Chapter 4: The Weight of Command
The heavy door clicked shut, leaving Arthur and Chloe alone once more in the quiet shadows of room 412. Arthur exhaled a long, measured breath, letting the tension drain slowly from his shoulders. He reached out and locked the door from the inside, ensuring no further interruptions could breach their sanctuary. He returned to the metal chair by the bedside, his military medals clinking softly against his chest as he sat back down.
"She suspects," Chloe whispered, her voice trembling as she clutched the blue blanket closer to her chin. "Grandma never lets go once she gets a scent. If she talks to the attending physician, or pulls a nurse aside..."
"She won't," Arthur said firmly, though his mind was racing. "I handled worse threats than my mother in hostile territory. But she is right about one thing: we cannot stay in this hospital much longer. Civilian medicine asks too many questions, and paper trails are impossible to erase completely."
Chloe looked down at her abdomen, wincing as a sharp wave of pain shot through her torso near the surgical site. "The surgeon told the nurses it was a complicated appendectomy with localized infection. But the nurses looked at me strangely when they changed my dressings this morning. They saw the shape of the incision. It doesn't look like an appendix removal, Dad. It looks like an extraction."
"Because it was," Arthur murmured, leaning in close so only she could hear. "The prototype data storage unit was surgically implanted during our extraction in Geneva to bypass border scans. When your appendix burst last week, the local doctors had to operate immediately. They found the foreign object, panicked, and sewed you back up while calling military intelligence. That is why men in unmarked suits have been pacing the parking garage for the past forty-eight hours."
Chloe’s eyes widened with horror. "They know it's in me? The government is looking for it?"
"They don't know you have it yet—they think the unit was lost with our transport vehicle," Arthur corrected quietly. "If they connect the missing device to your emergency surgery, they will quarantine this entire floor, confiscate your medical records, and take you to a black site to retrieve it by any means necessary. That is why I wore my uniform today. To remind them who I am, and how many people owe me favors."
May you like
Chloe shivered, the blue blanket offering little comfort against the deep chill of fear settling into her bones. "How long do we have?"
"Hours," Arthur replied, standing up to check the window blinds. "We check out tonight, whether the doctors approve or not."
