Chapter 5 - The Abandoned Hospital
St. Catherine’s had been empty for twelve years.
Once, its pediatric wing had been painted with smiling animals and bright colors.
Now the giraffes on the walls were peeling.
The windows were broken.
Dust covered the floors.
And somewhere inside that abandoned building, six-year-old Luca Moretti waited for his father.
Alejandro ran despite the poison still burning through his system.
Rafael followed, one hand pressed against his wounded shoulder.
Bellini struggled behind them.
Maria carried Emma until her own legs began to shake.
Then Emma whispered, “I can run.”
Maria put her down.
They entered through an old loading dock moments before Marco’s men reached the hospital grounds.
Rafael locked a chain through the doors.
“It won’t hold.”
“It doesn’t have to.”
Alejandro turned to Bellini.
“Pediatric wing.”
“Third floor.”
“Elevators?”
“Dead.”
“Stairs.”
They climbed.
Emma’s short legs struggled.
Alejandro eventually stopped.
“Come here.”
He picked her up.
Maria protested.
“You can barely breathe.”
“She’s slowing us down.”
Emma frowned.
“I’m fast.”
“You’re four.”
“I’m almost five.”
“Congratulations.”
Even Rafael smiled.
The second-floor hallway was dark.
Bellini suddenly stopped.
“Wait.”
Alejandro turned.
“What?”
“I heard something.”
They listened.
A faint sound.
Crying.
Maria’s face changed.
A child.
Alejandro set Emma down.
“Luca?”
No response.
The crying came again.
From room 214.
Alejandro approached.
Rafael raised his weapon.
The door was partially open.
Alejandro pushed it.
A boy sat in the darkness.
Not Luca.
About ten years old.
Thin.
Terrified.
His wrists were tied.
Maria rushed forward.
“Oh my God.”
Behind him sat two more children.
A girl around eight.
Another boy perhaps twelve.
All restrained.
Bellini stared.
“What is this?”
Alejandro’s face hardened.
This had nothing to do with Luca.
Maria began untying them.
The older boy whispered, “Please don’t leave us.”
“We won’t.”
“Those men said our parents owed money.”
Alejandro looked at Bellini.
Bellini looked sick.
Alejandro spoke slowly.
“Is this Council business?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’ve never seen this.”
Rafael checked the hall.
“Marco.”
Alejandro nodded.
Marco had built his own empire inside Alejandro’s.
Kidnapping children for leverage.
Debts enforced through families.
Alejandro had spent years trying to dismantle the ugliest parts of the organization, but rot had been growing beneath him.
Emma approached the little girl.
“What’s your name?”
“Lucy.”
“I’m Emma.”
Lucy stared at her.
“Are you kidnapped too?”
Emma considered it.
“No.”
Maria said, “Emma.”
“What?”
Alejandro almost smiled despite everything.
Rafael contacted emergency services anonymously and gave the building location.
Then footsteps echoed from below.
They were out of time.
“Move,” Alejandro ordered.
The rescued children hid inside a locked storage room with Maria.
Emma refused.
“My mommy stays with me.”
Alejandro looked at Maria.
“Stay with the children.”
“No.”
“Maria—”
“My daughter goes nowhere without me.”
Alejandro understood that argument was over.
They continued upstairs.
On the third floor, a single emergency lantern glowed at the far end.
Then a voice echoed.
“Dad?”
Alejandro stopped.
“Luca!”
“Dad!”
He ran.
Luca appeared behind a glass door.
Small.
Dark-haired.
Wearing dinosaur pajamas.
Alejandro reached the door.
Locked.
“Dad!”
“I’m here.”
Luca pressed both hands against the glass.
Emma stared at him.
He looked smaller than she expected.
Scared.
Like her.
Alejandro searched the lock.
Bellini shouted.
“It’s electronic.”
“Power’s dead.”
“Backup battery.”
Rafael fired into the locking mechanism.
Nothing.
Luca jumped.
Alejandro placed his palm against the glass.
“Look at me.”
Luca did.
“You’re okay.”
“I knew you’d come.”
The words almost destroyed Alejandro.
He had promised Emma.
He had promised Luca a hundred things.
This one he intended to keep.
Rafael found a fire extinguisher.
He struck the glass.
Once.
Twice.
Cracks appeared.
Then slow applause echoed behind them.
Marco.
He stood twenty yards away.
Six men beside him.
“Beautiful.”
Alejandro turned.
Marco smiled.
“Really. Father and son reunited through bulletproof glass.”
Rafael raised his gun.
Marco’s men did the same.
“Don’t,” Marco said.
Maria pulled Emma behind her.
Marco noticed.
