Chapter 6 - THE SANITARIUM OF SECRETS
Victoria’s eyes darted frantically toward the tactical helicopter hovering twenty yards to their starboard side, its searchlight blinding the cabin. The distraction lasted a single heartbeat, but to Daniel, a heartbeat was all he needed.
He surged forward, slamming his palm into Victoria’s wrist. The remote control flew from her grasp, bouncing across the floorboards. Daniel kicked it under the front passenger console, while wrapping his other arm around Victoria’s shoulder, pinning her against the bulkhead until the pilot brought the aircraft down onto the tarmac of the private county airfield.
The moment the skids touched the concrete, tactical response officers swarmed the helicopter, weapons drawn.
“Hands where we can see them!”
Victoria was dragged from the cabin in zip-ties, screaming profanities, her designer clothes torn and covered in soot.
Daniel didn't pause to give a statement. He scooped Lily into his arms, carrying her straight toward the lead FBI field agent waiting beside a black command SUV. Clara Vance, who had been picked up by the local sheriff’s department near the river, was already sitting in the back of an ambulance wrapped in a thermal blanket.
“Agent Miller,” Daniel said, his voice hard as tempered steel. “My wife is being held illegally at St. Jude Sanitarium in Upstate New York. Victoria has an active kill-switch protocol. We have less than twenty-five minutes.”
Agent Miller looked at the telemetry on his tablet. “Mr. Carter, St. Jude is three hours by road. We can’t get a tactical convoy there in time.”
“We’re not taking a car,” Daniel said. “We’re taking my Gulfstream jet. It’s fueled on Runway 3.”
Fifteen minutes later, the Carter Global private jet climbed through the clouds at maximum thrust, cutting the flight time to a mere twelve minutes. Lily sat beside Daniel, holding his hand with a fierce grip, refusing to let go.
“Daddy,” Lily whispered softly, her eyes wide with hope and fear. “Is Mommy really alive?”
Daniel looked down at his daughter, tears stinging his eyes as he wiped the soot from her cheek. “I promise you, Lily. We are bringing Mommy home.”
The jet touched down at the remote Adirondack airfield at dusk. Three unmarked federal black SUVs tore out of the hangar gates, speeding up the winding mountain road toward the secluded compound of St. Jude Sanitarium.
The facility looked more like a fortress than a hospital—surrounded by ten-foot concrete walls and razor wire, completely hidden within dense pine forests.
As the SUVs smashed through the wrought-iron security gates without slowing down, the facility's alarm sirens began to wail.
Daniel leaped out before his vehicle had fully stopped. Flanked by four armed federal agents, he kicked open the heavy reinforced glass doors of the reception lobby.
Behind the desk, two private security guards reached for holstered weapons, but were instantly neutralized and pinned to the floor by Miller’s tactical team.
“Where is Eleanor Carter?!” Daniel demanded, grabbing the facility director by the collar of his lab coat.
The director, trembling, raised a shaking hand toward the basement elevator. “Sub-level B-4... Room 402. But you’re too late! The auxiliary grid went offline five minutes ago!”
Daniel didn't wait for the elevator. He kicked open the emergency stairwell door and sprinted down four flights of concrete stairs, taking them three at a time.
He reached Sub-level 4. The hallway was plunged in red emergency lighting, filled with the hiss of failing pneumatic valves and the shrill beep of flatlining monitors.
Daniel ran down the corridor until he found Room 402.
Through the reinforced observation window, he saw a hospital bed surrounded by dark medical monitors. The oxygen ventilation machine was sputtering, its backup battery flashing a critical red warning.
The electronic door was locked with a digital biometric keypad.
Cliffhanger:
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Daniel grabbed an emergency fire axe from the corridor wall, swung it with all his strength against the thick security glass, and heard the glass shatter just as the heart monitor inside emitted a flat, unbroken tone:
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.
