CHAPTER 9: NINE SECONDS IN DARKNESS

The backup generators activated nine seconds later.

For Amelia, those nine seconds lasted longer than seven hours.

She reached the NICU doors before Mara could stop her.

“Theo!”

Nurses surrounded the incubator.

One manually pumped oxygen into the baby’s lungs while another checked the monitor.

“His heart rate is returning,” Dr. Shah said.

Amelia gripped the glass.

“What happened?”

“Temporary power interruption.”

“Was he without oxygen?”

“For only a few seconds.”

“Will it hurt him?”

“We don’t believe so.”

A security guard entered the room.

“The power failure affected only this floor.”

Mara looked at him.

“That isn’t possible.”

“The main hospital system remained operational.”

“Then someone shut down this specific circuit.”

The guard did not answer.

Noah arrived minutes later.

He had heard the emergency call over the department radio.

When he saw Amelia, he immediately understood.

“Is the baby all right?”

“For now.”

Noah looked toward the security cameras.

“Who has access to the hospital electrical rooms?”

“Maintenance and senior security.”

Mara held up the hotel key card.

“And anyone carrying copied credentials.”

Security searched the floor.

They found an open service door, a cut alarm wire, and a hospital uniform abandoned near the stairwell.

Inside one pocket was a visitor badge.

The name printed on it was Ethan Carter.

Detective Grant stared at Ethan.

“Where were you during the blackout?”

“In the police interview room.”

“With witnesses?”

“Yes.”

The detective examined the badge.

“Then someone wants us to think you were involved.”

Ethan looked at Amelia through the NICU glass.

She did not look back.

Noah crouched beside the discarded uniform.

A faint smell rose from the fabric.

Smoke.

Not fresh smoke.

The chemical smell of burned industrial insulation.

Noah knew that smell.

He had smelled it as a child when firefighters returned his father’s belongings after the Whitmore Mill fire.

Inside the uniform’s second pocket, he found a blackened metal tag.

The number stamped into it was:

STATION 17.

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