Chapter 5 - The Hostage Demand
Sarah immediately called for a private medical team to treat my mother.
I gently held my mother's hand until she slowly opened her eyes.
"Daniel, I am so sorry," she whispered, wincing in obvious pain.
"Vanessa came back with that terrible lawyer and they took him."
I promised my mother everything would be okay, even though I was terrified.
My cell phone suddenly vibrated in my pocket.
It was a video call from an unknown, blocked number.
I answered it immediately, and Vanessa's smiling face filled the screen.
"Hello, Daniel," she said cheerfully.
The camera shifted, showing Noah tied to a metal chair in a dark room.
He was crying and struggling to breathe, gasping heavily for air.
"Noah!" I yelled, pressing my face close to the screen.
Vanessa turned the camera back to herself, holding up his life-saving asthma inhaler.
"Your son is having a little trouble breathing," she mocked cruelly.
"If you want me to give him his medicine, you will transfer your company shares right now."
She told me I had exactly one hour to wire everything to her offshore account.
"If you fail, Noah will not survive the night," she threatened before hanging up.
I threw my phone against the wall in a blind, helpless rage.
Sarah calmly picked up the device and plugged it into her encrypted laptop.
"What are you doing?" I asked, desperately trying to calm down.
"I own the best private intelligence firm in this state," Sarah reminded me.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard as lines of green code filled the monitor.
"I am triangulating the exact cellular tower that video call bounced from."
A detailed map of the city popped up on her bright screen.
A blinking red dot appeared, pinpointing Vanessa's exact location.
I stared at the map in total confusion.
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The location was not an abandoned warehouse or a remote cabin.
Vanessa was holding my son hostage inside the headquarters of my own tech company.
