Chapter 8 - The Buyer Arrives
The smooth voice from the loudspeaker sent a chill straight down my spine.
I tied off the final stitch on Lily's abdomen and applied a clean, fresh bandage.
Lily let out a soft cry, her color slowly beginning to return.
"She is stable for now, but we are trapped," I whispered to Maya.
Maya grabbed a heavy steel oxygen tank from the corner of the room.
"I am not letting anyone take her," she declared fiercely.
We heard the heavy security door outside the surgical room begin to rattle.
Someone was using a blowtorch on the heavy deadbolt.
Sparks flew under the doorframe, illuminating the dark tiles with flashes of orange.
"We cannot fight off an entire team of mercenaries," I told her honestly.
"We have to find another way out of this room."
Maya looked up at the ceiling and noticed an air ventilation grate.
"Boost me up," she said, dragging a metal rolling cart beneath the vent.
I helped her onto the cart, holding it steady while she unscrewed the grate.
The metal cover clattered to the floor just as the door's lock melted completely.
"Hand her to me," Maya urged, reaching down from the dark shaft.
I gently lifted the swaddled baby into the air.
Maya grabbed her carefully and pulled her into the narrow metal duct.
Before I could climb up after them, the heavy steel door was kicked open.
Four armed men wearing dark suits flooded into the surgical suite.
Behind them walked an elegant, silver-haired man in a tailored tuxedo.
He surveyed the room, his cold gray eyes landing directly on me.
"Where is the infant, Eleanor?" the man asked in a deceptively polite tone.
"She is gone, and you will never find her," I spat back at him.
The man smiled, revealing unnervingly perfect white teeth.
"I am Julian, and I always get what I pay for," he replied softly.
He gestured to one of his armed guards.
The guard stepped forward and grabbed me roughly by the arms.
"Search the building," Julian ordered the others.
"They could not have gone far in a veterinary clinic."
Julian walked over to the surgical table and noticed the bloody gauze I had left behind.
He touched the blood with his gloved finger and smirked.
"The baby is injured, which means she will not survive long in the cold," he observed.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from the ceiling above us.
One of the ceiling tiles gave way under Maya's weight.
My granddaughter fell violently to the floor, clutching the baby tightly in her arms.
Julian chuckled, clapping his hands together slowly in a mocking applause.
"Well, that was certainly convenient," he smiled, pulling a silver pistol from his jacket.
May you like
He pointed the gun directly at Maya's forehead.
"Hand over the child, or die holding her," Julian commanded.
