Before fear could stop her, she stepped past the security line while nurses hurried by. The ICU door stood slightly open as Dr. Bradley shouted orders in the hall.
Sofia slipped inside.
The machines were loud; the air was icy. Up close, the boy looked fragile. She climbed onto a stool and scanned the instrument tray. Her fingers closed around a pair of long stainless-steel forceps.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You have to hold on.”
With gentle fingers, she opened his mouth. His throat was red and swollen. At first, nothing. But Sofia knew it hid when the light hit it.
She picked up an otoscope and angled the beam deeper.
“Come out,” she murmured.
The boy coughed faintly.
There—a ripple near the entrance of the esophagus. Not mucus. Not tissue. Something alive.
Sofia inserted the forceps carefully. The metal touched his throat and alarms spiked.
“What are you doing?!” a nurse screamed from the doorway.
“Security!”
Footsteps thundered down the hall, but Sofia didn’t stop. She clamped down and pulled. Resistance. It clung stubbornly.
“I’ve got you,” she thought, and yanked with every ounce of grief she carried.
A guard grabbed her arm, dragging her backward. She fell—but kept hold.
Dangling from the forceps, writhing under the sterile lights, was a long reddish centipede, slick with blood and mucus, dozens of legs twisting wildly.
The nurse screamed.
On the bed, the boy gasped—one deep, clear breath. The rasping vanished. Oxygen levels climbed rapidly.
Dr. Bradley rushed in and froze at the sight. “My God…”
Sofia stood, rubbing her arm. “It was eating his air,” she said shakily. “Like it ate my dad’s.”
Dr. Bradley carefully placed the creature into a specimen jar. He examined its body, noting unnatural markings.
“This resembles Scolopendra gigantea,” he muttered, “but altered. This isn’t an illness. It’s engineered.”
The truth spread quickly. William Harrington’s son hadn’t been sick. He had been attacked.
When William saw his son breathing normally, he sobbed. When he saw the jar, his grief hardened into fury. That species didn’t belong in this region. Someone had put it there.
The hospital locked down. Security footage was reviewed. Sofia mentioned a “doctor” who smelled strongly of mint.
Hours later she pointed at the screen. “That one.”