Chapter 7 - The Spokane Connection
The door did not crash open.
Instead, it slid open slowly, revealing Detective Sandra Cruz holding a tactical flashlight in one hand and her service weapon in the other. Behind her lay two federal marshals on the floor, groaning as they pulled themselves up against the wall, rubbing the backs of their necks.
“They didn't come through the main entrance, Julian,” Cruz said, her voice tight as she scanned the dim room. “They cut the primary power lines in the sub-basement and came up through the service elevator shaft using master maintenance keys.”
Julian didn't lower his weapon. “Where is Viktor?”
“We caught two of his operatives near the medical gas supply valve on six,” Cruz said, stepping into the room and shutting the heavy door behind her. “They were trying to dump nitrogen into the NICU ventilation system to force an emergency evacuation of the infants.”
My blood ran cold. “They were going to poison the air?”
“They wanted the confusion,” Cruz explained, looking at me with deep concern. “In a Code Blue mass evacuation, infants are moved in emergency transport cots to the secondary wing. It would have been easy for an operative dressed as a paramedic to wheel Clara out to a waiting ambulance in the bay.”
Julian stepped past Cruz, looking out into the dim hallway. “Viktor isn't a foot soldier. If his men are on six, he’s in this building.”
“We’ve locked down the stairwells,” Cruz assured him. “Seattle PD has three SWAT teams entering the basement now.”
“Viktor doesn't use stairwells,” Julian said, his eyes widening as a sudden, horrifying realization hit him. “He used to manage the hospital’s infrastructure expansion twelve years ago. He knows the architectural layout better than the current engineering team.”
Julian turned to Cruz. “Where is the secondary administrative vault?”
Cruz frowned. “Sub-Basement 2? The old medical records archive?”
“The blue ledger,” Julian whispered, his face going completely pale. “The evidence I pulled from Genevieve’s safe—the physical hard drives and paper transaction logs—are being processed in the Sub-Basement 2 field office by the DOJ team.”
“Viktor isn't here to kidnap Clara,” I realized, sitting up in bed despite the tearing pain in my incision. “He knows Clara is too heavily guarded now. He’s here to destroy the evidence that will put Genevieve in prison for life!”
Julian looked at Cruz, then turned back to me. He walked to the edge of my bed, leaned down, and kissed my forehead with fierce intensity.
“Commander Hayes is coming up with four more agents to secure this room directly,” Julian promised me. “No one gets inside without my biometric voice clearance. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
“Be careful, Julian,” I pleaded, clutching his sleeve. “Viktor is dangerous.”
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Julian reached down, gently touching Clara’s glass isolette one last time.
“He’s an old man playing an old game,” Julian said, his voice dropping into that chilling, unyielding register. “And he’s about to find out what happens when you try to protect a monster.”
