Chapter 5 - The Hostage Video
The dial tone echoed loudly in the quiet, misty air of the docks.
Nathaniel gripped his phone so tightly the glass cracked under his thumb.
"We have to sign over the routes," Andrew said, pacing frantically near the cars.
"It is the only way to get her back alive."
Nathaniel shook his head slowly.
"Vanessa will kill her the second the financial transfer is confirmed," he said coldly.
"She cannot afford to leave any living witnesses behind."
Nathaniel's phone suddenly chimed with an incoming video message.
He opened the digital file immediately.
The video showed Clare tied to a metal chair in a dark, damp room.
Her hospital gown was stained with fresh, terrifying amounts of blood.
She looked incredibly pale and dangerously weak.
Vanessa stepped into the frame, holding a large syringe filled with a cloudy liquid.
"Transfer the assets, or I inject her with this," Vanessa threatened the camera.
Nathaniel watched his wife's face closely on the small screen.
Clare was an experienced and highly trained ICU nurse.
She knew exactly how to survive in medical emergencies.
In the video, Clare stared directly into the camera lens.
She began tapping her bloodstained fingers against the metal armrest of the chair.
One tap.
Pause.
Two taps.
Pause.
Four taps.
Nathaniel's heart skipped a beat as he recognized the rhythm.
Years ago, Clare had taught him the medical emergency codes for her hospital.
Code 1-2-4 meant a severe oxygen leak in the unit.
Clare was subtly moving her foot in the video, intentionally kicking a large, rusted cylinder behind her chair.
It was an industrial oxygen tank.
Clare was deliberately flooding the small room with highly flammable gas.
She was silently giving him a tactical advantage for a rescue.
Nathaniel looked at Andrew with a newfound sense of lethal determination.
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"Call your security team right now," Nathaniel ordered.
"I know exactly where they are holding her."
