Chapter 26 - The Zero-Second Window
"Clara, check the legacy archives in Chicago Memorial!" Olivia yelled into the headset while typing with furious speed. "Search pediatric oncology records, eight years ago. Patient name: Genevieve Sterling!"
"Searching!" Clara yelled back over the deafening wail of alarms. "Olivia, Ethan’s pulse is thready! His skin is mottling! We’re starting chest compressions!"
"One, two, three, four..." Dr. Hayes’s strained voice could be heard in the background, rhythmically compressing the infant’s chest.
"Got it!" Clara shrieked. "Genevieve Sterling, admitted October 14, 2016. Medical Record Number: 9-0-4-delta-echo-7-7-1!"
Olivia slammed the sequence into the Swiss console's administrative command line.
The screen flashed bright amber. A single prompt appeared:
`EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN DETECTED. BIOLOGICAL CARRIER OVERRIDE REQUIRES DUAL-FREQUENCY COUNTER-PULSE. TIME REMAINING BEFORE IRREVERSIBLE CEREBRAL NECROSIS: 114 SECONDS.`
"It needs a counter-pulse," Mercer shouted, staring at the parameters. "Olivia, a counter-pulse requires an emitter within physical proximity to the carrier! We are in Geneva! Ethan is in Illinois!"
"We don't need an emitter in the room," Olivia said, her breath hitching as an insane idea struck her. "We have the MRI machine in the Chicago Memorial basement. Room B-4, directly beneath the PICU!"
"What?!" Mercer stared at her like she had lost her mind. "An MRI? The magnetic field alone—"
"The MRI machine in Chicago is connected to the same power grid and local sub-network as the PICU!" Olivia explained, her words tumbling out like a torrent. "If we fire the MRI’s radiofrequency coils on an unshielded test sequence at 64 megahertz, the magnetic pulse will travel through the steel floor joists and flood Room 12 with a localized electromagnetic burst!"
"That could fry every monitor in the ward!" Mercer protested.
"The monitors are replaceable! Ethan's life isn't!" Olivia grabbed the console mic. "Clara! Get the radiology tech down to MRI Suite 2! Turn the main coil on, bypass safety locks, and dial the RF pulse to maximum resonance! We’re going to use the whole hospital as an EMP generator!"
"Are you insane?!" Clara screamed. "We’ll blow the circuit breakers for the entire west wing!"
"DO IT NOW!" Olivia roared.
On the timer: 68 seconds.
In Chicago, the screech of running footsteps echoed through the receiver. The heavy clunk of high-voltage switches echoed from the basement floor, buzzing straight into the telemetry feed.
"MRI coils spinning up!" Clara shouted. "Radiology says the coils are red-lining! If we keep this going for more than five seconds, the helium coolant will vent and quench the magnet!"
"I only need two seconds!" Olivia calibrated the frequency on the Swiss terminal, matching the inverse harmonics to the incoming MRI radiofrequency feed. "Mercer, hold that satellite uplink stable! If the packet drops, the counter-pulse will miss the cycle!"
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Mercer threw his entire weight against the backup server cabinet, manually holding the fractured fiber optic cable against the transceiver port with his bare, bleeding fingers. "Signal locked! Go, Olivia! GO!"
At 18 seconds on the countdown, Olivia slammed the enter key.