Chapter 9 - The Race Against Time
The deafening shriek of the hospital's emergency fire alarm completely drowned out all other sounds in the room.
Red strobe lights flashed aggressively in the hallway, casting terrifying shadows across the sterile walls.
Elias immediately hauled Julian to his feet and slammed him violently against the heavy wooden doorframe.
"Where exactly is the bomb located, Julian?" Elias roared, shaking his brother with immense, unrestrained fury.
Julian simply smiled his twisted, arrogant smile and completely refused to answer the desperate question.
Elias didn't have a single second left to waste trying to interrogate a suicidal madman.
He forcefully shoved Julian toward the advancing hospital security guards running rapidly down the chaotic hallway.
"Arrest this man and evacuate the entire building immediately!" Elias commanded the stunned, bewildered security team.
He rushed back into the room and gently helped Mara carefully out of the elevated hospital bed.
He wrapped a thick, warm blanket securely around her shoulders to protect her from the cold night air.
Bianca was still paralyzed on the floor, weeping hysterically and completely incapable of moving her legs.
Elias grabbed his treacherous sister-in-law by the arm and dragged her forcefully to her feet.
"You are running with us, Bianca, unless you want to burn to death in this room," Elias ordered coldly.
They rushed out into the crowded, chaotic hallway, joining the massive panic of fleeing patients and terrified nurses.
Elias used his massive frame to expertly shield Mara from the crushing, frantic stampede of escaping people.
They reached the primary emergency stairwell and began the agonizingly slow descent from the sixth floor.
Mara clutched her stomach tightly, praying fiercely that the baby would survive this horrifying, exhausting ordeal.
The heavy smell of burning electrical wires began to rapidly fill the concrete, echoing stairwell.
They finally burst through the ground-floor exit doors and stumbled out into the freezing, rain-swept hospital parking lot.
A massive, terrifying explosion suddenly rocked the entire eastern wing of the building right behind them.
Glass windows shattered violently, raining sharp, dangerous debris down onto the wet asphalt below.
Elias pulled Mara safely behind a concrete barricade, shielding her completely from the dangerous shockwave.
They watched in absolute horror as thick black smoke billowed furiously into the dark night sky.
They had miraculously survived the explosion by a mere matter of a few terrifying seconds.
Elias pulled out his encrypted smartphone to check the GPS tracker he had secretly planted on Julian's car months ago.
He wanted to make absolutely sure the police had securely detained his brother during the chaotic evacuation.
He stared at the glowing screen, his face draining of all color in absolute, paralyzing disbelief.
Julian’s tracker was not moving toward the local police precinct as he had fully expected.
The blinking red dot was speeding rapidly toward Elias's entirely unprotected, highly secure penthouse apartment.
Julian was heading straight for the vault containing all the physical evidence of their massive financial crimes.
But that was not the twist that completely stopped Elias's heart in his chest.
The digital alert on Elias's phone clearly showed that the massive offshore trust funds had just been successfully transferred out of his account.
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Julian could not have possibly authorized that transfer from the back of a police cruiser.
The transfer was officially authorized by Elias's own trusted Chief of Security, meaning the true traitor had finally revealed himself.
