Chương 4
“Michael?”
A pause.
Then:
“Dr. Carter.”
“Where are you?”
“Behind the door.”
“Specific.”
A faint laugh.
Her patient had laughed once in the emergency department.
She remembered now.
Not after death.
Before.
For perhaps six seconds during resuscitation, he had regained enough consciousness to open his eyes.
Evelyn had leaned over him.
“Can you tell me your name?”
He had smiled weakly.
“You first.”
“Evelyn Carter.”
“Pretty.”
Then he had arrested.
She had forgotten the exchange until now.
“Michael,” she said, “what hospital were you in last night?”
“Mercy Regional.”
“What room?”
“Trauma Two.”
“What did I ask you?”
“Your name.”
“What did you answer?”
“You said yours first.”
Evelyn looked at Hannah.
That information could have been recorded.
Emergency departments were full of documentation, witnesses, microphones, cameras in hallways, electronic records.
Not impossible.
“What happened after midnight?” Evelyn asked.
“I woke up.”
“Where?”
“Still there.”
“You had no heartbeat.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“Who removed you?”
“Two men.”
“Names?”
“Didn’t ask.”
“How did you get here?”
“They brought me.”
“Why?”
“They thought I was still connected.”
“To Northstar?”
Silence.
“Michael?”
The fluorescent lights went out.
Claire gasped.
Someone dropped something metallic.
Evelyn immediately reached into her bag and found her flashlight.
“Everybody stay where you are.”
Four phone lights appeared almost simultaneously.
Ryan said, “Well, that was beautifully coordinated.”
The emergency lights came on several seconds later, bathing the platform in dull red.
Daniel looked toward Hannah.
“Did you know there was still power?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
She did not answer.
Evelyn said, “Because she turned it on.”
Daniel stared at her.
Hannah looked tired.
“When?”
“Before we arrived,” Evelyn said.
“How do you know?”
“The footprint.”
Evelyn pointed.
“Everyone here came through rain. The footprint beside the door is wet around the edges but dry inside the tread. It was made before the platform flooded. Hannah said you just arrived. Someone was here earlier.”
Daniel looked at Hannah.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“You told me you were getting groceries.”
“I did get groceries.”
Ryan murmured, “Technically—”
Claire elbowed him again.
“Ow.”
Daniel did not react.
“What did you do here?”
Hannah rubbed her forehead.
“I checked the generator. I checked the door. I wanted to make sure everything was still sealed.”
“Then why bring us here?”
“The storm changed.”
“You chose this route.”
“The county closed the western road.”
“You knew that would happen?”
“No.”
“You booked a cabin on the other side of a mountain from a place where you abandoned your brother.”
“I didn’t abandon him.”
“What would you call it?”
Hannah looked at him.
“I did what he asked.”
“Then why lie about it?”
That landed.
She had no answer.
Evelyn understood something then.
Hannah’s secret was not simply what had happened three years ago.
It was that part of her still believed she had done something unforgivable.
And another part believed she would do it again.
The voice behind the door said, “Open it.”
Evelyn ignored it.
“Michael, why did they bring you back?”
“Ask Hannah.”
“I’m asking you.”
“Because she knows.”
Hannah whispered, “Don’t talk to him.”
“Why?”
“He learns.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“What?”
“Every question. Every answer. Every reaction. That’s what the system does.”
Daniel said, “You said Michael worked on it.”
“He tried to shut it down.”
“Three years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Then who’s operating it now?”
Hannah looked toward the dark tunnel.
“I don’t know.”
A mechanical sound came from somewhere below them.
Not behind the door.
Under the platform.
A motor engaging.
Then another.
The old station shuddered.
Ryan looked upward.
“You said the cable was dead.”
“It is,” Hannah said.
A row of indicator lights illuminated across a rusted control panel.
One by one.
Green.
Green.
Amber.
Green.
At the far end of the station, somewhere inside the black cable tunnel, a wheel began to turn.
Slowly.
Claire said, “Can we please stop saying things are impossible right before they happen?”
That was when Evelyn’s phone rang.
The number was Mercy Regional.
She answered.
“Carter.”
A breathless voice.
“Evelyn, where are you?”
Dr. Samir Patel.
“North of Black Ridge.”
“Are you alone?”
“No.”
“Good. Stay that way.”
“What happened?”
“The body came back.”
Evelyn stared at the door.
“What?”
“The unidentified patient. Security found him.”
“Where?”
“Trauma Two.”
“That’s not possible.”
“I know what it sounds like.”
Evelyn looked at Hannah.
“Is he alive?”
“No.”
The word came with certainty.
Samir continued.
“He’s been dead for hours. Evelyn, I’m looking at him.”
Evelyn’s mouth went dry.
Behind the steel door, Michael said, “He isn’t looking at me.”
Samir heard it through the phone.
“Who said that?”
Evelyn did not answer.
“Evelyn?”
“Describe the body.”
“What?”
“Describe him.”
“Male, mid-thirties, brown hair, old clavicle fracture, surgical scar right knee—”
Hannah closed her eyes.
Samir continued.
“Same patient. Same hospital band. Same central line. Same clothes.”
“Central line?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn looked at the door.
The man behind it had been transported from Mercy Regional.
If so, he should have the right internal jugular line Evelyn had placed during resuscitation.
“Michael.”
“Yes?”
“Which side is your central line?”
Silence.
“Michael?”
“My right.”
Evelyn had inserted it on the left.
Hannah saw something change in her face.
“What?”
Evelyn raised one finger.
“Samir, what side?”
“Left.”
Evelyn ended the call.
The station seemed suddenly enormous around them.
Daniel said, “What did that mean?”
Evelyn looked at Hannah.
“The person behind that door was never in my emergency department.”
Michael laughed softly.
“That’s disappointing.”
Hannah began to cry.
Not loudly.
She sat down on the wet concrete as though her legs had simply stopped negotiating with her.
Daniel watched her.
For a moment, his anger lost its shape.
He crouched several feet away.
“Hannah.”
She covered her face.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“All of it.”
He did not move closer.
“What is behind the door?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I don’t.”
“Is it your brother?”
She lowered her hands.
“No.”
May you like
The answer came cleanly.
For the first time all night, without hesitation.
