Chapter 2 - The Midnight Escape
The silence in the police station was suddenly deafening.
Officer Davis instinctively rested his hand on his duty weapon.
He realized I had just connected him directly to the brutal assault on my father.
I knew that drawing my own weapon inside a corrupt police precinct would be a fatal mistake.
I needed to get my father out of this building before these people found an excuse to lock us both away.
I grabbed my federal badge off the counter and slipped it into my pocket.
I told Officer Davis that I was taking my father to the federal hospital across the county line.
I warned him that if anyone tried to stop my vehicle, I would call in a federal tactical team.
Vanessa opened her mouth to argue, but Mark quickly pulled her back.
My brother looked utterly terrified of the monster he had allied himself with.
I wrapped my arm around my father's waist and guided him out into the cold night air.
I helped him into the passenger seat of my armored government vehicle.
I locked the doors and sped away from the station as fast as the engine allowed.
My father wept silently in the darkness of the car.
He apologized for being a burden and for letting them hurt him.
I squeezed his hand and promised him that nobody was ever going to hurt him again.
We arrived at the secure federal medical facility just before sunrise.
The doctors immediately took him back for a full trauma evaluation.
I sat in the waiting room and pulled out my encrypted government laptop.
I ran a facial recognition search on Vanessa using the federal criminal database.
I expected to find a few minor fraud charges or perhaps a history of petty theft.
The search results loaded onto my screen and made my blood run completely cold.
Vanessa was not her real name.
Her real name was Elena Rostova, and she was a known associate of a massive international crime syndicate.
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But the most terrifying detail was at the very bottom of her file.
She was currently listed as legally dead.
