Chapter 10 - Shadows in the Ward
The silence in the pitch-black hospital room was deafening. Daniel held his breath, his arm tightened protectively around Valeria’s waist.
"Daniel?" Valeria whispered, her voice trembling. "What's happening?"
"Shh," Daniel hissed softly.
He pulled a heavy, suppressed tactical pistol from the waistband of his trousers—a weapon he had retrieved from the estate’s armory. He held it in his right hand, keeping his injured left arm tucked close to his chest.
Footsteps echoed in the hallway outside. They weren't the hurried, chaotic footsteps of panicked nurses dealing with a power outage. They were slow, synchronized, and heavy. Tactical boots.
Through the small glass window of the door, Daniel saw three silhouettes moving through the dim glow of the red emergency lights. They were dressed in surgical scrubs, but their movements were predatory, and they held silenced submachine guns at the ready.
They were Vanguard operatives.
Suddenly, a massive shape lunged from the shadows near the nurses' station. It was Marcus.
Daniel watched through the glass as his head of security ambushed the three assassins. Marcus didn't use a gun; the quarters were too tight. He used a combat knife, driving it into the neck of the first operative. The man dropped silently.
But the other two reacted with terrifying speed.
One of them swung his weapon, the heavy stock connecting with Marcus’s jaw with a sickening crunch. Marcus staggered backward, and the second operative raised his gun, firing three suppressed shots.
Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.
Marcus fell to the linoleum floor, blood pooling around his massive frame.
"No..." Daniel breathed, watching the man who had protected him for a decade die in an instant.
The two remaining operatives stepped over Marcus's body and turned their attention directly to Room 402.
"They're coming in," Daniel said, his voice devoid of panic, replaced by a cold, calculating survival instinct. "Get into the bathroom. Lock the door. Do not come out until I say so."
"Daniel, no!" Valeria cried, grabbing his shirt. "They'll kill you!"
"Go!" he shoved her gently toward the en-suite bathroom.
As she stumbled into the small room and clicked the lock, the wooden door to the hospital room was violently kicked open.
The two operatives swept into the room, their weapons raised, scanning the darkness through night-vision goggles.
Daniel was waiting.
He had crouched behind a heavy medical cart near the window. As the first operative stepped past the bed, Daniel stood up and fired twice.
His aim, though compromised by firing one-handed, was true. The heavy .45 caliber rounds shattered the operative's night-vision visor, dropping him instantly.
The second operative instantly spun toward the muzzle flash, pulling the trigger of his submachine gun. A spray of bullets ripped through the darkness, shattering the window and shredding the medical cart Daniel was using for cover.
Daniel dove to the floor, pain exploding in his dislocated shoulder as he hit the linoleum. He rolled behind the hospital bed, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
"Target is armed," the operative spoke into a headset, his voice devoid of emotion. "Requesting backup to the fourth floor."
There were more of them.
Daniel knew he couldn't win a prolonged firefight. He peaked around the edge of the bed and fired wildly, forcing the operative to duck into the hallway.
Using the brief window of cover, Daniel scrambled to the bathroom door and kicked it open.
Valeria was huddled in the corner, holding her belly, weeping silently in terror.
"We have to go. Now," Daniel said, grabbing her uninjured arm.
"Where?"
"The window."
He dragged her out of the bathroom. The freezing night air was rushing into the room through the shattered glass of the fourth-floor window.
"Daniel, we're four stories up!" Valeria panicked, looking at the sheer drop.
"Look down," he commanded.
Directly below their window was the flat, reinforced concrete roof of the hospital's ambulance bay, only one story down. It was a fifteen-foot drop.
"I'm going to lower you down as far as I can, then you have to drop," Daniel said, holstering his gun.
"I can't! The baby!"
"If you stay here, they will cut the baby out of you and kill us both!" Daniel yelled, the harsh truth necessary to break her paralysis. "Do it!"
More footsteps echoed in the hallway. Reinforcements had arrived.
Daniel pushed Valeria toward the shattered window. He wrapped his good right arm around her waist, lifting her over the sill. He gritted his teeth, ignoring the agonizing, burning pain in his torn chest muscles as he lowered her heavy body outside the window.
"Hold onto the ledge!" he grunted.
She grabbed the cold concrete with her left hand, crying out as her injured right wrist banged against the wall.
"Drop!"
Valeria let go. She fell, landing heavily on the flat roof of the ambulance bay below. She rolled, crying out as her shoulder hit the concrete, but she was alive.
Inside the room, the door was kicked open wider. Flashlights swept the darkness.
Daniel didn't hesitate. He threw himself out the window just as a hail of bullets tore through the space where he had been standing.
He fell, hitting the roof hard and rolling to absorb the impact. His injured left shoulder slammed into the concrete, sending a shockwave of blinding agony through his skull. He saw stars, his vision going black for a terrifying second.
"Daniel!" Valeria’s voice pulled him back to consciousness.
He forced himself up. "Keep moving! To the fire escape!"
They scrambled across the flat roof in the cold rain, climbing down the rusty iron fire escape stairs into the dark alley behind the hospital.
Daniel found his unmarked sedan parked near the dumpsters. He shoved Valeria into the passenger seat, jumped behind the wheel, and floored the accelerator.
May you like
The car tore out of the alley, disappearing into the city streets just as heavily armed Vanguard operatives stormed the ambulance bay roof above them.
They had escaped. But the war had just been declared.