“There she is.”
Alejandro stepped between them.
“You wanted me. You have me.”
“No. I wanted you dead.”
“You failed.”
“Yes.”
Marco looked at Emma.
“Because of her.”
Emma peeked around Maria.
Marco’s smile vanished.
“Do you know what your little hero has caused?”
Emma whispered, “You poisoned him.”
Marco laughed.
“You really do only have one sentence.”
“It’s true.”
Marco stared at her.
Then Alejandro said, “She frightens you.”
Every man in the hallway heard it.
Marco’s face changed.
Alejandro continued.
“That’s why you need her dead.”
“Careful.”
“A child made you look weak.”
Marco raised his weapon.
Alejandro smiled.
“There it is.”
Marco’s men exchanged glances.
That was what Alejandro wanted.
Doubt.
Not much.
Just enough.
“You spent fourteen years beside me,” Alejandro said. “And after all that, your great rise to power was ruined by a four-year-old with a pink backpack.”
One of Marco’s men looked down to hide a reaction.
Marco saw.
His fury deepened.
“Kill him.”
Nobody fired.
Marco turned.
“I said kill him.”
One man finally raised his weapon.
Bellini stepped forward.
“No.”
Marco stared.
Bellini continued.
“You kill Alejandro and the Council will never recognize you.”
“The Council is finished.”
“No organization is finished just because you say so.”
Marco laughed.
“You think they still listen to you?”
“No.”
Bellini looked toward Alejandro.
“But they’ll listen to the recording.”
Marco went still.
“What recording?”
Bellini smiled faintly.
“The Council camera.”
Marco’s expression changed.
“You destroyed it.”
“Local feed,” Bellini said. “Not remote.”
Alejandro now understood the bluff.
Bellini didn’t know whether the remote feed survived.
But Marco didn’t know that.
Bellini continued.
“Your confession in the study. Your attempt to murder Alejandro. The kidnapping. All of it can be delivered to every family and federal prosecutor in the state.”
Marco stared at him.
Then smiled.
“You’re bluffing.”
“Try me.”
Marco raised his gun toward Bellini.
A shot rang out.
Emma screamed.
Bellini fell.
But Marco hadn’t fired.
One of his own men had.
Marco spun around.
The shooter turned his weapon toward another loyalist.
Rafael reacted.
Gunfire exploded through the hallway.
Alejandro pulled Maria and Emma behind a nurses’ station.
Rafael fired.
Two of Marco’s men dropped their weapons and ran.
Another joined the shooter against Marco.
Marco realized too late.
His alliance was breaking.
Alejandro reached Luca’s door.
The glass had cracked.
He slammed the extinguisher into it.
Again.
Again.
The panel shattered.
Luca rushed through.
Alejandro dropped to his knees.
His son crashed into him.
“Dad!”
Alejandro held him.
For one second, there was no hospital.
No Marco.
No Council.
No poison.
Only Luca.
Emma stood beside Maria watching them.
Luca noticed her.
“Who are you?”
“Emma.”
“She saved my life,” Alejandro said.
Luca stared.
“You’re a doctor?”
Emma shook her head.
“I have a rabbit.”
Luca blinked.
Before he could answer, Rafael shouted.
“Move!”
Marco had disappeared.
Bellini was alive, wounded in the leg.
Alejandro lifted Luca.
Maria grabbed Emma.
They hurried toward the rear stairs.
Below, sirens approached.
Police.
Ambulances.
But Alejandro didn’t feel relief.
Marco was still alive.
And Marco knew secrets.
They reached the ground floor.
An ambulance crew rushed inside toward the captive children.
For a moment, Alejandro believed they had made it.
Then Emma stopped.
“My rabbit.”
Maria stared at her.
“What?”
Emma pointed toward a paramedic.
A stuffed rabbit hung from the side of his medical bag.
Her rabbit.
The one she had thrown inside Alejandro’s study.
Alejandro followed her finger.
The paramedic saw them watching.
His expression changed.
Rafael immediately raised his weapon.
The “paramedic” reached inside his jacket.
Alejandro shoved both children behind a column.
Rafael tackled the man.
They crashed to the floor.
A small photograph fell from the paramedic’s pocket.
Alejandro picked it up.
It showed Emma leaving a grocery store with Maria.
Taken weeks earlier.
On the back were three handwritten words.
IF MORETTI SURVIVES, TAKE HER.
Maria stared at the photograph.
Then at Alejandro.
“They were watching my daughter before tonight.”
Alejandro looked at Emma.
And suddenly everything changed again.
Emma hadn’t become a target because she saved him.
May you like
She had already been a target.
The question was why.
