The nurse shoved the mask harder against the tiny face.

The baby went from blue to gray. The struggle in the tiny limbs ceased.

Limp.

Karly's vision tunneled.

She didn't see a baby. She saw a patient. She saw an airway that needed to be opened now.

She body-checked the nurse.

The woman went flying, crashing into the paper towel dispenser.

"You crazy bitch!" the mother shrieked, clawing at Karly.

Karly shoved the mother back with one arm, snatching the baby with the other.

"Hold her down!" Karly ordered. The command in her voice was absolute. It was the voice of a Chief Resident.

The mother froze, stunned by the authority.

Karly flipped the baby over her arm. Whack. Back blow.

Nothing.

Whack.

Dr. Vance grabbed Karly's shoulder. "Let go of the child! You are assaulting a patient!"

Karly spun. Her eyes were wild, terrifying.

"She's dead in ten seconds unless I cut!" she roared at Vance. "Give me a scalpel!"

Vance recoiled. "You're insane."

Hakeem was in the doorway now, holding up his phone. Filming. "Look at her! She's killing that baby!"

No time.

Karly reached into her sleeve. She pulled out the utility knife from her desk.

The mother screamed. "She has a knife!"

Karly flicked open the lighter Hakeem had been using at the quarry. The flame licked the steel blade, turning it orange for a split second. A crude sterilization, but better than nothing.

Karly pinned the baby to the changing table. She hyperextended the neck.

She felt for the landmarks. Thyroid cartilage. Cricoid cartilage. The membrane between them.

A space smaller than a fingernail.

"Don't do it!" Vance shouted, lunging forward.

Karly sliced.

A vertical incision. Precise. One centimeter.

Blood welled up, dark and terrifying.

The mother fainted, crumpling to the floor.

Karly didn't look. She grabbed a suction straw from a juice box on the counter-trash left by someone else. She jammed it into the hole.

She put her mouth over the straw and sucked.

Metallic taste. Blood. And something sweet.

She spat onto the floor. A bloody lump of hard candy.

She put her ear to the straw.

Silence.

One second.

Two seconds.

Vance was reaching for her arm.

Then-

A sound. A wet, wheezing gasp.

Then a cry. Thin, weak, but unmistakable.

The baby's chest heaved. Pink color flooded back into the gray cheeks.

Karly slumped against the sink. The utility knife clattered to the floor.

The cry grew louder. It bounced off the tiled walls, a siren of life.

Karly wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. It came away red.

Dr. Vance stood frozen. His hand was still outstretched, inches from Karly's shoulder. He looked at the baby. He looked at the crude incision.

It was perfect. Dead center. No damage to the vocal cords. No nicked arteries.

"My god," Vance whispered.

Nurses swarmed in. They pushed Karly aside, tending to the baby, putting a proper oxygen mask over the face.

Security guards burst through the door. "Where is she?"

Hakeem stepped forward, phone still raised. "Her! My sister! She stabbed the kid! I got it all on video!"

The guards grabbed Karly's arms. They wrenched them behind her back.

"Get off me," Karly said. She was too tired to fight.

"Take her to the station," the head guard said.

"Stop."

Dr. Vance's voice cut through the chaos.

He walked over to the guards. "Release her."

"But Doctor, she-"

"She just performed a textbook cricothyrotomy with a utility knife," Vance said. He looked at Karly with a mixture of horror and awe. "She saved that child's life. The nurse was bagging a complete obstruction. She would have killed the patient."

The nurse in the corner went pale.

Hakeem's jaw dropped. "What? No, she's crazy! Look at the knife!"

Vance turned on Hakeem. "You. Get out of my hospital. If I see you here again, I'll have you arrested for interfering with a medical emergency."

Hakeem lowered the phone. He looked at Karly. She was covered in blood, hair messy, wearing a cheap uniform.

But she was smiling. A cold, shark-like smile.

"Delete the video, Hakeem," Karly said softly. "Or I tell the cops why you were really here."

