Page 57 of Hollow State

"Take this." Liam handed him his security card. "This will open the door you came in through. But it will also open most secure doors in the building. However, it will tell security it's me, so use it sparingly."

"How will you get around?"

"I'm going to text my assistant to meet me. She'll help me move around the hospital," Liam said. "Don't you worry about anything but getting out of here. Do you remember how?"

"I do," Darwin said.

"And take my white coat." Liam shrugged out of his coat. "Take care of yourself. And I hope to meet that girlfriend of yours one day. I know Sarah would like that, too."

"Thanks for your help." Darwin pushed his arms through the sleeves and stuffed the card into the pocket.

Liam squeezed his arm. "When we walk out of this door, I'm going left. You go right. Are you ready?"

"Let's do this." Darwin had no idea what stood outside the door. All he knew was that Liam had a family to get home to.

And so did Darwin.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Darwin shoved the comms piece into his ear as he stepped out into the hallway behind Liam, who’d turned left and continued walking without glancing over his shoulder.

"I've been compromised," Darwin whispered as he rounded the corner with his heart lodged in his throat.

"We heard." Coulter came in low and clear. "Gideon's got you on the tracker, and he's pinging your location back to me."

"Heading for the courtyard." Darwin kept his focus on the floor, making sure he didn't make eye contact with anyone.

"Take it nice and easy," Coulter said. "Don't draw any unnecessary attention to yourself."

He understood the drill. All those years in the military hadn’t just disappeared.

The noises of the hospital were familiar and calming. As he strolled past the desk, he noted the charge nurse had a phone against her shoulder and one hand up telling somebody behind her to wait. Two porters had pulled their beds against the wall and appeared to be awaiting orders. Down at the far end, a set of doors banged against the stops and the sound rolled the length of the corridor.

Any other day, this would be Darwin's home. It was his environment, and he wasn't about to deny that. But home had a different meaning these days. It wasn't about the bunker as much as it was about the people he'd come to call family.

And Wynn.

She was his heart. His everything.

He reached the end of the hall, turned left, and abruptly stopped.

Three men stood between him and the courtyard door. Two in-house security uniforms with radios up on the shoulder. The third wore a uniform exactly like Quinn's.

This wasn’t good. Darwin turned sideways, lifted the folder, and opened it. "I've got guards and a cop at the door. No way I'm getting out the way I came in." He stole a quick glance down the hallway. "Too risky to move past them. Moving deeper into the hospital—exit somewhere in the middle on the south side."

"Do it," Coulter said. "We've got your signal. If you go into an elevator, tell us. Gideon and Zadie are working on getting into the hospital system, and Quinn's already inside the building, so he should be able to help."

Darwin tucked the file back under his arm and moved past the charge nurse at a brisk pace, as if he had somewhere urgent to be. Nothing new for a doctor. Every third step, his toe reminded him that it was broken.

"Gideon and Zadie are patched in," Coulter said.

"I'm listening."

"You copy?" Gideon asked.

"Yup." Darwin kept it short as he made a left turn. He released the air in his lungs when the corridor was all clear.

"Zadie and I have accessed the mainframe of the hospital," Gideon said. "Instead of you using the keycard, I'm going to open and close doors for you. It’ll make things faster."