Chapter 11 - THE SECOND ABDUCTION
The federal hospital went into lockdown thirty seconds after the feed disappeared.
That was twenty-nine seconds too late.
The nurse injected the security officer outside Elena’s room, disabled the camera, and used an internal service elevator.
By the time Assistant Director Cole reached the hospital command center through a secure line, Elena, Rosa, and the nurse had vanished.
Tomas had been taken downstairs for questioning minutes earlier.
Bruno was found trapped inside a supply room.
The steel door had claw marks across its lower half.
He had fought until his paws bled.
This time, the network had not tried to kill him.
They had separated him from Elena using her voice.
A speaker inside the supply room played a recording of the child crying.
Bruno followed it.
The nurse closed the door behind him.
“They learned how to fool the dog,” Tony said.
“Once,” I replied.
Tomas’s face appeared on our video call.
He was surrounded by federal agents, furious and terrified.
“You promised she would be safe.”
“I was wrong.”
“Bring her back.”
“I will.”
“No speeches. No excuses. Bring back my wife and daughter.”
The call ended.
Niko tracked the service elevator records.
The nurse used credentials belonging to Dr. Amelia Grant, a pediatric neurologist who had worked at the hospital for fifteen years.
Dr. Grant’s body was discovered inside her apartment an hour later.
The woman who took Elena had assumed her identity.
Facial-recognition cameras showed her leaving in a medical waste truck.
The truck crossed into Connecticut before disappearing from traffic systems.
Carlo opened the ledger.
“Blackstone Island has an airstrip. They’ll move Elena by plane.”
“Why take Rosa?”
“Emotional leverage. Gabriel’s conditioning works faster when a child believes a parent is in danger.”
Rachel looked sick.
“He intends to erase Elena’s memory.”
“Or rewrite it,” Dr. Park said.
Elena might wake believing Wynn or Gabriel was her family.
The network could turn the only witness capable of explaining the red room into a public symbol against us.
Theodore Wynn would present her before cameras.
A traumatized child rescued from a mafia kidnapping.
Any denial from her real parents would appear desperate.
“We need an aircraft,” I said.
Cole shook his head.
“Every airport will flag you.”
“Then find one that won’t.”
“I’m suspended.”
“You still have a badge.”
“Not for long.”
He made three calls.
A Coast Guard pilot he once protected agreed to fly us toward Maine under the pretense of a search operation. We would land at a small civilian strip sixty miles from the island.
From there, a fishing vessel could approach through fog.
It was a reckless plan.
It was the only one we had.
Before leaving New York, we stopped at the federal hospital.
Bruno erupted from the supply room when he heard me.
His paws were torn, and his injured shoulder had reopened.
He pushed past everyone, searching each corridor.
I knelt and showed him Elena’s blanket.
He smelled the fabric, then looked toward the loading dock.
He caught the false nurse’s scent.
At the waste-truck bay, Bruno found a torn piece of latex glove.
Dr. Park placed it in a sterile bag.
DNA might identify the woman eventually.
Bruno wanted to follow immediately.
“You’re coming,” I told him.
Dr. Park objected.
“He can barely walk.”
“He’ll find a way.”
“And if he dies?”
Bruno looked at me.
That question belonged to him.
Not her.
“He decides.”
We boarded the aircraft before dawn.
Carlo traveled with a portable monitoring system connected to his implant. Niko watched the signal.
Tony sat alone near the rear.
He feared another trigger.
I sat across from him.
“You should restrain me.”
“No.”
“I aimed a gun at you.”
“And stopped.”
“Because Carlo remembered a song. What happens when Gabriel uses a trigger no one knows?”
“We find the reversal files.”
“You keep speaking as though we’ll reach them.”
“We will.”
Tony looked out the window.
“Did your father know what I was?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
“He protected you.”
“Maybe he protected the program.”
“That is also possible.”
He looked at me.
Honesty hurt more than reassurance, but it lasted longer.
“Our fathers gave us a mess,” I said. “We decide what remains after us.”
Carlo heard from the next seat.
“Salvatore tried to change at the end.”
“At the end is late.”
“It is still earlier than never.”
The aircraft landed in Maine under heavy rain.
A fisherman named Jonah Price waited with a converted lobster boat.
His daughter Sophie was one of the names found at the ambulance depot.
Missing eighteen months.
When Rachel contacted him, he agreed without hesitation.
“You think she’s on the island?” he asked.
“I think there are records there,” Carlo said.
Jonah looked at Bruno.
“And the dog?”
“He finds people others miss.”
“Then he gets the best seat.”
We traveled through thick fog.
Blackstone Island appeared near sunset, a dark shape rising from the sea.
Wynn’s estate occupied the southern cliffs.
The rehabilitation center stood inland, surrounded by pine forest and electrified fencing.
Thermal scans showed more than forty people inside.
Some were children.
Armed patrols moved along the perimeter.
The yacht was anchored near the eastern dock.
Niko detected Carlo’s signal communicating with a server beneath the main building.
Then another signal appeared.
Similar encryption.
Mobile.
Moving toward the shore.
“They’re bringing someone to the yacht,” he said.
Through binoculars, I saw three figures descending the dock.
Rosa walked in front.
Elena followed, holding her hand.
Behind them came a white-haired man with a silver cane.
Gabriel.
Bruno began trembling.
Not from fear.
From recognition.
He smelled Elena across the water.
The yacht’s engines started.
“They’re leaving,” Jonah said.
“Cut them off.”
His boat accelerated.
Wynn’s security patrol spotted us.
Searchlights swept across the fog.
Gunfire struck the water.
Jonah did not turn.
Bruno stood at the bow, barking toward the yacht.
Elena heard him.
Even across the storm, I saw her pull away from Gabriel and look toward us.
She shouted Bruno’s name.
Gabriel grabbed her.
Rosa struck him with both hands.
A guard raised his weapon toward Rosa.
Bruno jumped from the moving boat.
He disappeared into the freezing Atlantic.
May you like
“Elena!” Rosa screamed.
The dog surfaced and began swimming toward the yacht as bullets struck the water around him.
