Chapter 7 - The Interrogation Room
The air inside the primary lab was freezing cold, smelling faintly of ozone, bleach, and old copper. Arthur was shoved roughly into a heavy metal chair bolted securely to the center of the polished concrete floor. The tactical guards stepped back into the shadows near the reinforced exit, their dark visors reflecting the harsh, overhead halogen spotlight that beat down mercilessly on the top of Arthur’s head.
Julian was pushed into an identical chair a few feet to his right, his right wrist visibly swelling where the rifle stock had struck him. Across the metal table sat Director Miller, resting his folded hands neatly on the stainless-steel surface. Elena stood quietly in the corner of the room, her head bowed, her hands clasped tightly together in front of her light blue uniform.
“Now,” Miller began, his voice dangerously soft and measured. “Let’s skip the bureaucratic posturing. Who authorized your department to dig into the St. Jude historical archives? Because standard auditors don't know the exact encryption keys to access sub-level surveillance logs.”
Arthur spat a small drop of blood from his lower lip onto the concrete floor, lifting his chin to meet the administrator’s piercing gaze.
“Nobody authorized us, Miller,” Arthur said, his voice raspy but defiant. “We found an anomaly in the payroll records six months ago. Over three hundred thousand dollars funneled into a phantom medical supply account every single month. We followed the money, and the money led straight to your private basement.”
Miller’s expression didn't change, but a muscle in his jaw twitched slightly. He leaned back in his chair, tapping a single finger against the tabletop.
“Money requires maintenance, Arthur. Keeping three dozen terminal patients alive in an isolated underground facility with state-of-the-art life support isn't cheap,” Miller said, as if explaining basic economics to a slow student. “Those people were the first wave of a proprietary immune therapy our pharmaceutical partners spent billions developing. When the trial went sideways, the board wanted to terminate the subjects to bury the liability. I refused. I kept them alive down here, hidden away from the world.”
Julian let out a harsh, bitter laugh from his chair, shaking his head in disbelief.
“You call this keeping them alive?” Julian snapped, his voice sharp with fury. “They’re trapped in a concrete box with no sunlight, no legal rights, and no freedom! You’re not a savior, Miller, you’re a warden running a human warehouse!”
“They are living history, Detective!” Miller shot back, his polite facade slipping for a fraction of a second, revealing the cold, ruthless ambition underneath. “And their immunity holds the genetic blueprint for a multi-billion-dollar vaccine. Once our partners finalize the synthesis next week, every single one of them will be safely transferred to a private sanitarium in Switzerland. But you two couldn't wait one more week, could you?”
Arthur stared at Miller, realizing the terrifying magnitude of what they had uncovered. This wasn't just corporate corruption; it was an illegal, off-the-books medical imprisonment operation backed by billions in pharmaceutical capital.
“You’re never going to Switzerland, Miller,” Arthur said quietly, a grim smile forming on his bruised lips. “The data packet we pulled from the terminal didn't stay on our local hard drive. Ten minutes before we came down here, our automated system mirrored every single file directly to an independent federal server off-site.”
Miller froze. The calm, calculated composure he had maintained all evening fractured completely. He stood up so fast his metal chair screeched loudly against the floor.
“What did you say?” Miller demanded, leaning across the table, his face inches from Arthur’s.
May you like
Before Arthur could answer, the entire laboratory plunged into pitch blackness as the primary power grid failed with a deafening groan.
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