Chapter 5 - The Mark on the Skin
Vance stepped up to the radiant warmer, his weathered face hardening as he looked at the crude black stitching across Eli’s collarbone.
“Is that... a tracking device?” Vance whispered.
“Worse,” Lauren said. She grabbed a small, portable ultrasound wand from the corner cart, applied a dollop of cold acoustic gel to the probe, and pressed it gently against the baby’s chest. The monitor flared to life, showing grainy grey-and-white cross-sections of the infant’s ribcage and muscle tissue.
Just beneath the skin, nestled in the sub-fascial layer above the pectoralis major, was a metallic capsule no larger than a grain of rice. But wrapped around it was a dense, spiderweb-like shadow that sent a chill through Lauren’s veins.
“It’s not just a transmitter,” Lauren said, her voice shaking with controlled fury. “It’s an osmotic drug pump. Vanguard’s prototype delivery system. They weren't trying to capture him, Vance. They were using him as a carrier.”
Josie hopped off the stool, ignoring the stinging pain in her thawing feet, and shuffled over to the gurney. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the yellow gloves, laying them beside her brother.
“Mommy said the gloves keep the bad water away,” Josie said, looking up at Vance. “She said the medicine in Eli makes him sick unless he gets the blue drops from the glove.”
Lauren froze. She grabbed the yellow rubber gloves, turning them over in her hands. The thick, chemical-resistant neoprene was worn smooth at the palms, but around the flared cuff, the hem felt unnaturally rigid.
Lauren picked up her heavy brass shears. With careful, precise movements, she snipped the three crooked black stitches she had sewn four years ago.
She peeled back the rolled hem of the cuff.
Hidden inside the waterproof lining was a slim, sealed glass ampoule filled with a luminescent blue liquid, along with a high-density, military-grade micro-SD drive wrapped in cellophane.
Taped to the ampoule was a strip of medical adhesive with Sarah’s handwriting:
*“The delivery capsule is programmed to release the viral antigen within 72 hours. Eli is the synthesis filter. The blue serum is the only neutralizer. Harrison Grace sold our location. Don't trust anyone in a white coat.”*
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Lauren looked toward the glass window.
Out in the corridor, Dr. Harrison Grace was no longer standing by the elevator. He was huddled near the corner, holding a sleek black satellite phone to his ear, his lips moving rapidly as he stared directly into Trauma Bay Three.
