Chapter 11 - THE FLATLINE
“No!”
Sadie threw herself against the glass.
Inside the operating room, doctors rushed around Sam. One began chest compressions.
Victor drove his elbow into a guard’s throat and grabbed his gun.
Gabriel attacked the second guard.
Gunfire exploded in the hallway.
Dr. Bell ducked behind Anthony’s wheelchair.
Sadie seized a metal tray and smashed the control device from Bell’s hand.
Victor shot the lock on the operating-room door.
Sadie ran to Sam.
“Get away from him!”
The surgeon stepped back with both hands raised.
“He’s in cardiac arrest.”
Sadie looked at the monitor.
Her brother had no pulse.
“Do something!”
The surgeon resumed compressions.
A nurse charged the defibrillator.
“Clear!”
Sam’s body jerked.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Sadie held his cold hand.
“You promised me,” she whispered. “You promised you’d fight.”
She remembered Sam at seven years old, following her through the grocery store. At twelve, pretending not to be afraid during his first biopsy. At sixteen, apologizing every time a medical bill arrived.
He had spent half his life believing his illness was a burden she carried.
“Listen to me,” Sadie said. “None of this is your fault. Do you hear me? You are not a bill. You are not a debt. You are my brother.”
The monitor beeped.
Then again.
A weak rhythm returned.
Sadie nearly collapsed.
The surgeon checked his pupils.
“He’s back, but we need to stabilize him.”
Behind her, Victor dragged Bell into the room.
“Tell them how to reverse the drugs.”
Bell shook his head.
Victor pressed the gun against his knee.
“Victor,” Sadie warned.
“Five seconds.”
Bell gave the antidote dosage.
The nurse administered it.
Anthony watched from the hall, his face twisted with rage.
“You’re sacrificing me for a dying boy,” he told Victor.
Victor turned.
“I’m choosing him because you never would.”
Anthony reached beneath his blanket and pulled out a pistol.
He fired.
Gabriel stepped in front of Victor.
The bullet struck Gabriel in the chest.
Victor shot the weapon from Anthony’s hand.
Gabriel fell.
Sadie rushed toward him, but blood was already spreading beneath his vest.
“Pressure!” she shouted.
Gabriel grabbed Victor’s sleeve.
“The server room,” he gasped. “All the records are there.”
Victor knelt beside him.
“You’re coming with us.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Get the boy out.”
Security doors began closing throughout the wing.
Anthony laughed from his wheelchair.
“This facility seals automatically. In four minutes, the oxygen system floods with anesthetic gas.”
Sadie looked at Sam, who was still connected to half a dozen machines.
They couldn’t move him fast enough.
Victor pointed toward the ceiling vents.
“Can you stop it?”
Bell smiled.
“Only from the server room.”
Gabriel pressed a key card into Victor’s hand.
“I’ll hold this door.”
Victor understood what he meant.
“No.”
“You promised to bring my family home,” Gabriel said. “You did.”
The first cloud of white gas poured from the ventilation system.
May you like
Gabriel raised his gun toward the approaching guards.
“Now keep your promise to hers.”
