Chapter 9 - THE MAN IN THE WHITE COAT
Viktor was moved before dawn.
Not home.
Not to the hospital named in Konstantin’s schedule.
Detective Kim arranged a secure floor at a different medical center under an alias. Only six people knew the location.
Marina.
Andrey.
Ana.
Kim.
The attending physician.
And one federal agent.
Viktor complained the entire way.
“This is ridiculous.”
Andrey looked at him.
“Someone scheduled your next collapse.”
“I still have meeting Monday.”
“You do not.”
“I own company.”
“You are temporarily suspended by your son.”
Viktor glared.
Marina almost smiled.
“Enjoying this?” he asked.
“Immensely.”
By noon, Viktor was stable.
The suspicious medications had been removed.
His blood pressure improved.
He looked stronger than he had in weeks.
That frightened Andrey more.
It meant the weakness may not have been only stroke recovery.
Someone had been making his father sicker.
At 2:15 p.m., Ana left to get coffee.
At 2:23, a man in a white coat entered the secure hallway pushing a medication cart.
The federal agent stopped him.
He presented hospital credentials.
Valid.
At least on first scan.
The agent called the nurses’ station.
They confirmed a medication technician was scheduled.
The man passed.
Inside Viktor’s room, Marina sat near the window reviewing financial records while Andrey slept in a chair.
The technician smiled.
“Afternoon meds.”
Marina looked up.
Something about his shoes bothered her.
Not because they were unusual.
Because they were spotless.
Hospital staff walked miles a day.
These looked new.
“Which medications?” she asked.
He glanced at her.
“Routine.”
“Names?”
He smiled politely.
“Ma’am, I’ll confirm with the patient.”
“Confirm with me.”
Andrey opened his eyes.
The man’s expression changed.
Only for a second.
Then he reached into the cart.
Marina stood.
The motion was too fast.
Not toward pills.
Toward the lower drawer.
Andrey lunged.
The man pulled a syringe.
Marina grabbed the metal IV pole and swung it into his forearm.
The syringe flew.
Viktor shouted.
The federal agent burst through the door.
The man ran.
He made it into the hallway before security tackled him.
The syringe contained a powerful blood pressure medication in a potentially lethal dose.
The man was not hospital staff.
His badge had been cloned from an employee who called in sick that morning after receiving an anonymous text saying her shift was canceled.
The attacker’s name was Peter Voss.
Former private security.
Current contractor for Black Harbor Capital.
Andrey sat beside Viktor after police cleared the room.
His hands shook.
Marina noticed blood on his cuff.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Your hand.”
He looked.
A cut across his knuckle from hitting the medication cart.
Marina cleaned it.
Viktor watched.
“This is wedding night extended.”
Andrey stared at him.
“Dad.”
“What?”
“Stop making jokes about people trying to kill you.”
Viktor sighed.
“Fine.”
Marina wrapped the cut.
The attack changed the investigation.
Konstantin was no longer simply hiding.
He was acting.
That meant he still had resources.
Still believed he could win.
Peter Voss refused to talk.
His phone was encrypted.
But his car held something useful.
A parking receipt from a downtown hotel.
Security footage showed him meeting a man the night before.
Samuel Drazin.
The attorney who had supposedly become frightened of Konstantin.
Samuel had been rescued.
Samuel had claimed he wanted cooperation.
Samuel had also met the would-be attacker.
Detective Kim’s expression became ice.
They arrested Samuel at the hospital where he was recovering.
He immediately asked for counsel.
Marina felt anger rise.
“Every time we find someone who says they were manipulated, they turn out to be manipulating too.”
Kim nodded.
“That is why we verify.”
The same lesson again.
Verify.
Not because trust is foolish.
Because facts protect trust from being exploited.
Samuel’s phone records exposed even more.
He had been communicating with Konstantin after his supposed kidnapping.
The storage-unit confinement had been staged.
The bruises were real, but self-inflicted or arranged.
Samuel wanted to look like a victim so he could cooperate selectively and misdirect investigators.
The blood at the ranch garage?
His.
Placed there deliberately.
Viktor was furious.
Andrey was disgusted.
Marina was impressed despite herself.
“Konstantin plans three steps ahead.”
Detective Kim shook her head.
“No. He plans ten. But that creates ten places to make mistakes.”
One mistake surfaced that evening.
Samuel had stored a draft message in his email rather than sending it.
No transmission trail.
But investigators seized the account.
The draft read:
K — IF VOSS FAILS, USE GALA ROUTE. G WILL KNOW.
G.
Galina.
Andrey stared.
“She is still helping him?”
Kim did not jump to that conclusion.
“Or Samuel believes she knows something.”
They confronted Galina.
She went pale at the phrase “gala route.”
“What is it?” Marina asked.
Galina whispered, “The old hotel tunnel.”
Years ago, Gorin Development renovated the historic Bellamy Hotel downtown. During construction, Viktor discovered a service tunnel connecting the basement to an adjacent parking structure.
Konstantin knew about it from old project records.
Galina had used the tunnel once during a charity gala to avoid protestors.
“Where does it lead now?” Kim asked.
“Parking structure, level B3.”
Federal agents searched.
Behind a locked maintenance cage, they found supplies.
Cash.
Clothes.
A laptop charger.
And fresh food receipts.
Konstantin had been using the tunnel.
But again, he was gone.
On a concrete wall someone had written in marker:
MONDAY — BOARD 8:00.
Andrey’s face tightened.
The company board meeting.
Viktor was supposed to attend remotely.
The meeting would determine interim control after the scandal.
“What happens Monday?” Marina asked.
Andrey looked at her.
“If the board votes Dad incapacitated, they appoint an acting chair.”
“Who is nominated?”
He checked the agenda.
Then his face drained.
Samuel Drazin had filed the nomination before disappearing.
The candidate was Galina.
Even under investigation, the paperwork remained active unless withdrawn.
Konstantin’s entire plan still pointed toward the board.
Marina realized then that the attack on Viktor may not have been intended only to kill him.
A medical crisis on the eve of the vote would make permanent incapacity easier to argue.
“Cancel the meeting,” she said.
Viktor shook his head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
“We hold it.”
Andrey stared.
“Dad.”
“Konstantin wants board. We give board.”
Marina understood.
“A trap.”
Viktor nodded.
For the first time, the family would stop reacting.
They would choose the room.
The cameras.
The documents.
The moment.
And if Konstantin wanted control badly enough to come close, they would be waiting.
May you like
Keep reading in Chapter 10, because Monday’s board meeting became the stage for a final power grab—and Galina made a choice nobody in the room expected.
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