CROWN OF DECEPTION

The Silent Floor

Diego woke up after hours of dreamless sleep, disoriented for a moment. It was already night.

He shot upright and checked the time on his phone. The glow from the screen illuminated the room.

6:42 PM.

Then the message caught his eye.

Grabbing a pair of jeans, a shirt, his keys, and his phone, he rushed downstairs. His father's office door was closed. He'd already returned to the company for an evening meeting.

Diego didn't stop to leave a note. He sprinted to his car and started the engine.

The engine roared to life at 6:45 p.m. St. George's was thirty-nine minutes away on a good night.

Tonight wouldn't be one of them.

At 6:51, the phone buzzed again.

Unknown number:

tick....tock, tick....tock.

His knuckles went white on the wheel. He hit the accelerator.

He called Lucas first, but it went straight to voicemail. Then he tried Kade, nothing.

“Damn it,” he muttered, swerving into the left lane. “Pick up. Pick up.”

At 7:03, another message came through. This one had an image attached.

The image showed Hillary lying motionless in bed, her eyes closed, tubes running from her arm while the monitors bathed her face in a pale glow.

The photo was recent. The IV bag hanging beside her was the same one from that morning.

Another notification lit up on his screen again. It was from the anonymous number; Why don’t we end this now? I’m freeing her.

Diego’s foot slammed down harder. The speedometer crept past 120.

His heart pounded, his throat went dry, and one word echoed through his mind.

Freeing.

"Hold on Hillary, I'm coming," he said to himself.

He reached St. George's nearly ten minutes faster than usual.

He took the stairs three at a time, ignoring the elevator. His thoughts were fixed on Room 312.

When he got to the room, it was empty. The nurses were clearing up the room.

"Where is she?"

The words came out sharper than he'd intended. The nurse recognized him—the young man she'd nearly refused entry to earlier that day. She glanced at the chart in her hand and looked back at Diego.

“She was transferred a while ago, Sir. To Wing C, Last floor, VVIP suite,”

“Transferred by whom?”

Diego didn’t wait for a reply and dashed out.

The elevator ride felt slower than the drive. His chest was tight, every floor number that lit up made his stomach drop lower.

When the doors opened on the 12th floor, the corridor was dead silent. No nurses’ station, no beeping monitors. Just thick carpet and a single door at the end, flanked by three men in all black.

Diego recognized them immediately.–Those had to be Kade's men.

If they'd moved Hillary without telling me, there were only two possibilities.

Either Lucas and Kade were one step ahead...

Or whoever had sent that photo was already inside.

Lucas was standing at the far end, facing the floor-to-ceiling window. Hands tucked into his pockets. The city lights painted his silhouette in gold and blue. His expression was tense and unusually grave.

Diego’s voice came out rough.

“Where’s Hillary?”

Lucas didn’t turn immediately. When he did, his eyes were heavy. “In there,” he nodded toward the door.

He didn’t wait for an explanation. He pushed past the guards, through the door.

The room was twice the size of 312. Softer lighting, medical equipment arranged orderly.

And there Hillary was, lying on a bigger bed, same tubes, but her complexion had improved. Her chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. The monitor read 72 bpm.

Diego’s knees almost gave out. He caught himself on the bedpost and slid down into the chair beside her, and let out a huge sigh.

For a long moment, he just watched her breathe. Lucas had already entered the room.

“Why did you move her?”

Lucas stepped in behind him. “Someone gained access to the hospital’s internal system, tried to pull her patient file and override the nurse call schedule for 312.”

Diego looked up sharply. “What?”

“Kade detected it in the backend logs." "Whoever it is knows the hospital layout and shift rotations. We couldn’t risk waiting to see what they tried next.” Lucas crossed his arms. “So we moved her, quietly. Only the attending, Kade, and the men know this room exists.”

Diego exhaled, long and shaky. The anger was still there, but it was sitting underneath relief now.

“You should’ve called me,” he said.

“The service here is pretty bad,” Lucas replied. “It wouldn’t go through,"

Diego leaned back, “Who could it be?” he muttered.

Kade sat in the far corner of the room, replaying surveillance footage on his laptop.The rhythmic tapping of his keyboard finally drew Diego's attention.

"I got messages from an anonymous number. One of them included a picture of Hillary in the room.” Diego paused briefly before turning to Kade. “Did someone enter her room?”

Kade’s eyes remained fixed on the monitor. “Yeah. Whoever it was attempted to tamper with her IV. The nurses noticed the changes before it was too late.”

Kade didn’t look up from the laptop. His fingers kept moving, rewinding, pausing, rewinding again.

“6:04 PM,” he said. “Nurse Matthews does the 6:00 med check."

"Yeah?" Diego cut in. "Any problem?"

"At 6:04, a guy in scrubs enters. He has a badge. He’s in there for 47 seconds.”

Diego was on his feet before he realized it. “Did he touch her?”

“He had a syringe in his hand,” Kade said flatly. “He was reaching for the IV line when Nurse Matthews walked back in. He played it off as checking the flow rate. From the footage, she didn’t buy it and called security.”

Lucas cursed under his breath. “And that’s when we moved her.”

Diego stared at Hillary, then back at the screen. “Show me.”

Kade hit play.

The footage was grainy, but clear enough. A man, maybe late 30s, average height, face half-hidden by a surgical mask and cap. He moved like he belonged there—calm, confident, and practiced. He didn’t flinch when the nurse walked in. Just smiled, said something, and walked out like he’d done nothing.

Diego’s jaw tightened. “You have his face?”

“Partial,” Kade said. “He kept it angled down. But I recovered the badge number. It doesn’t exist in the hospital system. He wasn’t supposed to be on that floor.”

Lucas stepped forward. “Which means someone inside gave him access. Or at least didn’t stop him.”

The room went quiet except for the steady beep of the monitor.

Diego ran a hand through his hair. “If he got in once, he’ll try again. And next time, Matthews might not walk in.”

“Which is why she’s not going back to 312,” Lucas said. "And we're not leaving her room."

Diego shook his head. “I want names. I want to know who gave him access.”

Kade finally looked up, eyes sharp. “I’m already pulling staff logs and door access records from 5:00 to 6:30. If someone signed him in, I’ll find it.”

“And the number?” Diego asked. “The one sending the messages?”

“It's a burner. We can't trace it,” Kade said. “But he used it to send the photo from inside the hospital Wi-Fi. That's where he slipped.” He tapped the screen. “I’ve got a location ping. It was active here, on the 3rd floor, at 7:02 PM.”

"Wait," Lucas narrowed his eyes at the screen. "He looked directly at the camera before leaving."

Diego and Lucas exchanged a look.

“The 3rd floor is admin and IT,” Lucas said quietly.

Diego's voice dropped to a calm whisper.

"Then let's pay the third floor a visit."