A man in a white coat entered during a shift change. The ID badge was fake. Police identified him as Adrian Cross, a former business partner of William Harrington who had lost everything in a lawsuit and sworn revenge. He had spent years studying exotic insects and venoms abroad.
Cross had bred parasites genetically modified to grow slowly, blending with human tissue and escaping detection. They needed a chemical activator to continue developing. Without it, they would die.
Police suspected he would return that night to administer it.
They staged a trap. The boy was moved. A dummy lay under the sheets.
At 3 a.m., the door opened. A figure slipped inside with a syringe. As he leaned over the bed, lights blazed on.
“Police! Don’t move!”
Cross tried to flee but was tackled. In his briefcase were more jars and a list of names—children of board members he blamed for his ruin.
During interrogation, he confessed chilling details. Months earlier he had tested his creation on a random patient at a public hospital.
That patient had been Sofia’s father.