Chapter 312 Chapter 313

Chapter 312 Chapter 313
Chapter 313

Nikolai’s POV 

The clock on the ICU wall read 10:14 PM. We had less than two hours before Dr. Vane returned with a lethal dose of potassium chloride.

I stood in the dark corner of the hospital room, the glow of my custom-built laptop screen illuminating the sharp angles of my face. My fingers flew across the mechanical keyboard at terrifying speed, executing a series of encrypted protocols designed to tear through the federal banking firewalls protecting my father's offshore wealth.

"Nikolai, this is insane," Nicholas hissed, pacing frantically back and forth near the locked door. His white medical coat was rumpled, his hair a chaotic mess as he wrung his hands together. "You are breaking into federal banking servers inside a secure medical facility! If the agency catches us—"

"The agency is coming to murder our mother at midnight, Nicholas," I interrupted without looking up, my voice flat, cold, and entirely devoid of panic. "The law died the second they put a hit on her. Keep your eyes on that door."

"And where are we supposed to go?" Nicholas demanded, stepping closer to my desk, his voice cracking with desperation. "She is in a deep coma! She needs a specialized neuro-ICU team, a private medical transport jet, and continuous life support! You cannot just haul a dying woman out the front entrance!"

"Which is exactly why I am moving five million dollars into an untraceable Swiss custodial account right now," I replied, hitting the final key command with a sharp, heavy click.

The laptop screen flashed green.

TRANSACTION APPROVED. ACCOUNT BALANCE: $5,240,000. TRANSFERRED TO SYNDICATE MEDICAL LOGISTICS, TOKYO.

Nicholas gasped, staring at the screen in absolute disbelief. "Tokyo? Japan?! Are you completely out of your mind, Nikolai? That is halfway across the world!"

I shut the laptop lid, placing it securely inside my black tactical duffel bag.

"Japan has the most advanced private neuro-regeneration clinics on the planet," I said, stepping over to my mother's bed and carefully unhooking the hospital's monitoring cables, replacing them one by one with a portable, battery-operated life-support suit I had brought inside the duffel bag. "More importantly, the clinic in Tokyo operates entirely outside the jurisdiction of Western military agencies. They ask zero questions as long as the wires clear."

"You did not even consult me!" Nicholas yelled in a harsh, furious whisper, grabbing my shoulder to force me to face him. "I am her son too! I am a medical student, Nikolai! I know her condition better than you do! Transporting her in this state could trigger an immediate fatal stroke!"

I looked down at his hand on my shoulder, my dark eyes flashing with a cold, terrifying intensity that made Nicholas instantly pull his hand back.

"If she stays in this bed, she dies at midnight," I said, my voice dropping into a deadly, quiet register. "If she leaves on that private medical transport jet waiting at the secondary airfield, she has a fighting chance. You know the math, Nicholas. Stop letting your fear blind your logic."

Nicholas clenched his fists, his chest heaving as tears of anger and powerlessness welled in his eyes. He hated that I was right. He hated that while he had spent the last three days weeping at her bedside, I had been quietly hacking banking servers, bribing international air transport coordinators, and securing a private medical ward in Japan.

Suddenly, a quiet knock echoed against the heavy wooden door of the ICU room.

Knock. Knock.

Nicholas froze, his face going pale as chalk. "It is not midnight yet," he whispered in pure terror. "Did they come early?"

I pulled a small, suppressed tactical handgun from the side pocket of my duffel bag, holding it low behind my leg as I walked silently toward the door. I peeked through the small glass panel.

Standing outside in the dimly lit hallway was a man wearing a dark blue private paramedic uniform. Beside him sat a heavy, motorized gurney equipped with an advanced portable ventilator unit. He gave a subtle, two-finger signal against his collar.

It was my contact from the private international transport crew I had paid two hundred thousand dollars in cash to secure.

I unlocked the door, opening it just wide enough for the two private paramedics to roll the heavy gurney into the room.

"We have seven minutes before the hallway security shift changes, Mr. Sokolov," the lead paramedic said in a low, efficient tone, checking his watch. "The private transport jet is fueled and idling on the tarmac at the private airfield. Flight clearance to Tokyo is fully locked in under a false medical transport charter."

"Move her gently," I commanded, stepping back to let them transfer my mother’s limp, fragile body from the hospital bed onto the specialized transport unit.

Nicholas stood paralyzed near the window, watching the paramedics secure our mother with military precision. "Nikolai... this feels wrong. Running away like thieves in the night..."

"We are not running away," I said softly, slinging the heavy duffel bag over my broad shoulder as the paramedics unlocked the gurney wheels and prepared to exit through the rear service elevator. "We are surviving."

I turned to my twin brother, extending my hand toward him. "Are you coming, Nicholas? Or are you staying here to answer questions when Dr. Vane finds an empty bed at midnight?"

Nicholas looked at my mother's sleeping face, then looked at me. A deep, bitter resentment flickered in his eyes—the realization that once again, I had taken total control of our family's fate while he was left trailing in my shadow. But he had no choice.

He swallowed hard, wiped the moisture from his face, and took a step toward the door.

"I am coming," Nicholas muttered quietly, his tone laced with a dark, simmering bitterness that I was too focused to fully process. "Let us go to Japan."