Chapter 7 - The Interrogation
I stared at the live video feed, realizing the entire situation was spiraling wildly out of control.
Jack was not running away with his mistress, and he was not hiding with the syndicate.
He had hijacked his own sister's escape vehicle and was using his own children as a final, desperate shield.
I kicked Doctor Harrison violently in the ribs, leaving him groaning on the floor of the office.
I grabbed the burner phone, the encrypted drive, and the suppressed pistol.
I sprinted out of the hospital, taking the emergency stairwell to avoid any remaining security guards.
I burst out into the cool night air and ran directly to my hidden gray sedan.
I plugged the burner phone into my laptop and instantly launched a highly advanced geographical tracking program.
The video feed was transmitting a hidden GPS signal encoded within the digital pixels.
I isolated the signal in less than two minutes, bringing up a detailed map of the city.
The van was currently parked at an abandoned industrial warehouse near the old shipping docks.
I threw the car into drive and sped furiously toward the waterfront, my tires screeching at every sharp turn.
I arrived at the dark, rusted warehouse fifteen minutes later.
I parked the car behind a mountain of stacked shipping crates and approached the building silently on foot.
The massive metal door was slightly ajar, casting a thin slice of yellow light onto the cracked concrete.
I slipped inside, keeping to the deep shadows cast by the towering metal pillars.
The van was parked in the center of the vast, empty room.
My children were crying softly in the back seat, their small faces pressed against the dirty glass windows.
Ashley was tied tightly to a wooden chair near the front bumper, bleeding heavily from a nasty cut on her forehead.
Jack was pacing nervously back and forth in front of her, holding a heavy silver revolver.
He looked completely unhinged, his fancy charcoal coat ruined and his eyes wide with manic panic.
"I needed the money, Ashley!" Jack screamed at his sister, waving the gun recklessly in the air.
"The syndicate was going to kill me, and you were supposed to make sure Megan died in the house!"
Ashley sobbed uncontrollably, straining against the thick ropes binding her arms.
"I tried, Jack, but she is a monster!" Ashley cried out in terror.
"She blinded Mom and escaped before the clean-up crew even arrived!"
I stepped out of the shadows, raising the suppressed pistol and aiming it directly at Jack's chest.
"She is absolutely right, Jack," I said, my voice echoing loudly across the empty warehouse.
"I am a monster, and you have finally managed to wake me up."
Jack spun around rapidly, aiming his revolver blindly in my direction.
When he saw me standing there with a professional weapon, his false courage completely vanished.
"Megan, please put the gun down," Jack begged, his hands shaking so violently he could barely hold his weapon.
"This is all a terrible misunderstanding."
I walked slowly toward him, completely ignoring the gun pointed at my face.
"You took out a ten-million-dollar life insurance policy on me, Jack," I stated coldly.
"You sold your patients' medical data on the dark web to pay off your gambling debts."
"And now you are holding my children hostage in a dirty warehouse."
I stopped exactly ten feet away from him, my eyes locked dead onto his.
"Tell me exactly where the misunderstanding is," I challenged him.
Jack let out a pathetic, broken sob and dropped his gun onto the concrete floor.
He fell heavily to his knees, covering his face with his hands and crying like a terrified child.
"I am so sorry, Megan," he wept uncontrollably.
"Chloe made me do it, she manipulated my entire life!"
I walked over and kicked his dropped revolver far out of his reach.
I was finally ready to end his pathetic existence.
Suddenly, the heavy metal doors of the warehouse blew completely open with a deafening explosion.
A blinding spotlight cut through the darkness, pinning us entirely in its harsh glare.
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"Drop the weapon, Megan," a booming voice echoed over a massive loudspeaker.
"You are completely surrounded by federal agents."
