Lauren made the choice.
It took less than a second.
“Gail,” she said, in a voice nobody in that room had ever heard from her.
Low, crisp, every syllable a command.
“Pull Code Pink.”
Gail Whitman stared at her.
“Now, Gail.”
Code Pink.
The infant abduction alert.
Every exterior door in the building locked.
Elevators froze.
Cameras flipped to recording.
Every security officer in the hospital was dispatched to the pediatric wing.
Gail hit the red wall station with her palm.
A shriek tore through the building.
Lights flashed amber.
The magnetic locks thunked shut like a series of gunshots.
“Cancel that!” Greiss screamed. “Cancel it! Nurse Pierce, I order you to cancel—”
Lauren stepped between Josie and the two men.
She pushed a loose lock of dark brown hair back behind her ear.
A thin pale scar showed above her right eyebrow.
Her sleeve slid up her left forearm, exposing a ridge of old burn tissue.
