Chapter 9 - The Empty Car
Lucas ran so fast his lungs felt like they were filling with broken glass.
He reached the black SUV parked at the edge of the airfield.
The back door was completely wide open.
The thick wool blanket he had wrapped Emma in was lying in a heap on the dirt.
Emma was gone.
Lucas stood in the darkness, the cold wind biting into his skin as absolute terror consumed him.
"Marcus!" Lucas screamed, turning back toward the runway.
Marcus dragged Arthur over to the car, kicking the old man to the ground.
"Search the perimeter!" Lucas ordered his men, pointing into the dark woods surrounding the airfield.
"She couldn't have gone far, she can barely walk!"
But the woods were completely silent.
Lucas looked down at the dirt road next to the SUV.
There were clear tire tracks in the mud, indicating a second car had been parked right next to theirs.
Someone had followed them from the estate and snatched Emma while they were distracted by Arthur.
Lucas grabbed Arthur by the collar, pulling his bruised face up to the headlights.
"Who else knew you were here?" Lucas demanded, shaking the old man violently.
Arthur looked genuinely terrified for the first time that night.
"Nobody," Arthur stammered. "I worked alone, I swear to God."
Lucas threw Arthur to the ground and grabbed his phone to track Emma's location.
He always insisted she wear a diamond necklace with a hidden GPS tracker for security.
The dot on his screen pinged immediately.
She wasn't in the woods, and she wasn't heading away from the city.
The tracker showed her moving at high speed straight toward downtown Chicago.
Specifically, she was heading to the top floor of Lucas's own corporate headquarters.
Lucas jumped into the driver's seat of the SUV, leaving Marcus to deal with the police who were finally arriving.
He drove like a madman, breaking every speed limit in the city to reach the towering glass skyscraper.
He swiped his master keycard and took the private executive elevator directly to the penthouse office.
The elevator doors chimed and slid open to reveal a massive, dimly lit boardroom.
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Sitting at the head of the long mahogany table was Emma.
She was perfectly healthy, her legs completely unbruised, and she was gently rocking a crying newborn baby in her arms.
