Chapter 2 - The Man Who Wasn’t Supposed to Wake
By 3:05 a.m., the twelfth floor no longer resembled a hospital.
It resembled a fortress.
Elevators were disabled.
Security officers guarded stairwells.
Visitors were removed.
Hospital administrators arrived wearing coats over pajamas.
Octavio Rain’s private security occupied every entrance to the critical-care wing.
And inside Room 1208, Mina stood beside the most complicated patient of her career while six doctors argued about whether what had just happened was medically possible.
“Mr. Rain, squeeze my hand.”
Octavio stared at the neurologist.
Nothing happened.
“Can you understand me?”
His eyes shifted toward Mina.
The neurologist noticed.
“Mina, ask him.”
She stepped beside the bed.
“Octavio.”
His gaze settled on her immediately.
“Can you squeeze my hand?”
His fingers moved.
Weak.
But deliberate.
The room went silent.
Dr. Helen Ward, chief neurologist, looked at the monitor.
“Again.”
Octavio squeezed Mina’s hand a second time.
Someone whispered, “My God.”
Mina looked at Octavio.
He appeared exhausted.
His skin had lost color.
His muscles trembled even while resting.
Waking did not mean recovery.
Seven months in bed had consequences.
He could not simply sit up and walk away.
He needed neurological testing, respiratory evaluation, physical therapy and time.
A great deal of time.
But there was something startlingly intact behind his eyes.
Awareness.
He knew where people were.
He followed conversation.
And whenever anyone mentioned the stranger who had tried to inject him, anger sharpened his expression.
One of Octavio’s guards approached.
His name was Gabriel Serrano.
Mina had seen him outside the room almost every night for months.
Broad shoulders.
Gray beginning at his temples.
The stillness of someone accustomed to dangerous rooms.
“Police have him,” Gabriel said.
Octavio’s jaw tightened.
“Name?”
His voice sounded like gravel.
Gabriel glanced at Mina.
“Don’t make him talk too much.”
Octavio looked annoyed.
Mina almost smiled.
“Listen to him,” she said.
Gabriel’s eyebrows rose.
Octavio gave Mina a long look.
She folded her arms.
“You've been awake thirty minutes. You're not taking over Chicago tonight.”
Something almost like amusement appeared in his eyes.
Almost.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“The identification is fake. The real Dr. Nathan Crane is at a medical conference in Seattle.”
Octavio closed his eyes briefly.
“Who…”
Gabriel understood.
“We don’t know yet.”
Mina adjusted the IV tubing.
Hospital CEO Martin Holloway entered with two administrators.
He looked furious.
“This entire situation must be handled through hospital security and Chicago police.”
Gabriel turned slowly.
“It was handled through hospital security for seven months.”
Holloway stiffened.
“What exactly are you implying?”
Gabriel walked toward him.
“That someone carrying counterfeit credentials walked through restricted access, entered a protected room and almost murdered my employer.”
“We are investigating.”
“You will.”
Octavio opened his eyes.
One word left his mouth.
“Logs.”
Everyone turned.
Mina understood first.
“He wants the access logs.”
Holloway frowned.
“Those are internal—”
“Get them,” Mina said.
The administrator stared at her.
Mina surprised herself.
Then she remembered the gun.
She no longer cared about hospital politics.
“I've reported access discrepancies before.”
Dr. Ward looked at her.
“When?”
“Three times.”
Holloway’s face changed.
Mina continued.
“People were listed as entering this room on nights nobody entered. Medication changes appeared without physicians signing them. Consultants rotated strangely.”
Gabriel’s attention sharpened.
“You kept records?”
Mina hesitated.
Octavio looked directly at her.
She nodded.
“A private notebook.”
“Where?”
“My locker.”
Gabriel immediately spoke into his earpiece.
“Secure Nurse Strand’s locker.”
Holloway protested.
“You cannot order people around my hospital.”
Octavio turned his head toward him.
Seven months in a coma had made him physically weak.
It had not made him harmless.
Holloway stopped talking.
Then Octavio whispered,
“Someone already did.”
The meaning landed.
Someone had been ordering people around the hospital.
Someone powerful.
Someone who wanted Octavio unconscious.
Or dead.
Mina looked toward the hallway.
The restrained attacker had been taken downstairs.
Police would interrogate him.
Surely answers would come.
But forty minutes later Gabriel returned with bad news.
“The suspect collapsed during transport.”
Mina stared.
“What?”
“Some kind of reaction.”
“What reaction?”
“Emergency doctors are treating him.”
Mina's instincts immediately flared.
“Was he searched?”
“Yes.”
“Did he ingest something?”
“They don't know.”
Octavio watched her.
Mina grabbed her stethoscope.
“Where is he?”
“Mina—”
“If he dies, we lose our best witness.”
Gabriel blocked the doorway.
“You are not leaving this room.”
“I’m a nurse.”
“You're also the woman someone just held at gunpoint.”
Mina looked at Octavio.
“Tell him.”
Octavio raised an eyebrow.
“You told him to protect me. Tell him I’m allowed downstairs.”
His lips moved slowly.
“No.”
Mina stared.
“No?”
A faint, exhausted satisfaction appeared on his face.
Despite everything, Gabriel nearly smiled.
Mina pointed at Octavio.
“You've been conscious less than an hour and you're already difficult.”
Octavio whispered,
“So I’m told.”
It was the first complete sentence he had spoken.
Dr. Ward stared at him.
Mina did too.
A few minutes later another physician rushed in.
“The suspect is dead.”
Silence.
Mina felt something tighten inside her.
“How?”
“Cardiac arrest.”
She looked at Octavio.
The irony was unmistakable.
The man who had planned to create a natural-looking cardiac death had died the same way.
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
“That wasn't coincidence.”
Octavio looked toward the window.
Chicago spread below them in silver darkness.
Seven months earlier someone had attacked him on Lake Shore Drive.
Tonight someone had entered the hospital to finish the job.
Now the assassin himself was dead before he could speak.
Three events.
One invisible hand.
Octavio's gaze returned to Mina.
“Notebook.”
She nodded.
“It contains dates. Medication orders. names where I had them.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
He took a careful breath.
“They don't know…”
His voice faded.
Mina leaned nearer.
“They don't know what?”
His eyes held hers.
“That you kept it.”
A chill moved through her.
He was right.
The people responsible knew their assassin had failed.
They knew Octavio had awakened.
But unless hospital records had already exposed her complaints, they might not know Mina had documented months of suspicious activity.
That notebook might be evidence.
It might also be the reason someone came after her next.
Gabriel's phone vibrated.
He read the message.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Mina asked.
Gabriel looked at Octavio.
Then Mina.
“Nurse Strand’s locker is empty.”
Mina's heart dropped.
“What do you mean empty?”
“Your bag is there. Your coat is there.”
“And the notebook?”
“Gone.”
Mina looked toward the door.
Someone had taken it.
In the forty minutes since Octavio awakened.
Which meant the person controlling this conspiracy was not somewhere outside the hospital.
May you like
They were already inside.
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