Chapter 16 - The Knock on the Door
Two months passed in a blur of surgical precision and shifting city dynamics. The underground medical network flourished, treating those who fell through the cracks of the broken public healthcare system while maintaining an uneasy, untouchable truce with the syndicates.
Lena was working late in her private office, reviewing digital case logs, when a sharp, distinct knock echoed at her heavy steel door.
It wasn't the soft, deferential tap of a resident, nor the heavy stride of a Lombardi guard. It was a precise, rhythmic double-knock—a code she hadn't heard in over eight months.
Lena froze, her pen slipping from her fingers and rolling across the desk.
She stood up slowly, her hand instinctively dropping to the surgical scalpel holstered discreetly beneath her lab coat. She crossed the sterile room and pulled the heavy door open.
Standing in the dimly lit hallway was a woman in a mud-splattered trench coat, her face half-hidden beneath the brim of a wool cap. As she looked up, Lena’s breath caught in her throat.
It was Dr. Rafael Guzman’s younger sister, Clara—whom everyone, including the federal investigators, had believed was lost overseas during an academic expedition years ago.
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"Clara?" Lena whispered, pulling her frantically into the office and slamming the heavy steel door shut behind them. "My God... everyone said you were dead."
Clara slammed her canvas bag down on the desk, her eyes wide with a manic, desperate energy. "I was hiding, Lena. Just like you. Because Rafael didn't just leave behind a flash drive. He left a second key."
