Chapter 11 - The Final Warning
I stared at the pristine white paper inside the folder. It was a scanned copy of a handwritten note scrawled in Mark’s unmistakable, sharp handwriting, written from his cell in county lockup.
*Nora,* the note read.
*You think you saved her. You think removing the capsule stopped the clock.*
*You foolish woman. You never asked why the device needed an external radio transmitter if it was already inside her.*
*I wasn't the buyer. I was the courier.*
*They gave me the money to test it on a live subject. And now that you ruined the test, they want their property back.*
*Check her collarbone.*
My blood froze instantly. The hallway around me seemed to spin into a sickening vortex of terror.
"Detective... what does he mean?" I stammered, my heart slamming wildly against my ribs. "What collarbone?"
"We thought it was just him trying to torment you from inside a cell," Detective Reyes said, her face tightening with alarm as she saw my reaction. "Nora, did Hailey have any other medical procedures recently? Any minor surgeries?"
"Six months ago," I gasped, the memory striking me like a physical blow. "She fell off her bicycle. She had a hairline fracture on her left clavicle. Mark said he took her to an outpatient surgical center to get a dissolvable support pin inserted!"
Detective Reyes didn't hesitate. She threw open the door to Hailey’s room, calling out urgently down the corridor, "Get Dr. Adler up here with a portable ultrasound unit right now!"
Hailey looked up from her sketchbook, startled by the commotion. "Mom? What’s wrong?"
I rushed to her bedside, my hands trembling uncontrollably as I gently pulled down the collar of her hospital gown. Right above her left collarbone was a faint, two-inch surgical scar from that bicycle accident six months ago.
I pressed two fingers gently against the skin beneath the scar.
May you like
Beneath the soft tissue, completely undetectable unless you were searching for it, was a hard, cold, rectangular object the size of a matchstick.
And as my fingers brushed against it, a faint, rhythmic vibration pulsed beneath her skin—buzzing once, twice, three times—answering an external signal that had just locked onto her position from somewhere outside the hospital walls.
