Chapter 13 - Four Minutes of Power
Jace ran toward the generator room.
Smoke filled the stairwell.
Detective Ortiz followed with two officers.
The service elevator opened on the floor below them.
Judge Vale stepped out holding a fuel can.
He had not fled the state.
He had been hiding inside the hospital’s old administrative wing.
Ortiz raised her weapon.
“Drop it.”
Vale froze.
His face was slick with sweat.
“I did not start this.”
“You disabled emergency power.”
“Conrad said no one would be hurt.”
Jace stared at him.
“My daughter’s chest is open.”
Vale dropped the can.
“He has my family.”
“Where is he?”
Vale looked toward the roof.
“He took the helicopter access key.”
Conrad planned to escape from the hospital.
But first, he had ordered Vale to destroy the generator.
Jace grabbed Vale by the collar.
“How do we restore power?”
“The main line is locked from the control room.”
“Who has access?”
Vale’s eyes shifted toward Jace’s pendant.
“Your mother.”
Jace released him.
Eleanor had funded the hospital wing.
She had designed private emergency controls after a blackout killed three children years earlier.
Jace remembered a hidden console behind her portrait in the boardroom.
He ran.
Two minutes remained.
He tore the portrait from the wall.
A steel panel appeared behind it.
It required a key.
The brass vault key was still with Ortiz.
She tossed it across the room.
Jace inserted it.
The panel opened.
Inside was a switch marked ELEANOR PROTOCOL.
He pulled it.
Nothing happened.
A second slot appeared.
It was shaped like a crescent moon surrounding a star.
Jace ripped the joined pendants from his neck.
They fit perfectly.
The console activated.
Power surged through the hospital.
The operating room lights returned with forty-one seconds of reserve power remaining.
Jace leaned against the wall.
His hands shook.
Then the rooftop door alarm sounded.
Conrad was still inside the building.
Ortiz led officers upward.
Jace followed.
They reached the roof as a helicopter prepared to lift off.
Conrad stood beside it.
Madeline was on her knees near the landing pad.
Her teenage son was beside her with his hands tied.
Conrad pressed a gun against the boy’s shoulder.
“Back away.”
Ortiz aimed at him.
“There is nowhere to go.”
Conrad smiled.
“There is always somewhere to go when people love something.”
He pulled Madeline’s son toward the helicopter.
Jace stepped onto the roof.
“Take me instead.”
Conrad looked almost amused.
“You finally sound like a father.”
“Let them go.”
“You were never worth what your mother sacrificed for you.”
Jace moved closer.
“What did she discover?”
Conrad’s smile vanished.
“She discovered that Mercer Industries was built on stolen money.”
The helicopter blades began turning.
“She planned to expose me.”
“So you killed her.”
“I protected everything she would have destroyed.”
Madeline lifted her face.
A phone was hidden beneath her bound hands.
The screen showed a live broadcast.
Conrad’s confession was streaming to every major newsroom in Chicago.
Conrad saw it.
His face changed.
He raised the gun toward Madeline.
Her son lunged.
A shot fired.
Jace tackled Conrad.
They crashed against the edge of the roof.
Conrad grabbed Jace’s coat.
For one second, both men hung above the street.
Jace held the railing with one hand.
Conrad held Jace’s wrist.
“Pull me up.”
Jace looked into the face that had controlled his entire life.
Conrad’s fingers began to slip.
“I am your father.”
Jace tightened his grip.
“No.”
His voice was steady.
“You are the man who stole one.”
Officers pulled them both to safety.
Conrad was handcuffed.
He did not speak again.
The operating room doors opened downstairs.
Dr. Shah stepped into the hallway.
Evelyn stood before her.
May you like
The doctor removed her mask.
“The surgery is over.”
