Chapter 6 - The Vanishing Act
The hesitation was all Julian needed.
"Dr. Aris, code blue in room 402," Julian said calmly, never breaking eye contact with the lead trooper.
Dr. Aris immediately hit the emergency panel behind the nursing station. Alarms shrieked through the ward. Strobe lights flared blue along the ceiling. Nurses and orderlies rushed into the hallway pushing crash carts, creating instant, chaotic gridlock between the officers and the doorway.
"Move! Now!" Julian whispered.
He pulled Clara from the bed into a wheelchair, threw a medical blanket over her lap, and instructed Leo to stay beneath the blanket, clinging to his mother’s knees. Maya grabbed the laptop and shielded the chair as they slipped through the emergency service corridor, bypassing the main elevators.
They reached the hospital’s underground delivery bay just as a nondescript laundry van backed up to the loading dock. Behind the wheel was Miller, the tactical officer who had helped cut the chains that morning. He had stripped off his SWAT vest, wearing civilian flannels.
"They just put an all-points bulletin out on your truck, Julian," Miller said, sliding the side door open. "Vance pulled strings at the commissioner’s office. They’re calling you armed and dangerous."
"Why are you helping us, Miller?" Julian asked as he lifted Clara and Leo into the back among bins of clean hospital linens.
May you like
Miller looked at Leo, whose small hands were trembling uncontrollably. "I have two daughters at home, Julian. I watched that scum stand in that hallway while that boy cried for his mother. Some things are bigger than a pension. Get in. I know a safe house outside municipal jurisdiction."
The laundry van sped into the gray dawn mist, leaving the sirens and flashing red lights behind them in the belly of the city.
