Chapter 13
"I will never give him to you," Emma said, her voice dropping into a register of pure, uncompromising venom.
Victor’s smile vanished. He raised his suppressed pistol, aiming it squarely at Carla’s chest. "Grab the child," he ordered his men.
Before the mercenaries could take a single step, the maintenance corridor behind them exploded into deafening gunfire. A volley of armor-piercing rounds shattered the drywall, striking the two mercenaries in the back and throwing them violently to the floor.
"Vanguard!" a voice roared from the smoke-filled corridor. "Covering fire!"
Victor cursed, returning fire blindly into the hallway as he dove behind a concrete pillar.
"Move!" Emma screamed at Carla.
Ignoring the blinding agony in her stitched abdomen, Emma sprinted out of the elevator, clutching Noah and Lily to her chest. Carla was right behind her, grabbing the collar of Emma’s hospital gown to guide her through the chaotic crossfire. They bolted down the sterile white hallway, the sound of assault rifles echoing like thunder behind them.
"Where do we go?" Carla panicked, slipping on the slick linoleum as bullets chipped the plaster walls above their heads. "They're blocking the exits!"
"Surgical wing!" Emma gasped, her face pale as a ghost, her breath coming in ragged, painful tears. "Double steel doors at the end of the hall. They can be magnetically sealed from the inside!"
They threw their weight against the heavy swinging doors of Operating Room 3. The moment they crossed the threshold, Emma slammed her bloody palm against the red lockdown button on the wall. The heavy doors clicked shut, and the magnetic locks engaged with a solid, definitive thud.
Emma collapsed against the surgical table, sliding down to the sterile tile floor. Noah and Lily were shrieking, their tiny faces red with distress.
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"We're trapped," Carla wept, dragging heavy medical supply carts in front of the door to form a barricade. "Emma, we're completely trapped. Vanguard is pinned down outside, and that maniac is going to blow the lock!"
"No," Emma whispered, kissing the foreheads of her crying babies. "He won't have time. Ethan is here."
