Chapter 9 - The Hostage
"Nobody take another step!" Ethan roared, his voice cracking with absolute, unhinged desperation.
The entire federal tactical team froze instantly, lowering their weapons to avoid hitting the pregnant hostage.
Ethan dragged Olivia backward across the wet, slippery tarmac toward an idling military transport helicopter.
Blood poured down Olivia's legs as her body fought desperately to deliver the child in the middle of a warzone.
She cried out in agonizing pain, her vision blurring as the intense blood loss took a severe toll.
"Let her go, Ethan, there is nowhere left to run," Margaret pleaded, stepping slowly toward the madman.
She unbuckled her gun holster and gently tossed her own weapon onto the ground to calm him down.
"I will cut this baby out of her right now if you do not back away!" Ethan screamed, pressing the knife harder against her skin.
He wanted to use the helicopter to escape across the border before the airspace was entirely locked down.
Olivia felt the cold steel of the blade pressing dangerously close to her unborn child.
She suddenly remembered the intense, grueling self-defense classes her father had forced her to take as a teenager.
She knew she only had one single, desperate chance to save her baby's life.
She took a deep, agonizing breath, ignoring the blinding pain of her active contractions.
Olivia violently drove her elbow backward with every ounce of strength she possessed, striking Ethan directly in his wounded ribs.
Ethan gasped in sudden, blinding agony, his grip completely loosening for a fraction of a second.
Olivia threw her body weight forward, breaking entirely free from his treacherous grasp.
She stumbled and fell heavily onto the hard, cold concrete of the runway.
Federal agents immediately swarmed Ethan, tackling him brutally to the ground and disarming him in seconds.
Margaret rushed forward, dropping to her knees beside her bleeding, exhausted daughter.
"You are safe now, my brave girl," Margaret wept, cradling Olivia's head in her lap.
Olivia looked up at the dark sky, feeling a strange, terrifying numbness spreading through her entire body.
The military paramedics finally arrived, rushing toward them with a rolling emergency stretcher.
They quickly attached a fetal heart monitor to Olivia's bruised and battered stomach.
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The paramedics looked at each other with pure, unadulterated panic in their eyes.
The baby's heart monitor was completely, devastatingly silent.
