Chapter 6 - The Lockdown
I screamed for the school administration to lock down the entire building immediately.
I called Julian in a state of absolute, blind panic.
He arrived at the preschool in less than eight minutes with a fleet of armored security vehicles.
The police swarmed the area, setting up roadblocks on every major highway leaving the city.
Julian held me tightly in his arms as I sobbed uncontrollably in the school's parking lot.
“I will tear this entire city down to its foundations to find her,” Julian swore fiercely.
His security director hacked into the city's traffic camera network to trace the kidnapper's escape route.
They spotted Marcus’s black sedan speeding dangerously toward the industrial district by the river.
The police found the vehicle completely abandoned under a bridge an hour later.
There was no sign of Marcus or my precious little girl.
We rushed back to our high-security penthouse to set up a tactical command center.
Julian used his limitless wealth to hire private mercenaries to hunt Marcus down.
I paced the living room floor, feeling like my heart was being slowly crushed in a vice.
Every second that ticked by felt like an agonizing eternity of torture.
Suddenly, a loud ping echoed from Julian’s encrypted laptop.
Someone had just sent a highly secure video message to his private email address.
Julian clicked the play button with a trembling hand.
The screen flickered to life, showing Emma sitting on a dirty mattress eating a chocolate ice cream bar.
She looked totally unharmed, but completely confused about where she was.
Then the camera panned slowly to the right.
Marcus was not holding the camera.
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It was Chloe, wearing a twisted smile and holding a silver lighter next to a massive red gasoline can.
“Did you really think the police could hold me?” Chloe asked the camera.
