Chapter 4 - The Underground Doctor
I carried Sarah's unconscious body through the heavy steel doors of the underground medical clinic.
Dr. Harrison was a brilliant but disgraced surgeon who had stitched up my wounds during my chaotic teenage years.
He owed me his life, and I prayed that old loyalty still meant something in this treacherous city.
The doctor rushed over immediately, directing me to lay Sarah on a cold stainless steel examination table.
He drew a vial of her blackened blood and ran it through a sophisticated chemical analyzer in the corner of the room.
Lily held my hand tightly, her tiny red fingertips staining my palm as we waited in agonizing silence.
The machine beeped loudly, and Dr. Harrison's face drained of all color as he read the digital results.
"This is the Black Lotus compound, a highly restricted neurotoxin favored by the cartel," the doctor explained grimly.
He told me she would be completely brain-dead in exactly twelve hours unless she received the specific, proprietary antidote.
"Where do I find the antidote?" I demanded, entirely ready to burn the city to the ground to get it.
Dr. Harrison sighed heavily, adjusting his wire-rimmed glasses with trembling hands.
"Elias Thorne holds the only existing vials inside his maximum-security corporate vault," the doctor revealed.
I nodded in determination, formulating a desperate plan to breach my own former company headquarters.
"Take care of them while I am gone, Doc," I ordered, turning toward the heavy steel exit doors.
Suddenly, an electronic locking mechanism engaged, sealing the heavy doors completely shut.
Thick metal blast shields slammed down over the clinic's small windows, plunging the room into artificial lighting.
I turned around slowly, discovering Dr. Harrison pointing a customized shotgun directly at my chest.
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"I am truly sorry, Nathan, but Elias just broadcasted a ten-million-dollar bounty for your head," the doctor confessed.
A loud hissing sound erupted from the ceiling vents as thick, green, poisonous gas began pouring rapidly into the confined room.
