Chapter 6 - THE EMPTY HOSPITAL ROOM
Sadie lunged for the phone.
“Sam!”
Her brother lifted his head. A bruise darkened one side of his face.
“I’m okay,” he said.
Dr. Bell smiled.
“He’s brave. Just like your father.”
Victor moved closer to the screen.
“If you hurt him, Lawrence, no hospital in the country will be far enough to hide you.”
Bell’s smile disappeared.
“This isn’t your city anymore, Victor. It belongs to the people who own its judges, police, and hospitals.”
“You mean people who hide behind sick children.”
“I mean people who understand leverage.”
The video ended.
Sadie turned on Victor.
“Get me to the hospital.”
“It’s a trap.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
“Why?”
Victor paused.
“Because your father asked me to protect you.”
“Eleven years late.”
The words struck him, but he didn’t argue.
They left the bank with the tapes. Victor ordered half his men toward the hospital and the others to take Gabriel to a safe location.
On the way, Sadie used the hospital patient portal on her phone.
“Sam was transferred to surgery at 2:18,” she said. “The approval came from Dr. Bell.”
“What procedure?”
“It doesn’t say.”
Victor called a contact in hospital security.
No answer.
Then the first SUV ahead of them exploded.
The blast lifted the vehicle off the street.
Their driver swerved. Bullets hit the side windows.
“Down!” Victor shouted.
He covered Sadie with his body as the SUV crashed into a parked car.
Victor kicked open the damaged door and returned fire.
Sadie crawled out behind him.
Two masked men advanced from an alley.
Victor shot one in the shoulder. The second raised his rifle toward Sadie.
She saw a gun beside the injured driver.
Sadie grabbed it with both hands.
She had never fired a weapon before.
She pulled the trigger.
The bullet struck the attacker’s leg. He collapsed, screaming.
Victor stared at her.
“Later,” she said. “My brother first.”
They took the attackers’ car and reached St. Jude’s through the employee parking garage.
The oncology floor was empty.
Sam’s room had been stripped clean.
Sadie found his hospital bracelet on the floor.
A drop of blood stained the plastic.
Victor entered the records office and forced a clerk to search the transfer log.
“There,” the clerk said. “Operating Room Six.”
They ran upstairs.
The doors to OR Six were locked. Victor shot the handle.
Sadie rushed inside.
The room was empty except for a surgical table and a phone playing a recorded heartbeat.
On the wall, someone had written a message in red:
ONE TAPE. EAST RIVER WAREHOUSE. COME ALONE.
Sadie noticed a movement behind the observation glass.
A terrified nurse stepped out.
“Where did they take my brother?” Sadie demanded.
The nurse shook her head.
“They moved him ten minutes ago.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. But I heard Dr. Bell say they didn’t need the whole boy.”
Sadie’s blood ran cold.
“What does that mean?”
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The nurse began to cry.
“They only need his bone marrow.”
