Chapter 5 - The Interrogation of Dr. Victor Lang
Down in the federal holding facility beneath downtown Chicago, the fluorescent lights hummed with a harsh, unyielding buzz.
Dr. Victor Lang sat at a scratched metal table, his bespoke gray suit now rumpled, his silk tie loosened around a neck that seemed to have shrunk overnight. Across from him sat Detective Ramos and Federal Prosecutor Marcus Vance, their expressions carved from granite.
“I want my attorney present,” Lang said, adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses with trembling fingers.
“Your attorney is currently filing for a change of venue because even he doesn't want to be associated with what you pulled,” Ramos said, slamming a thick stack of medical logs onto the table.
Lang glanced at the papers, swallowing hard. “It was a scientific breakthrough. Do you have any idea how rare an abdominal gestation is that reaches the second trimester? The placental vascular adaptation we observed in Mrs. Pierce’s case is unprecedented in modern medical literature. We were documenting the future of artificial womb technology.”
“You were running human experiments on a woman who thought her child was dead,” Prosecutor Vance corrected, leaning forward so his face entered the harsh pool of light. “You lied to her. You manipulated her husband’s financial vulnerabilities, and you endangered her life every single day for six months.”
“She would have terminated!” Lang snapped, his composure finally cracking. “If I had told her the embryo implanted in her omentum, standard protocol dictates an immediate laparoscopic termination to prevent maternal mortality! I preserved a life! That child is viable because of my monitoring!”
“That child is viable in spite of you,” Ramos growled, her hand resting heavily on her holstered weapon. “If Mrs. Pierce dies on that operating table today, you aren't just looking at medical malpractice charges. You’re looking at capital murder.”
Lang went completely pale. He leaned back in his chair, staring at the scarred metal table as the reality of his prison sentence began to settle into his bones.
“The placenta...” Lang whispered, his voice shaking. “The placental attachment to the hepatic artery... it’s too dense. Even if they perform a laparotomy, they can't detach it without severing the main blood supply to her liver. If they cut it, she’ll bleed out in ninety seconds.”
Ramos’s eyes narrowed. “Is there a surgical protocol?”
“There is only one,” Lang said, looking up with haunted eyes. “They have to leave the placenta in situ. They have to deliver the baby, tie off the umbilical cord internally, and leave the placental tissue inside her abdomen to rot and reabsorb over a year while she undergoes systemic chemotherapy to kill the remaining placental cells.”
May you like
Ramos stood up so fast her chair screeched against the concrete floor.
“Get me Dr. Carter on the secure line,” she ordered the federal agent standing by the door. “Now.”
