Chapter 3 - The Price of Blood
"Drop the weapon, Vance, or my associate empties a clip into my daughter-in-law's head," Eleanor instructed, her voice raspy, scraped raw from inhaling smoke and ash.
Detective Vance didn't lower his gun. His finger remained tight against the trigger, his knuckles white. "You're outnumbered, Eleanor. Backup is already on the way up the stairwells."
Eleanor let out a dry, rattling chuckle that turned into a painful cough. She stepped fully into the dim red glow of the room. Half of her face was severely blistered, her skin raw and red beneath tight medical wraps, yet her body was dressed in an expensive cashmere coat. "Backup? You mean the three officers currently unconscious in the service elevator? Or the local precinct captain who happens to be on my personal payroll?"
David stepped in front of Sarah and the baby, shielding them completely with his body. "Take me, Mom. Leave Sarah and Leo out of this. I'm the one who opened the offshore accounts. I'm the one who tried to seize control of the Sterling holding assets."
Eleanor stared at her son, her single uncovered eye filled with a chilling mixture of heartbreak and psychotic obsession. "You are weak, David. You let this suburban nobody twist your loyalty. You were born to rule an empire, and instead, you gave it all up to play house in a cheap cul-de-sac." She shifted her icy gaze to Sarah, who was trembling beneath David's shoulder. "She ruined you."
"She saved me!" David roared. "From you! From your sick, twisted control!"
"Enough," the man in the charcoal suit said coldly, raising his silenced pistol higher. "Eleanor, we have three minutes before the backup power grid overrides the security locks. We take the boy and leave."
"Touch him and I will tear your eyes out!" Sarah screamed, her fear instantly vanishing, replaced by a ferocious, lethal rage. She grabbed a heavy glass water pitcher from the bedside tray, her knuckles turning white around the handle.
"Sarah, no!" David warned, but it was already too late.
The man in the suit stepped forward to grab the bassinet. In one fluid movement, Detective Vance lunged sideways, firing a shot. The suppressed pop rang out, bullet striking the man's shoulder. The man stumbled back, his gun discharging wild into the ceiling drywall, sending plaster showering down onto the floor.
Chaos erupted inside the enclosed room.
David tackled the injured gunman to the floor, slamming his head against the heavy metal bedframe. Vance turned his weapon on Eleanor, but she didn't run. With unnatural, manic speed, she thrust her hand into her coat pocket, pulling out a heavy brass syringe and plunging it straight into Vance’s neck.
Vance gasped, dropping his gun as his eyes rolled back into his head. He collapsed onto the floor, his body going completely limp from the fast-acting neurotoxin.
Sarah didn't wait for Eleanor to turn to her. She swung the heavy glass pitcher with all her force, smashing it straight across Eleanor’s bandaged face.
Glass shattered into a hundred sparkling shards. Eleanor screeched in pain, stumbling backward into the hallway, blood seeping through her fresh bandages. Sarah snatched baby Leo from the bassinet, holding him tightly to her chest, and screamed, "David! Move!"
David kicked the gunman's unconscious body aside, snatched Vance's dropped service weapon from the floor, and grabbed Sarah’s arm. "To the stairwell! Go!"
They burst into the dark hallway, stepping over the unconscious bodies of the hospital guards. Sirens began echoing from the street four floors below, joined by the deafening blare of the hospital’s primary fire alarm resetting. Bright white strobe lights flooded the corridor, blinding them in rapid flashes.
"This way!" David pulled Sarah toward the heavy steel fire door at the end of the hall.
As David threw his weight against the push-bar, the door burst open from the other side. A burly man in an orderly’s uniform stepped into their path, a taser drawn and ready. Before he could fire, David raised Vance's pistol and shot the man in the leg. The orderly collapsed with a roar of pain, tumbling down the concrete stairs.
"Down! Go down!" David yelled, escorting Sarah onto the stairwell landing.
They scrambled down the concrete steps, the air thick with the smell of ozone and burning dust. Four flights down, they hit the ground-floor exit door, slamming it open and spilling into the rainy, slick alleyway behind the hospital.
Cold rain lashed against Sarah’s face, soaking her thin sweater instantly. She tucked Leo’s face deep into her jacket, protecting his lungs from the freezing night air.
"Where do we go?" Sarah sobbed, her breath coming in jagged gasps. "The police are compromised! Your mother owns them!"
"Not all of them," David said, his eyes wild with adrenaline as he scanned the dark alley. "There is one person who isn't on her payroll. Someone who hated my mother long before I was born."
"Who?"
David unlocked a dark SUV parked silently at the end of the alley—a vehicle Sarah had never seen before. He opened the passenger door, forcing Sarah inside before sliding into the driver's seat and hot-wiring the ignition. The engine roared to life with a deep, guttural growl.
He pulled out onto the wet asphalt, spinning the tires as he sped away from the flashing lights of the hospital.
"Who, David?" Sarah demanded again, her voice shaking violently as she cradled her sleeping, whimpering baby.
David looked into the rearview mirror, watching the hospital disappear into the dark rain. "My father."
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Sarah froze, staring at him in utter disbelief. "Your father? David... you told me your father died of heart failure when you were five years old!"
David kept his eyes glued to the road, his face illuminated by the green glow of the dashboard. "That's the lie Eleanor told the world. The truth is... my father didn't die. He’s been hiding in a maximum-security federal witness protection facility for twenty years. And he’s the only man alive who knows how to destroy Eleanor Sterling once and for all."
