Chapter 3Sugar Water And Thirty Six Graves

I violently surged upward, the metal chair screaming against the floor as the chain snapped taut.

"It's moving too fast! The toxins are already binding to the myocardium!" I shouted, the panic clawing at my throat. "Grab the serum! Put me in the back of the cruiser with the sirens on! We might still have a window to reverse it!"

Brody stood paralyzed, the weight of the badge suddenly too heavy for him.

"The trauma center in Boston couldn't reverse this. You're telling me you can?"

I ground my teeth together, a primal roar tearing from my chest.

"That serum is the culmination of a century of Institute research! I am the only person on this continent with the biometric clearance to unlock the stabilizing protocol! Every sixty seconds you stand here debating, another person stops breathing!"

"Make the call, Captain! Do you let me do my job, or do you stand there and let thirty-six civilians die because of a mean-girl prank?!"

Brody was actively drowning in indecision. He looked at Kate, searching for an out. "Is it true? Is he the only one who can administer it?"

Kate let out a sharp, derisive laugh.

"Oh, please. It's not magic," she scoffed. "A cure-all serum? It's pseudo-science garbage. He's carrying around a thermos of sugar water and saline. A dog wouldn't even drink it. Just wait for the lab results. You'll see I'm right."

I was losing my mind. "The lab takes three days! They’ll be in body bags by midnight!"

"Give me your phone," I demanded, straining against the cuffs. "Call Dr. Warren, the Chief of Medicine at the hospital. Let him tell you!"

Brody stared at the sweat pouring down my face. Against his better judgment, he pulled out his phone, unlocked it, and dialed the number I rattled off. He put it on speaker and set it on the table.

Instantly, the line connected. A barrage of screaming, alarms, and absolute chaos flooded the interrogation room.

"Tom?! Where the hell are you?!" Dr. Warren's voice was ragged, practically a shriek. "This synthetic variant is tearing them apart! G-7 is the only antagonist that will bind to it! You're the only one who knows the titration schedule! Who's supposed to run the cascade if you're not here?!"

"Jesus Christ, the Mayor's office begged the feds to fly you in! Where are you?!"

"Seven of them are in V-fib! They're crashing!"

Warren was sobbing now. A grown man, a veteran surgeon, weeping into the receiver.

"Did you hear him?" I whispered, my eyes locked onto Brody with dead, cold intensity. "Because of your hesitation, even if I save the ones who are left, they will suffer permanent neurological damage."

The room was so quiet you could hear the hum of the fluorescent lights. Brody reached for his keys, stepping toward me to unlock the cuffs.

"You guys aren't seriously buying this performance, are you?"

Kate stepped directly into Brody's path, blocking him from me. She crossed her arms, offering a condescending smirk.

"We live in the era of deepfakes, Captain. AI voice cloning is a twenty-dollar app. He knows his secondary poisoning plan is blown, so he's improvising an escape route."

She snatched Brody's phone from the table, tapping the screen aggressively. "Look at this! The caller ID says 'Unknown.' The area code doesn't even match the hospital's registry. He had his little domestic terror buddies set up a spoofed number to trick you!"

The last thread of my sanity snapped.

"Give me the phone!" I lunged, the heavy table dragging an inch across the floor.

Kate stepped back, her smile widening into a rictus of pure malice. She raised the phone high and hurled it onto the concrete floor. She brought her designer heel down on the screen.

Crunch.

She ground her heel into the glass, destroying the processor, obliterating my last lifeline.

"Trying to call your sleeper cell for an extraction? I don't think so," she hummed, looking at Brody like she had just saved his life.

"Captain, use your detective skills. If he was really a top-tier government scientist dispatched by the state, where is his federal escort? Where is his Secret Service detail? Why did he show up in an Uber with a plastic ID badge?"

She grabbed Brody's forearm, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "If he was a god-tier doctor, essential to the survival of the city, why would his own trusted apprentice turn him in?"

Kate flashed a dazzling, pageant-ready smile. "Furthermore, if it was really an emergency, why didn't he call this 'Dr. Warren' before he got arrested?"

"I'm telling you, he got caught trying to poison the water supply, and now he's trying to manufacture a crisis so you'll un-cuff him and let him walk out the front door."

Brody blinked, the paranoia washing over him like a tidal wave. He stepped back from me, tucking his keys back into his belt.

"Hold him here," Brody said, his voice thick with anxiety. "I'm not making a move until I have a federal liaison verify his identity."

All the color drained from my face. "Brody, no! The timeline is over! They're dying right now!"

"Sit down and shut up," Brody barked. "If you're who you say you are, a few minutes won't matter."

The words had barely left his mouth when the wail of the city’s emergency broadcast system bled through the precinct windows. A horrific, sustained siren.

A patrol officer burst into the room, his radio crackling with panicked chatter.

"Captain! It's a mass casualty event! Multiple simultaneous fatalities at the hospital!"

"The press broke the embargo. The Governor just activated the National Guard, and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is already en route!"