He Thought Tuesdays Were Pottery, Now He Begs Me Home novel · Chapter 5 of 24
Chapter 5: Black Screens
The red screens spread down the hall one by one, and the department went very quiet.
Forty patients, and not one of them could be seen from the nurses' station.
The heart monitors still ran at the bedsides, but the central board that gathered them was dead.
So was the chart system, and so was the cabinet that dispensed the drugs.
"Paper," Cliff said, in a voice the whole room heard. "Everybody pull a paper chart. Every vital sign by hand, every fifteen minutes, starting now. Nobody leaves a bed without telling me."
The charge nurse was already running for the supply closet.
A man in a hoodie came out of the elevator with a laptop under his arm and a gray face.
He was Metro's IT lead, and I had seen him eating soup at three a.m. for two years.
"Ransomware," he said. "It's encrypting everything it can reach. The vendor says four to six hours."
"We don't have four hours," Cliff said.
"I know that."
"Is it still spreading?" Cliff said.
"I don't know."
I stepped between them.
"Is the ER network cut off from the rest of the hospital?"
"What? No. It's all one," he said.
"Then cut it. Right now. Pull the link to the OR floor and the ICU before it climbs."
He stared at me.
"Who are you?"
"Joss Tarrant. I'm the doctor who's about to fix your night. Give me a keyboard and a closet."
"She's with me," Cliff said. "Go."
The IT lead looked at him, then at me, and then, to my lasting gratitude, he nodded.
The server closet was in the basement, behind a steel door with a keypad, and the air in it was cold and smelled of dust.
Keep reading free with an account. Start He Thought Tuesdays Were Pottery, Now He Begs Me Home from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 4 · All chapters · Chapter 6 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend