CHAPTER 7 — "The 'Doctor' Walked Into Ethan's Room... But Shadow Had Been Waiting for Him."
The hospital immediately went into lockdown.
Every exit was sealed.
Security officers checked every doctor, every nurse, every visitor leaving the building.
But the mysterious man had already disappeared.
Marcus arrived less than ten minutes later.
"Replay every security camera," he ordered.
Technicians searched through hundreds of video feeds.
Nothing.
No suspicious visitor.
No unfamiliar doctor.
It was as if the man had never entered the hospital.
Then Nurse Emily noticed something strange.
"Wait... rewind Camera Twelve."
The footage rolled backward.
A doctor wearing a surgical mask pushed a medicine cart past Ethan's room.
Everything looked normal...
Until Shadow appeared.
The German Shepherd had been lying quietly outside the intensive care unit.
As the doctor passed, Shadow suddenly stood up.
His ears went rigid.
His body became tense.
He didn't bark.
He simply stared.
Then, instead of following Emily as he always did, Shadow silently followed the doctor down the hallway.
Marcus leaned closer to the screen.
"Keep playing."
The doctor turned a corner...
Then entered a staff-only storage room.
Thirty seconds later...
The same door opened.
But the person walking out wasn't wearing a doctor's coat anymore.
It was a maintenance worker.
Another minute later...
A janitor left through the rear service entrance.
Three different disguises.
One person.
Emily whispered, "He changed clothes inside the storage room."
Marcus and his officers rushed there immediately.
Inside, they found three discarded uniforms, a fake hospital ID, a wig, and several fingerprints.
But there was something else.
Hidden beneath the cart was a folded piece of paper.
Marcus carefully unfolded it.
Across the page, written in neat black ink, were the chilling words:
"You found the dog. You'll never find me."
Attached to the note was a small silver key.
The tag hanging from it read only one word:
LOCKER 217
Within minutes, officers opened the locker at the city's central train station.
Inside they found stacks of counterfeit passports, burner phones, bundles of cash...
...and dozens of photographs.
Marcus slowly flipped through them.
Every photo showed a rescued child.
On the back of each picture was a date.
Except the last one.
The final photograph showed a frightened little boy sitting inside a warehouse.
Across the bottom, someone had written in red marker:
"Midnight."
Emily looked at the station clock.
It was already 11:08 p.m.
They had less than an hour.
Without wasting another second, the entire task force raced toward the abandoned industrial district on the edge of the city.
What they didn't know...
The mastermind had been watching them through hidden cameras the entire time.
And this time...
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He had prepared a trap.
TO BE CONTINUED...
