Chapter 4 - The Shadow of the Docks
The underground parking garage of Saint Jude’s Hospital smelled of damp concrete, old motor oil, and exhaust fumes.
Grace sprinted out of the elevator, her rubber-soled nursing shoes squeaking softly against the grease-stained floor. She kept low, ducking behind heavy concrete pillars, her eyes scanning the rows of parked sedans and SUVs.
Key fob. I need a car, Grace thought frantically.
Suddenly, her phone vibrated violently in her apron pocket. She pulled it out. It was an encrypted text message sent from an unknown, private server.
[UNKNOWN]: Grace. This is Dr. Brooks. I am locked in the nurse's station. Mason's men are coming up the stairs. Adrian has been moved to ICU Bay 4 under heavy guard by two loyal men who don't know Mason betrayed them yet. You need to get to the estate. Adrian keeps a emergency burner phone and a heavy ledger in his study safe. The combination is Lily’s birthday.
Grace’s breath caught in her throat. Lily’s birthday?
Adrian had set his ultimate emergency override vault code to her daughter's birthdate?
Before she could process the thought, the heavy steel door of the parking garage stairwell burst open thirty yards away. Three men in black tactical jackets rushed out, drawing silenced pistols.
"Find the girl!" one of the mercenaries barked into a radio. "Mason says kill the mother and bring the kid to the harbor docks! Move!"
Grace pressed herself against the cold concrete of a structural pillar. She held her hand over Lily's mouth, whispering in her ear. "Shh, baby. Not a sound. Be as quiet as a mouse."
Lily nodded, her eyes wide with terror, hugging her stuffed rabbit until her knuckles turned white.
The mercenaries spread out, their heavy boots crunching against broken glass on the garage floor. They were methodically checking beneath every vehicle, getting closer to Grace’s hiding spot with every passing second.
Ten feet away. Eight feet away.
Grace looked around wildly for anything she could use. Beside her pillar sat an industrial maintenance cart containing a bucket of commercial ammonia bleach and a bottle of hydrochloric acid cleaner used for scrubbing floor stains.
Grace’s nursing education flashed through her mind instantly.
Ammonia plus hydrochloric acid equals chloramine gas. Highly toxic, dense, respiratory failure within seconds.
She silently reached out, grabbed the two plastic jugs, and unscrewed their caps. She poured half of the ammonia into a broad plastic bucket, then dumped the full bottle of hydrochloric acid straight into it.
A thick, white, choking plume of vapor instantly billowed out from the chemical reaction.
"What's that smell?" one of the mercenaries called out, stopping three feet from Grace’s pillar. "Hey, Frank, do you smell bleach—"
COUGH! COUGH!
The mercenary instantly dropped his gun, clutching his throat as the dense chloramine gas filled his lungs, searing his respiratory tract. He collapsed to his knees, thrashing wildly for air.
The second guard turned toward the cloud. "WHAT THE—"
Grace didn't wait. She grabbed a heavy steel wrench off the maintenance cart and swung it with all her strength, striking the second guard hard across the side of his tactical helmet. He stumbled backward, crashing face-first into a parked sedan, unconscious before he hit the ground.
The third guard raised his pistol, but Grace grabbed the bucket of liquid chemical solution and splashed it straight into his face and eyes.
"AAAAAAGH! MY EYES! IT BURNS!" the man shrieked, dropping his weapon and staggering blindly backward into an open elevator shaft, crashing down onto the metal cabin below with a sickening thud.
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Grace was panting heavily, her arms shaking from adrenaline. She grabbed the first guard's fallen car keys, unlocked a sleek black Audi SUV parked nearby, threw Lily into the backseat, scrambled into the driver's seat, and slammed her foot onto the accelerator.
The engine roared to life. The Audi tore out of the garage, smashing through the wooden security barrier at the exit, and burst out into the rain-slicked streets of Port Lawson under the midnight sky.
