Chicago General Hospital at six in the morning looked like any other hospital. Tired medical staff changing shifts, delivery trucks unloading supplies, early visitors carrying flowers and get-well cards. What it didn't look like was a heavily fortified government facility preparing to harvest a genetically modified baby.
But Scarlett's enhanced vision was picking up details that normal people would miss. The maintenance workers who moved like soldiers. The delivery drivers who kept checking their watches and speaking into hidden microphones. The visitors who were all carrying bags that were probably full of weapons.
"Maternity ward is on the seventh floor," Victoria said, studying the hospital layout on her stolen tablet. "But there's also a restricted area in the basement that's not on any public floor plan. That's probably where they have the real monitoring equipment."
Sarah had abandoned her wheelchair in favor of a pair of mechanical leg braces that let her walk almost normally. The technology was impressive, but Scarlett could see the pain in her face with every step.
"How do we get past all the security?" Scarlett asked.
"We don't. We walk right through the front door like we belong here." Victoria pulled three ID badges out of her jacket. "I've been planning this since yesterday. These will get us into any part of the hospital except the basement levels."
The badges identified them as Dr. Sarah Chen (Pediatrics), Dr. Victoria Webb (Obstetrics), and Dr. Scarlett Morrison (Anesthesiology). Someone had done their homework on creating false identities.
"Dr. Morrison?" Scarlett said. "Really?"
"I thought you'd appreciate the irony. Now let's go save a baby."
They walked into the hospital lobby like they owned the place. Victoria's stolen scrubs fit perfectly, Sarah looked like any other doctor despite her facial scarring, and Scarlett had found a white coat that made her blend in with the medical staff.
The elevator ride to the seventh floor felt endless. Each floor they passed could have been full of government agents waiting to arrest them. Each ding of the floor indicator could have been followed by doors opening on a squad of armed tactical officers.
But when they reached the maternity ward, everything looked normal. Nurses pushing medication carts, new parents walking the halls with their babies, the kind of controlled chaos that happened in hospitals every day.
"Room 714," Victoria said quietly. "That's where they have Number Twelve."
As they walked down the hallway, Scarlett could hear a woman screaming. Not the normal sounds of childbirth, but something deeper. Something that sounded like genuine terror.
"That's not labor pain," Sarah said.
They reached room 714 and looked through the small window in the door. What they saw made Scarlett's blood run cold.
The woman on the bed looked exactly like Sarah had before the car bomb scarred her face. Same hair, same build, even the same expression of stubborn determination that Sarah had always worn when she was facing something difficult. But she was strapped to the bed with restraints that looked more like prison equipment than medical devices.
Marcus was standing next to the bed, wearing scrubs and holding what looked like a large syringe filled with something that definitely wasn't standard medication.
"They're not delivering the baby naturally," Victoria whispered. "They're extracting it surgically."
There were six other people in the room. Two doctors Scarlett didn't recognize, two nurses who moved like security personnel, and two men in suits who were definitely government agents. All of them were focused on the woman on the bed, who was now screaming Marcus's name and begging him to stop whatever they were doing to her.
"She knows," Sarah said. "Something broke through her programming. She remembers who Marcus really is."
*System override detected in Number Twelve. Programming integrity at 23% and falling.*
The system message appeared in all their visions simultaneously. Whatever was happening to the woman on the bed, it was breaking down the mental barriers that had been keeping her from remembering her real identity.
"This is our chance," Victoria said. "If her programming is failing, we can get through to her."
"First we need to get past six armed professionals and whatever security they have posted in the hallway," Scarlett said.
Sarah was already moving toward the door. "Leave that to me. Victoria, you get the woman and the baby out safely. Scarlett, you handle Marcus."
"Handle him how?"
"However you think is appropriate for someone who's been murdering women for five years."
Sarah pushed open the door and walked into the room like she belonged there. The effect was immediate and dramatic. Number Twelve stopped screaming and stared at Sarah with an expression of complete shock.
"You're dead," the woman whispered.
"So are you. But we got better." Sarah pulled out the system override device. "Hold still. This is going to hurt, but it'll give you your real memories back."
The government agents were reaching for their weapons, but Victoria was already moving. She grabbed a tray of medical instruments and threw it at the nearest agent, then tackled one of the fake nurses before he could draw his gun.
Scarlett focused on Marcus. He was backing toward the window, still holding the syringe, his face pale with shock.
"Hello, husband," she said.
"You're supposed to be dead," he said.
"I was. Your friend Sarah made sure of that. But the thing about the Blood Queen program is, death is just a temporary inconvenience." Scarlett took a step toward him. "Did you love me at all, or was the whole marriage just part of your job?"
Marcus looked like he was going to be sick. "Scarlett, you don't understand. The program, the resurrections, all of it is necessary. We're preparing for something bigger than you can imagine."
"Try me."
"The genetic material we found in Nevada wasn't just alien DNA. It was a message. A warning. Something is coming to Earth, something that makes the Blood Queen program look like a children's game." Marcus was against the window now, with nowhere left to go. "We need weapons that can fight things that aren't human. We need soldiers who can't be killed."
On the bed, Number Twelve was screaming again, but this time it was different. Sarah had activated the override device, and the woman's memories were flooding back. Not just her programmed identity as Sarah Morrison, but her real identity as Blood Queen Twelve.
"My name is Elena Rodriguez," the woman gasped. "I was a Marine. I died in Afghanistan three years ago. They brought me back and made me forget who I was."
The baby chose that moment to make its entrance into the world. Elena's body convulsed, and suddenly there was a tiny cry that cut through all the chaos in the room.
Victoria caught the baby as it was born, and immediately Scarlett could see that something was different about it. The infant was glowing. Not brightly, just a soft blue radiance that seemed to pulse with its heartbeat.
"Subject Omega has been successfully delivered," one of the government doctors said into his radio. "Initiating extraction protocol."
"No," Elena said, struggling against her restraints. "That's my baby. Don't you touch my baby."
Sarah pointed the override device at Elena again, and this time the effect was even more dramatic. Elena's eyes went completely black for a moment, then returned to normal. When she looked at Marcus, her expression was pure hatred.
"You lying piece of trash," she said. "You made me think I loved you. You made me think I wanted to have your baby."
"The baby isn't mine," Marcus said quietly. "The baby belongs to all of us."
That's when Scarlett realized what he meant. The baby was glowing because it carried genetic material from all twelve Blood Queens, plus whatever alien DNA they'd recovered in Nevada. It wasn't just a hybrid. It was the next step in human evolution.
And everyone in that room was going to kill to control it.