Chapter 17 - The Nursery Siege"We don't have much time," I said, pulling away from Sofia and grabbing her small hand. "Katherine’s men are going to realize these two went dark any second now. We need to get Mateo and Lucía out of the NICU right now."
Sofia nodded grimly, her amber eyes hardening with a maturity no seven-year-old should ever possess. "I have the diaper bag. I packed the bottles just like Nurse Lupita showed me."
We sprinted down the hallway toward the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The red emergency strobe lights cast eerie, sweeping shadows across the walls, making the hospital look like a war zone.
When we reached the double doors of the NICU, the glass panels were shattered.
My heart stopped.
I pushed the broken doors open and stepped inside.
The room was wrecked. Incubators were overturned, medical supplies were scattered across the floor, and the central monitoring station had been smashed to pieces.
Standing in the center of the ruined room, holding two portable thermal infant carriers in each hand, was a tall, imposing man in a tailored grey suit.
Katherine Vance stood beside him, holding a sleek black tablet, looking completely unbothered by the destruction around her.
"Well, well, well," Katherine purred, turning to face us as we stepped through the broken glass. "Dr. Rivera. And the little heroine herself. I must admit, Daniel, you are far more persistent than my brother gave you credit for."
I stepped in front of Sofia, spreading my arms out protectively. "Put the babies down, Katherine. You've already lost. The federal investigators have your analog ledgers from the sub-basement. They know everything about the genetic trials."
Katherine laughed—a cold, metallic sound that echoed off the ruined walls. "Ledgers? Documents? Daniel, do you really think a few pieces of paper in a bankrupt hospital basement can touch my family? The judiciary is financed by our foundation. By noon tomorrow, those files will be classified under national security, and you will be labeled a fugitive terrorist who kidnapped hospital patients."
She motioned to the mercenary beside her, who raised his weapon, leveling it directly at my chest.
"Now," Katherine said, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp whisper. "Hand over the laptop containing the cloud sync backup from the sub-basement terminal, or I watch my associate drop these two newborns onto the concrete floor."
I looked down at the thermal carriers. Through the small mesh screens, I could see Mateo’s tiny hand twitching, and Lucía letting out a faint, terrified squeak.
My hand moved slowly toward my backpack. My fingers brushed against the cold metal casing of my laptop.
If I handed it over, Katherine would destroy the last piece of evidence linking her family to the atrocities, and we would all likely be silenced permanently. If I didn't... my children would die right here in front of my eyes.
"Don't do it, Dad," a small, sharp voice whispered beside me.
I looked down. Sofia was staring at Katherine with a look of pure, unadulterated venom—the exact same look Mariana had worn in the old photograph.
"Sofia..." I murmured.
"Mommy said monsters only win when you hand them your weapons," Sofia said, her voice ringing clear and steady across the ruined room.
Before Katherine or the guard could react, Sofia reached into her pocket, pulled out the heavy fire extinguisher pin she had managed to swipe from the hallway wall, and hurled it with pinpoint accuracy straight at the overhead electrical sprinkler control box.
CLANG!
The heavy metal pin struck the emergency release lever with brute force.
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WHOOSH!
Instantly, thousands of gallons of high-pressure water exploded from the ceiling sprinklers, turning the NICU into a blinding, roaring wall of artificial rain and mist in a fraction of a second.
