Chapter 9 - Someone Inside the Hospital
Nobody slept.
Gabriel isolated every member of the security staff.
Phones were collected.
Access credentials revoked.
The estate's network was shut down.
Octavio hated it.
Mina preferred it.
“No system, no hacking.”
“No communication either.”
“Sometimes silence is healthy.”
“You sound like my grandmother.”
“Smart woman?”
“Terrifying.”
Mina smiled.
By sunrise Gabriel had found the first clue.
His credentials had not been cloned recently.
They had been duplicated seven months earlier.
The copied credential existed inside Rain Consolidated’s old security system.
Whoever used it now had been waiting.
Octavio studied the report.
“Victor.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Too obvious.”
“Sometimes obvious is true.”
“Sometimes obvious is bait.”
Mina agreed.
“Who had access to security records before the crash?”
Gabriel began listing names.
Victor.
Operations director Samuel Orr.
Security systems engineer Thomas Hale.
Octavio himself.
Two senior IT administrators.
One had resigned.
One had died from cancer four months earlier.
Thomas Hale was currently employed by Black Harbor Logistics.
Everyone stopped.
Gabriel looked at Octavio.
“That's not coincidence.”
“No.”
They found Hale's recent communications.
Most were encrypted.
One was not.
A billing record.
Every month Black Harbor paid a consulting company named North Strategic Medical.
Mina stared.
“North.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Elias North.”
The fake neurological consultant.
The conspiracy connected directly to Victor’s new company.
For the first time they had evidence rather than memory.
Octavio’s attorney contacted federal investigators.
Mina expected Octavio to object.
He didn't.
That surprised her.
“You’re going to the FBI?”
He looked at her.
“You think I enjoy it?”
“I think newspapers would.”
“Newspapers enjoy anything with my name.”
“But you're doing it.”
“I need Sofia alive.”
There it was.
Not power.
Not revenge.
His sister.
Something inside Octavio had changed.
Maybe coma did that.
Maybe helplessness rearranged priorities.
Maybe losing seven months showed a man how little control he ever had.
Later that afternoon Dr. Ward called.
She sounded frightened.
“Mina, I found something.”
“What?”
“An old archived EEG file.”
“Octavio’s?”
“Yes.”
“Why is that important?”
“It was mislabeled.”
Mina put the call on speaker.
Ward continued.
“Three months ago his brain activity changed significantly.”
Mina looked at Octavio.
“How significantly?”
“Enough that I would have reduced sedation and performed additional consciousness assessments.”
Octavio went still.
“But you didn't?”
“I never saw the file.”
“Why?”
“It was removed from the active chart.”
Mina’s anger returned.
“By Holloway?”
“No.”
“Who?”
Ward hesitated.
“That is the strange part.”
“Tell me.”
“Your credentials.”
Mina stared at the phone.
“Mine?”
“Someone used your account.”
“Again.”
“Yes.”
Octavio looked at her.
Mina began pacing.
“Someone deliberately made it look like I removed evidence he was waking.”
Gabriel understood immediately.
“If Octavio died, the audit trail would point toward Mina.”
Octavio’s expression became cold.
She had not merely been a witness.
She had been selected as a scapegoat.
Maybe months earlier.
“Why me?” she asked.
Ward answered softly.
“Because you were his primary night nurse.”
Mina looked toward Octavio.
Somebody had anticipated everything.
If the assassination succeeded, his death would resemble natural cardiac failure.
Later, investigators might discover altered medication records.
Then they would find Mina’s credentials throughout the chart.
A nurse under stress.
A medication error.
Maybe negligence.
Maybe intentional misconduct.
The conspiracy would survive.
Mina would take the blame.
Octavio spoke.
“They chose you.”
She nodded.
The realization hurt more than she expected.
She had spent months wondering whether she was paranoid.
Whether she noticed patterns that did not exist.
Instead, someone had been using her name.
Her identity.
Her professional reputation.
“They expected me to disappear into the explanation.”
Octavio’s eyes remained on her.
“Yes.”
Mina sat down.
For the first time since the gun touched her neck, she felt tired.
Not physically.
Something deeper.
She had built her life around being competent.
Reliable.
Useful.
Now someone had nearly turned those qualities into evidence against her.
Octavio reached across the table.
His fingers covered hers.
His hand was still weak.
Still unsteady.
But warm.
“They failed.”
Mina looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Because you're still here.”
Gabriel entered before she could answer.
“We found Holloway.”
“Where?”
“Milwaukee.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Talking?”
Gabriel looked almost satisfied.
“He wants immunity.”
Octavio’s expression hardened.
“What does he know?”
“Enough.”
Martin Holloway told federal agents that Victor Rane had approached him six months earlier.
Not directly.
Through lawyers.
The hospital received a massive anonymous donation.
In exchange, Holloway quietly approved outside consultants.
He was told they were private specialists hired by the Rain family.
When he questioned medication changes, someone threatened to expose financial irregularities from his past.
Then he became trapped.
Holloway insisted he never knew anyone planned to kill Octavio.
Mina did not entirely believe him.
But one part of his testimony mattered.
Elias North had met with Victor Rane in Holloway’s office twice.
And during the second meeting Victor had said:
“We don't need Rain dead until we know where the key went.”
Octavio heard the recording later that night.
His expression did not change.
But Mina saw his hand close slowly.
Victor had betrayed him.
There was no longer any reasonable doubt.
Gabriel asked,
“What now?”
Octavio looked at the photograph of Sofia.
For decades he would have answered with retaliation.
Force.
Fear.
The old rules.
Instead he said,
“We build a case.”
Gabriel stared.
“A legal case?”
“Yes.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
Mina tried not to smile.
Gabriel looked offended by reality.
Octavio continued.
“Victor wants a war.”
His gaze moved toward Mina.
“I won't give him one.”
“Why?” Gabriel asked.
Octavio’s answer came quietly.
“Because wars bury the truth.”
And somewhere in Chicago, Victor Rane was about to learn that the man he tried to kill had awakened different from the man he attacked.
That might make Octavio weaker in Victor’s eyes.
May you like
Or it might make him far more dangerous.
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