CHAPTER 4 — The Scar That Held the Truth
Emily barely slept.
The anonymous message haunted her.
"Check the scar behind his left ear."
Who had sent it?
A friend?
A witness?
Or someone setting a trap?
The next morning, she walked back into Alexander Blackwood's room pretending everything was normal.
Damien had doubled the security outside the suite.
Two armed guards now stood at the door.
New surveillance cameras had appeared overnight.
Someone was nervous.
Very nervous.
Emily smiled politely as she began Alexander's morning care.
She checked his pulse.
His oxygen level.
His blood pressure.
Then, while pretending to adjust his pillow, she gently brushed his hair aside.
There it was.
The small scar behind his left ear.
It looked harmless.
But when her fingertips passed over it...
She felt something hard beneath the skin.
Not bone.
Metal.
Her heart skipped.
A tiny implant.
Someone had surgically placed a device inside Alexander's head.
She glanced toward the security camera.
It couldn't see the back of his neck.
Quickly, she used a penlight.
Hidden beneath the hairline was an almost invisible serial number.
NX-47.
She memorized it before covering the scar again.
Just then...
Alexander's eyelids trembled.
Only for a second.
Emily leaned closer.
"Can you hear me?"
No answer.
But his heartbeat jumped from 68 to 91.
The monitor screamed.
Immediately the room filled with people.
Dr. Warren rushed inside.
"Step away from him!"
Emily obeyed.
But she noticed something horrifying.
Instead of checking Alexander...
Dr. Warren hurried straight toward the medication cabinet.
He grabbed another unlabeled syringe.
Without hesitation...
He injected it into Alexander's IV.
Within seconds...
His heartbeat slowed again.
His eyelids stopped moving.
Everything became perfectly still.
Too still.
Emily finally understood.
Every time Alexander showed signs of waking...
Someone drugged him back into silence.
That evening, Emily secretly searched the serial number online.
Nothing.
Every medical database returned zero results.
Then she searched military research records.
One classified article caught her attention.
NX-47 – Experimental Neural Suppression Implant.
Developed years earlier.
Cancelled after human rights violations.
Capable of blocking voluntary movement while leaving consciousness partially intact.
Emily stared at the screen.
Her blood turned cold.
Alexander hadn't been unconscious.
He had been trapped inside his own body...
May you like
Listening to everything.
For over two years.
