Chapter 7 - The Escape Route
The reinforced safety glass of ICU Room 412 shattered inward in a shower of tiny, crystalline pebbles.
A man in black tactical gear stepped through the broken window frame, holding a high-powered glass-cutter in one hand and a heavy leather duffel bag in the other. Behind him, standing on the narrow steel window-washing scaffold swaying forty feet above the concrete alley, was Dominic Vane.
"Doctor," Dominic said, stepping through the broken frame and brushing glass dust from his wool lapels. "Your timing is impeccable."
"You just destroyed two hundred thousand dollars worth of hospital property," Nia said, standing between Daniel and the men.
"Han Holdings will write a donation check to your emergency department building fund tomorrow," Daniel said, standing up from the bed. His legs wobbled slightly as his blood pressure adjusted, but he caught himself against the IV pole, his face set like iron. He pulled the scrubs down over his wrists, hiding the IV port he had insistence on keeping in his vein.
"Daniel," Dominic said, handing him a heavy black wool coat from the duffel bag. "Vance’s men have surrounded the main entrance. The police are monitoring the underground garage exits. But they haven't secured the old boiler tunnel under the south wing."
"How long do we have before Harrison gets the master key override for that door?" Daniel asked, pulling the heavy coat over his shoulders.
"Ninety seconds," Dominic replied.
Daniel turned to look at Nia.
She stood in the center of the ruined ICU room, her white lab coat stained with Daniel’s blood from the trauma bay, her hair falling loose from her bun, her dark eyes looking at him with a mixture of exhaustion, anger, and something deep and unsaid that made his chest ache far worse than the digitalis toxin.
"Come with us," Daniel said.
Nia let out a sharp, breathless laugh. "Are you insane? I'm a doctor, Daniel. I don't run through boiler tunnels with mobsters."
"Nia, listen to me!" Daniel took two quick steps forward, grabbing her by her upper arms, his hands heavy and desperate. "You just defied the chief of medicine, faked a biological hazard protocol, and held off the Chicago Police Department to buy me three minutes! Marcus Vance knows who you are now! He knows you saved my life! If you stay in this hospital, you will be dead before your shift ends!"
Nia looked into his eyes, searching for the lie, but she found only the brutal, terrifying truth. She had crossed the line the moment she had ordered the Digibind from the vault. She wasn't just Daniel Han’s ex-fiancée anymore; she was the medical force that had disrupted a multi-million-dollar criminal coup.
"My career..." she whispered, her voice cracking as she looked around the ICU room—the room she had spent six years working eighty hours a week to earn the right to command. "I built this life, Daniel. I built it out of nothing after you left."
"I will give you a new life," Daniel swore, his eyes burning with an absolute, terrifying conviction. "I will buy you ten hospitals, Nia. I will build you the greatest trauma center in North America. But I cannot save your life if you stay in this room!"
The magnetic lock on the heavy hallway door let out a loud, high-pitched double-beep. The red light turned green.
"Override engaged!" Harrison’s voice roared from the corridor outside. "Get those doors open!"
Daniel didn't wait for her answer. He wrapped his right arm around Nia’s waist, pulled her hard against his chest, and turned toward the shattered window.
"Dominic! Down!" Daniel barked.
The tactical man grabbed the scaffold cables, sliding down the high-tensile steel wire toward the alley floor thirty feet below. Dominic stepped onto the platform, holding out a hand for Nia.
Nia looked back at the ICU door as it swung open. Harrison, Julianna Vance, and the two police officers burst into the room, their eyes widening in shock as they saw the shattered glass and the three figures standing on the edge of the abyss.
"Stop!" the police detective screamed, reaching for his service weapon.
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Daniel didn't give him the chance. He stepped onto the swaying metal platform, pulling Nia with him into the cold, biting October rain, as Dominic hit the emergency release switch on the scaffold winch.
The platform plunged downward into the dark, smoke-filled alley below.