Hakeem scrambled backward and ran.

"Come with me," Vance said to Karly.

In his office, Vance poured her a glass of water. His hands were shaking slightly.

"Who taught you that?" he asked. "That wasn't luck. You knew the anatomy."

"I watch videos," Karly lied. "I have a photographic memory."

Vance studied her. He didn't believe her. But he couldn't deny what he saw.

"You're wasted in high school," he muttered.

"My father," Karly said. "Surgery. Tomorrow."

Vance nodded. "I'll do it. Pro bono. I'll write it off as a teaching case."

"And the waiver my brother signed?"

Vance picked up the paper Hakeem had given him. He crumpled it into a ball and tossed it in the trash.

"What waiver?"

Karly stood up. "Thank you, Doctor."

She walked to the door.

"Wait," Vance said. "What's your name?"

"Karly."

"Karly. If you ever want a recommendation for med school... come find me."

Karly didn't look back. "I won't need it."

The next day, the school was buzzing. Not about Karly. Nobody cared about Karly.

They were buzzing about the upcoming Spring Gala.

Karly opened her locker. A note fluttered out.

Study group. Tonight. 8 PM. CyberZone Café. Be there or fail AP Bio.

It was written on pink stationery. Holli Talley.

Karly knew this setup. In the original timeline, she had gone. She had been desperate for friends. She remembered Holli's friends whispering in the hall earlier, something about "teaching that trash a lesson tonight." It was all the confirmation she needed.

The police had raided the place at 8:15. Holli had slipped a bag of ecstasy into Karly's backpack. Karly had been expelled.

Karly looked at the note. She smiled.

She needed a high-speed connection. And she needed a secure IP address. CyberZone had both.

She went to the library first. She used a privacy screen on one of the computers, her fingers flying across the keyboard. In minutes, she slipped through a forgotten maintenance portal into the city's network, pulling up the contact information she needed from a digital ghost file she'd left for herself years ago in another life. It was a long shot, but Bertrand Norton's private Signal line hadn't changed. She printed out fifty pages of AP Biology notes. She highlighted them until they were neon yellow.

At 7:55 PM, she walked into CyberZone.

It was a dungeon of neon lights and clicking keyboards.

Holli was in a booth in the back with three other girls. They giggled when Karly walked in.

"Over here!" Holli waved. "We saved you a seat!"

She pointed to a computer station in the corner, isolated from the group.

"Thanks," Karly said loudly. "I really need to study."

She sat down. She blocked their view with her body.

She pulled a USB drive from her bra. She plugged it in.

The screen flickered. The café's OS vanished, replaced by the Tails operating system. Untraceable. Encrypted.

Karly opened a secure browser. She navigated to Signal.

She typed in the number.

Bertrand Norton's private line.

She created a new ID. She paused, a flicker of dark amusement in her eyes. It was reckless. It was provocative. It was the only way to guarantee he'd feel it like a physical blow. A name he couldn't ignore. Mrs. Norton.

She typed: The acquisition of Velos Pharm has a poison pill clause in subsection 44.c. You missed it. It will bankrupt you in three years.

Send.

Her heart hammered. This was the hook.

While she waited, she opened her biology notes. She spread them all over the desk. She made a show of studying.

The owner of the café walked by. A grumpy man named Stan.

"Hey," Karly said. "Your POS system is lagging, right?"

Stan stopped. "Yeah. Piece of junk."

"It's a memory leak in the driver," Karly said. She tapped a few keys on his terminal as he watched. "Fixed."

Stan blinked. The screen refreshed instantly.

"Whoa. Thanks, kid."

"Can I get a coffee? On the house?"

"Sure."

Now she had a witness. A witness who owed her a favor.

Behind her, Holli was texting under the table. Karly glanced at a mirrored surface. Holli was texting Principal Higgins.

She's here. She's dealing.

Karly checked the screen.

Read.

Bertrand had seen it.