Chapter 11 - Into the Dark
Lucian moved like a shadow, hugging the wall, his weapon raised, slicing through the smoke drifting from an exploded electrical panel.
Every instinct honed over fifteen years of syndicate warfare was screaming at him. There were at least three hostiles inside the unit. He could hear low, hurried Italian spoken near the back corner.
*“Prendilo e andiamo! Move! The generator is coming back online!”*
Lucian rounded the corner of the nursery nurses' station.
A man in black tactical gear was stuffing an insulated transport case into a canvas duffel bag. Behind him, another operative covered the doorway with a suppressed submachine gun.
Lucian didn't hesitate. He fired two rounds through the drywall.
The operative covering the door took a bullet to the neck, collapsing with a choked gurgle into a tray of sterile syringes.
The man holding the canvas duffel spun around, drawing a sidearm, but Lucian charged forward, slamming his shoulder into the man’s chest and sending him crashing against an empty incubator. The glass shattered into a thousand glittering shards.
Lucian pinned the man by the throat, driving the barrel of his Glock beneath his chin. “Where is my son?”
The operative coughed, blood bubbling on his teeth, a twisted grin spreading across his face. “Too late... Avery. Look behind you.”
Lucian squeezed the trigger without blinking.
He whipped around toward Pod 4.
Incubator 4 was wide open. The blue phototherapy lights were shattered. The tiny pulse oximeter wire swung loosely in the air, dripping with an abandoned drop of infant formula.
The incubator was empty.
Behind him, through the emergency exit that led directly to the hospital’s service roof, Kate’s agonized scream echoed down the stairwell.
She hadn't stayed in the room. Despite Marco’s bleeding protests, she had dragged herself down the stairs, trailing blood from her reopened stitches, clutching the doorframe of the NICU in sheer horror.
“Leo!” she shrieked, falling to her knees on the bloody floor. “Where is he? Lucian, where is my baby?!”
A blast of freezing rain blew into the corridor as the heavy roof door slammed open.
Through the rain-streaked darkness of the upper landing, a tall figure in a dark raincoat stood holding a bundle wrapped in white hospital swaddling.
The man raised a hand, tapping the brim of his hat with the barrel of a silenced automatic, stepping back into the howling storm toward the waiting rotor blades of a black helicopter descending from the clouds.
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Lucian sprinted toward the door, his gun raised, his throat tearing on a roar of pure fury—
When the emergency door slammed shut, and the heavy electronic mag-lock engaged with a deafening, final *click*.
