“Excuse me,” I said, standing up and blocking the nurse’s path to the IV stand.

She jumped, nearly dropping the saline bag. Her eyes darted toward the door, where the shadows of the deputies were visible through the frosted glass. “I… I need to administer her medication, Mr. Carter. You need to step aside.”

I looked at her name tag. Brenda. Her hands were shaking violently.

“Brenda,” I said, keeping my voice soft, but injecting it with a terrifying authority. “I spent the last four years doing logistics for a joint federal task force. I know what an adrenaline protocol looks like. I also know what potassium chloride looks like when it’s not supposed to be there.”

Her face drained of all color.

“If you put that in her line, she’ll have a heart attack in sixty seconds. And I promise you, I won’t let you leave this room.” I took a half-step closer. “Did Travis pay you, or did he threaten you?”

A tear slipped down Brenda’s cheek. “My son,” she whispered frantically. “He got arrested for possession last week. The Sheriff said… he said the charges would vanish if I just helped Emily ‘go to sleep.’ I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

I felt a surge of disgust, but also an opportunity.

“Put the syringe on the table,” I commanded. She obeyed instantly. “Now, you’re going to help me, Brenda. If you do, I will personally ensure your son’s case is reviewed by a federal judge, completely out of Mercer’s jurisdiction. Do we have a deal?”

She nodded rapidly, terrified but desperate.

“Good. I need to leave this hospital for exactly twenty minutes without those deputies knowing. How?”

Brenda swallowed hard. “The laundry chute at the end of the hall goes down to the basement loading dock. The cameras down there are broken. But the deputies will check this room every ten minutes.”

“Then you’re going to sit in that chair,” I pointed to the corner. “And you’re going to read Emily a magazine. If they look through the window, they see you doing your job. If they come in, you tell them I went to the cafeteria to get coffee.”

I didn’t wait for her to agree again. I slipped out the heavy door, keeping my head down, mirroring the slow, exhausted shuffle of a grieving family member. The deputies barely glanced at me as I turned the corner.

Once out of sight, I moved with military precision. Down the stairwell, slipping past the third-floor laundry room, I forced the rusty latch of the heavy steel chute and slid down two stories in the dark, landing in a pile of soiled hospital linens in the basement.

I bolted out of the loading dock into the muggy night air. I sprinted the three blocks to the pediatric clinic. It was closed, the lights off, the front doors locked.

I circled to the back, found a loose window in the alley, and shattered it with a wrapped fist. I climbed in, ignoring the slice of glass through my sleeve. The clinic was quiet. I tore through the waiting room, checking the toy chests, the counters, the lost-and-found bin behind the receptionist’s desk.

Nothing.

Panic, cold and sharp, clawed at my throat. I looked at the clock. 8:45 PM.

Then I saw it. Sitting on a shelf behind the doctor’s counter, waiting to be claimed by a crying child. A ragged, brown teddy bear with a torn seam in its back.

I snatched it, ripped the stuffing out, and felt the hard, cold edges of a metal USB drive.

I breathed a sigh of relief. I had the bomb. Now I needed to build the detonator.

I made it back to the hospital basement, taking the service elevator up to the second floor, and walked up the stairs to the third. As I approached Emily’s room, I heard voices. Angry voices.

I peeked around the corner. Deputy Nolan and the other officer were standing outside the door, arguing with Brenda.

“I don’t care if he went for coffee, Brenda! The Sheriff said lockdown!” Nolan barked.

I stepped out of the shadows, holding two stale cups of cafeteria coffee. “Is there a problem, officers?”

Nolan spun around, his hand on his gun. He looked rattled. Sweat was beading on his forehead. He looked at me, then at the coffee, then back at his partner.

“Hospital wing is on lockdown, Carter,” Nolan said, his voice trembling slightly. “Security threat. Someone broke into the clinic down the street. We’re moving your wife to a secure floor. And you’re coming with us to the station for questioning.”

Nolan stepped forward, pulling a pair of steel handcuffs from his belt.

He wasn’t acting like a confident corrupt cop anymore. He was acting like a man who realized he was in way over his head. And that was exactly the leverage I needed.