Chapter 4 - THE RACE AGAINST RESUSCITATIONNathan didn't hesitate. He dropped to the floor beside his niece.
"Chest compression board! Now!" he yelled.
Lily’s heart had succumbed to severe hypothermia. Her core temperature had plummeted too low, causing her small, exhausted heart to enter ventricular fibrillation.
Nathan placed his palms on her small chest and began rhythmic, precise CPR. One, two, three, four...
"Come on, Lily," he pleaded, his professional detachment completely shattering. Tears burned in his eyes—the first tears he had shed since he was a child. "Come back. Uncle Nathan is here. I promised your mother. COME BACK!"
He grabbed the portable pediatric automated external defibrillator (AED) from the wall mount. He slapped the sticky sensor pads onto her tiny, cold chest and back.
ANALYZING HEART RHYTHM, the machine’s robotic voice echoed in the tight room. SHOCK ADVISED. CHARGING.
"Clear!" Nathan shouted, lifting his hands.
THUMP.
Lily’s small body jolted off the floor.
The heart monitor showed a flat, terrifying line.
"Again!" Nathan yelled, slamming his hand onto the charge button. "Clear!"
THUMP.
Silence stretched across the room, heavy and suffocating. The only sound was the screaming of the wind outside the estate.
Then, a high-pitched, faint beep.
Beep... Beep... Beep...
"Sinus rhythm," Nathan breathed, sinking back onto his heels, trembling violently. "She's back. Her heart is back."
Lily let out a tiny, shallow gasp, her chest rising and falling rhythmically under the warm blankets.
Rosa fell to her knees, weeping tears of pure relief. "It's a miracle..."
"It's not over," Nathan said, standing up, his face hardening into granite. He looked at the thumb drive sitting on the table. "Marcus is heading to the airstrip at the bottom of the mountain to meet the men who paid for Sarah's life. If they don't get this drive, they'll come up here with heavy weapons and burn this house to the ground."
"What are you going to do?" Rosa asked, terrified.
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Nathan reached into his safe, pulling out a heavy black case containing a high-powered hunting rifle he used for wilderness protection, along with the keys to his modified, heavy-duty snowcat vehicle.
"I'm going to finish what started seven years ago," Nathan said, inserting the encrypted thumb drive into his tactical vest. "Keep the doors locked. I'll be back before dawn."
