Chapter 14
The intercom speaker on the operating room wall suddenly crackled to life, slicing through the panicked cries of the newborns. "Locking yourself in a reinforced room was a tactical error, Emma," Victor’s smooth voice drifted from the speaker. "My men are currently setting shaped charges on those magnetic locks. You have exactly two minutes before we blow the hinges." "Then you better start counting," Emma called out, her voice remarkably steady despite the physical torment wracking her body. "Because when my husband finds you, he’s going to tear you apart." Victor laughed, a dry, humorless sound. "Ethan Walker is a businessman. A brilliant one, certainly, but he is not a soldier. He survived the plane crash because Richard was incompetent. But I am not Richard." "You think Ethan survived the Atlantic Ocean by luck?" Emma asked, pulling a sterile surgical blanket from a low shelf and wrapping it tightly around her shivering children. "He survived because he had a parachute and a raft," Victor replied dismissively over the intercom. "But he made a fatal mistake. He thought he could steal the Serpent's financial architecture and use it to blackmail us into leaving his company alone. Now, I will take his son, and he will trade the ledger for the boy's life." "Emma, what is he talking about?" Carla whispered, her eyes wide with terror as she crouched behind the steel surgical table. "What did Ethan steal?" "He stole the names of every corrupt politician, judge, and arms dealer your father was working with," Emma explained softly, realizing the full scope of her husband's brilliance. "Ethan didn't just plan to fake his death. He planned to burn their entire shadow empire to the ground." A heavy, rhythmic thumping echoed from the hallway outside. "The charges are set, Emma," Victor announced, his voice losing its patient veneer. "Stand away from the doors. When they blow, anyone within ten feet will be killed by the shrapnel. Hand over the boy, and I will let you walk away." Emma reached up and grabbed a scalpel from a surgical tray. "Come and take him."
