Chapter 13 - Tracing the Shadow
The hallway of the PICU was a blur of frantic medical staff and shouting security guards. Felix sprinted past them all, his eyes locked on the blue scrubs of the fleeing nurse as she rounded the corner toward the emergency stairwell.
She slammed through the heavy fire doors, her footsteps echoing loudly on the concrete stairs as she scrambled downward. Felix threw the doors open, taking the stairs three at a time, his immense rage fueling a terrifying speed.
"Stop!" Felix roared, his voice echoing like thunder in the enclosed stairwell.
She didn't stop. She reached the third-floor landing and desperately yanked at the door handle, trying to slip into the cardiology wing to blend into the crowd. But her hands were sweating, and the heavy door slipped from her grasp.
Felix caught up to her in a fraction of a second. He tackled her from behind, pinning her aggressively against the heavy steel door.
"Who sent you?!" Felix demanded, his forearm pressing firmly against her shoulder blades, holding her entirely immobile.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" the woman cried, struggling uselessly against his massive strength. "I'm just a nurse!"
"You are a liar, and you just tried to murder my daughter," Felix hissed, his voice dropping to a deadly, quiet register that promised absolute destruction. "You have exactly three seconds to give me a name, or I will throw you down the rest of this stairwell before the police even arrive. One."
"I didn't know it was a kid!" she sobbed, the panic finally breaking her resolve.
"Two."
"I swear, I didn't know!"
"Three." Felix shifted his weight, preparing to make good on his threat.
"It was an anonymous broker on the dark web!" she screamed, tears streaming down her face. "I swear to God! The payout came from a crypto wallet! I just got a message telling me to push a lethal dose of potassium into the IV in Room 4! They offered me two hundred thousand dollars!"
Felix froze, his mind calculating rapidly. An anonymous broker. A crypto wallet. It was a sophisticated hit, far beyond a simple poisoned cupcake.
Two of Felix’s private security guards burst through the stairwell doors above them, guns drawn.
"Take her," Felix commanded, shoving the sobbing woman toward the guards. "Lock her in an empty room. Don't let the hospital police touch her yet. Bring me my head of cyber security. I want that crypto wallet traced immediately, and I don't care what laws you have to break to do it."
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Felix turned and sprinted back up the stairs, his heart pounding a frantic rhythm as he prayed he wasn't too late to save the only thing that mattered.
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