Chapter 9 - The Siege
The ceiling dust drifted down in thin, white curtains as the vibration intensified. The facility's emergency lights suddenly flickered and snapped off, plunging the basement into absolute darkness before the dim red battery backups clicked on with a sharp relay crack.
"They're cutting the building's main transformer," Rao said, grabbing Julian’s shoulder. "We have less than five minutes before they seal the elevators and take control of the neonatal floor."
Julian shoved the files and the hard drive into his jacket, his fear instantly boiling into protective fury. "We’re going up. I’m taking my daughter."
"You can't just walk out the front door, Julian! They have private security teams licensed under international maritime laws. They will kill anyone who stands between them and that child!"
"Then help me, or get out of my way," Julian snapped, brushing past the older man and lunging toward the service stairwell.
They took the concrete steps two at a time, their lungs burning as they climbed six flights in the red-tinted gloom. When they burst through the door to the intensive care wing, the scene was entirely deserted. The nurses' stations were empty, papers scattered across the floor, computer monitors smashed to prevent record retrieval.
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Julian ran toward incubator twelve. The glass shield was open. The blankets were empty.
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