Chapter 4 - The Ransom Demand
I watched the horrific video on my phone screen as my heart hammered against my ribs.
Ethan struggled violently against the thick ropes cutting into his wrists.
Diane suddenly stepped into the camera frame holding a crying Noah in her arms.
She smiled a cold and terrifying smile directly into the camera lens.
She calmly told me that she wanted the remaining ten million dollars of Walter's estate.
She demanded that the funds be transferred to an untraceable offshore account by midnight.
If we failed to pay, she promised that Ethan and Noah would disappear forever.
Walter snatched the phone from my hands and immediately called his contacts at the FBI.
A highly trained tactical response team arrived at my hospital room within twenty minutes.
They connected specialized decryption software to my phone to trace the IP address of the live video feed.
The lead tactical agent stared at his computer monitor and turned completely pale.
He looked at Walter and me with wide, terrified eyes.
The video was not coming from a secluded cabin in the woods.
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The signal was pinging from a local network router right beneath our feet.
The live hostage video was coming directly from the abandoned sub-basement of this exact hospital.
