Chương 4
“I'm making two encrypted copies of the access logs.”
Sloane's voice came through the ceiling speaker.
“Mr. Reed, disconnect from the archive system immediately.”
Noah froze.
A second later, his workstation displayed a red banner.
ADMINISTRATIVE LOCKDOWN.
Marcus stood.
“She cut the network.”
Noah tried another terminal.
“Local network, not satellite.”
“Can she do that?”
“She has station director authority.”
Marcus reached inside his coat for his phone, looked at the blank signal indicator, and put it back.
Evelyn almost laughed.
They were five hundred miles from the kind of place where a cell tower mattered.
Noah opened a maintenance interface.
“Sloane initiated a data-integrity hold.”
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn asked.
“It prevents changes to clinical systems.”
“That sounds useful.”
“It also prevents exports.”
Marcus leaned over his shoulder.
“Can you override it?”
“Probably.”
“Do it.”
Noah did not move.
Marcus looked at him.
“What?”
“If I override a medical privacy lock on your verbal instruction, I'm the only person whose name appears in the log.”
Marcus's expression changed.
Noah turned in the chair.
“If you want it overridden, use your executive credential.”
Marcus glanced toward Evelyn.
She understood before Noah did.
Using that credential would create a record proving Marcus had personally intervened.
No lawyer between him and the action.
No subordinate.
No ambiguity.
“Interesting,” Evelyn said.
Marcus ignored her.
“What happens if we don't?”
Noah studied the screen.
“The archive remains read-only until the hold clears.”
“Can anything be deleted?”
“Not normally.”
“Normally?”
“Sloane has root authority on the local clinical server.”
Marcus swore under his breath.
Evelyn leaned closer.
“Can she erase the old records?”
“Not without traces.”
“That wasn't my question.”
Noah rubbed his thumb against the tablet again.
“She can alter what remains locally.”
“Do you have copies?”
“I have the comparison data and the access log.”
“All of it?”
“No.”
“Then get it.”
Sloane's voice returned over the speaker.
“Evelyn, you are not authorized to copy Lena Ward's medical record.”
Evelyn stared up.
Sloane could see them through the laboratory cameras.
She had forgotten that.
“Turn the camera off,” Evelyn said.
Noah shook his head.
“Don't.”
“Why?”
“Because right now it records that we are not tampering with the capsule.”
Evelyn looked at the small black dome in the ceiling.
She hated that he was right again.
Marcus walked beneath it.
“Miriam. We need to speak privately.”
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“You don't get to say no.”
“You are not station director.”
“I own the company.”
“You own shares in the company. This facility operates under medical governance.”
Even Evelyn had to appreciate that.
Marcus did not.
“I want you in this laboratory in two minutes.”
“You want many things.”
The speaker clicked off.
Noah looked at Evelyn.
“She's usually nicer.”
Evelyn stared at him.
He shrugged.
“Nerves.”
For some reason, that nearly made her smile.
It was 9:17 p.m.
Outside, the blizzard erased the world.
Inside, the station continued doing ordinary things.
A dryer finished a cycle somewhere below them.
A pressure valve clicked.
Someone rolled a cart through the east corridor.
The absurdity of it made Evelyn dizzy.
Twelve years of her life had just collapsed, and somewhere in the building towels were drying.
Marcus removed his coat and draped it over a chair.
Underneath, his black suit looked ridiculous in the laboratory.
“You knew I was coming here,” Evelyn said.
“Yes.”
“You approved my contract.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“The security team recommended you.”
“That isn't an answer.”
Marcus rubbed his eyes.
“Because you're good.”
“You spent six years paying lawyers to keep me away from your records.”
“And now I pay you to find weaknesses in them.”
“That's supposed to sound enlightened?”
“No.”
He sat again.
“I thought it sounded practical.”
Evelyn walked to the window.
Wind drove snow sideways across the external lights.
She could see nothing beyond thirty feet.
“When Elise died, did you know what Sloane was doing?”
“I knew the therapy had gone outside protocol.”
“How far?”
“We were trying to keep your daughter alive.”
“Don't use that sentence to make yourself noble.”
“I wasn't.”
He sounded tired rather than defensive.
That made it harder to hate him efficiently.
Marcus looked at the floor.
“The approved therapy failed. She developed a systemic inflammatory response. Sloane requested emergency authorization for a modified cellular infusion.”
“From whom?”
“From me.”
Evelyn turned.
“You authorized an unapproved treatment on my child.”
“I authorized doctors to try to keep her alive.”
“Without asking me.”
“There wasn't time.”
“There was time to ask you.”
His mouth tightened.
“Yes.”
The answer silenced her for a moment.
Noah stopped typing.
Marcus continued.
“She arrested forty minutes later.”
Evelyn could hear the old hospital monitor in her head.
Not because she had been present.
She had not.
That was the point.
They had removed her from the treatment room when Elise began convulsing.
A nurse named Karen had brought Evelyn water she never drank.
Twenty-three minutes later, someone asked whether there was a family member they could call.
It was the way they asked that told her Elise was dying.
“I was told they couldn't resuscitate her,” Evelyn said.
“So was I.”
“By Miriam.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to the body?”
“I told you. I don't know.”
“You signed the transfer.”
“I signed paperwork.”
“That sentence is why people hate executives.”
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
He looked at her.
“I might be learning.”
The laboratory door opened.
Sloane entered alone.
She carried a paper cup.
Steam rose from it.
She placed it on a counter before taking off her gloves.
The ordinary movement enraged Evelyn more than if Sloane had come in shouting.
“Where is she?”
“In her room.”
“You locked her in?”
“No.”
“Can she leave?”
“Yes.”
“Can she leave this facility?”
Sloane glanced toward the windows.
“No one can leave this facility tonight.”
“That isn't what I meant.”
“I know.”
Marcus stepped toward her.
“Did Elise Cross die?”
Sloane looked at him.
“No.”
The word was almost gentle.
May you like
Marcus's face went slack.
Evelyn expected something dramatic inside herself.
