Chapter 9 - Breach in the Ward
"Liam!" I yelled, reaching blindly across the bed to shield the bassinets as the door handle rattled violently from the outside.
Liam didn't hesitate. He stepped squarely in front of my bed, leveling his pistol at the center of the reinforced wooden door. "Step away from the threshold!" he barked into the dim, red-tinted corridor. "Federal custody! Identify yourself!"
There was a brief, agonizing pause in the hallway. Then, a low, smooth voice filtered through the heavy wood—a voice that belonged neither to Michael nor to any local police officer.
"Put the gun down, Doctor," Julian Vance’s voice drifted into the room, calm and completely unbothered by the armed federal agent standing on the other side of the door. "You're pointing a sidearm at a room full of federal inspectors."
"You have no jurisdiction here, Julian," Liam snarled, his finger tightening slightly on the trigger. "If you take one step through this door, I will put a round through your chest."
"Such aggressive military bravado," Julian chuckled softly from the hallway. "And entirely unnecessary. I didn't come here to start a firefight. I came to negotiate a settlement."
"We don't negotiate with criminals," Vanessa hissed from her position near the corner of the room, clutching a heavy metal IV pole like a spear.
"Oh, but you do, Mrs. Cole," Julian replied smoothly. "Because right now, your precious federal protection detail out in the hallway is currently unconscious, thanks to a localized medical-grade aerosol sedative. And the local police dispatch has been rerouted to a decoy call on the south side of the city."
The handle of the hospital door turned with a soft click.
Because the electronic lock had been jammed by the building-wide EMP pulse, the latch slid open. The door slowly swung inward, revealing Julian Vance standing in the corridor, flanked by two towering men in unmarked tactical gear holding suppressors fitted to their rifles.
Julian didn't look like a thug. He looked like an executive stepping into a board meeting, wearing a pristine charcoal suit and holding a slim manila folder.
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"Let's talk business, Victoria," Julian said, stepping across the threshold while his guards kept their weapons trained on Liam. "You have something belonging to my investment firm. And I have something belonging to you."
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