have a hole in your shoulder.”
“Fair point.”
Police found the device inside a maintenance cart outside Caleb’s room.
Small.
Crude.
Different from the helicopter bomb.
Reed appeared furious.
“Victor’s close.”
Caleb looked around.
“How close?”
Reed held up a hospital visitor badge.
Photograph blurred.
Name fake.
But surveillance showed a man entering thirty minutes earlier wearing surgical scrubs.
Scar near the eyebrow.
Grant asked, “How did he know Caleb’s room?”
Reed looked at him.
“That’s what worries me.”
Someone had leaked it.
Only police.
Hospital staff.
Grant’s security.
Or Vanessa.
Reed quietly checked everyone.
The leak came from inside Grant’s security team.
A guard named Paul Mercer.
Employed twelve years.
Grant knew him personally.
Mercer disappeared before police could arrest him.
Caleb shook his head.
“Victor has people everywhere.”
Grant said, “Not everywhere.”
Caleb looked at him.
Grant smiled faintly.
“You’re still here.”
Police moved Caleb to a secured location.
An old guesthouse on the estate.
Caleb hated the idea.
“This is where all this started.”
Reed answered, “Exactly. Victor expects you to hide somewhere else.”
Vanessa was brought back under heavy guard to identify possible accomplices.
Caleb saw her through the window.
For the first time, she looked small.
No designer clothes.
No perfect makeup.
No control.
She asked to speak with Caleb.
He almost refused.
Then agreed.
Vanessa sat across from him.
“I’m sorry.”
Caleb laughed.
“No, you’re scared.”
“I am.”
“Good.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Victor is going to kill me.”
“Maybe you should’ve thought about that before helping him.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Caleb leaned forward.
“You were willing to watch Grant get into that helicopter.”
Vanessa looked down.
“You were willing to let me die alone in a shed.”
She whispered, “Yes.”
Caleb leaned back.
“So don’t ask me to make you feel better.”
Vanessa nodded.
Then she said something unexpected.
“There’s another target.”
Caleb went still.
“Who?”
“Grant’s mother.”
Caleb frowned.
“Why?”
“Because she has the original documents.”
Grant’s mother, Eleanor Harrington, was eighty-one.
Living in a private care residence outside Connecticut.
Vanessa continued.
“Charles gave her everything before he died.”
Caleb stood.
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Does Victor know?”
May you like
Vanessa looked at him.
“He’s already on his way.”
