Chapter 89: Tense moments
Xavier froze in his chair the moment he heard the scream. His heart seemed to skip a beat, racing faster than any monitor ever could. He glanced at the small black box on the table, its lights still blinking rhythmically. The signal jammer was working perfectly. He had just killed every bit of power in the entire estate.
"Dammit!" Xavier roared.
He slammed his fist onto the desk until his knuckles turned red. His eyes widened as the sheer stupidity of his move hit him. His obsession with blinding Marco D’Angelo had completely overridden his logic regarding Agatha’s condition.
"Xav, what’s going on?" Frans asked, his voice laced with panic in the pitch-black room.
"The medical equipment, Frans! Agatha’s life support went down with the jammer!" Xavier shouted.
"Ugh!" Xavier groaned as he forced himself to stand.
The wound in his abdomen felt like it was being sliced open all over again. Blood began to soak through his black shirt in earnest. He didn't care. Xavier shoved past Frans’s shoulder as the man tried to steady him. He bolted out of the monitor room with a heavy limp.
"Mr. Xavier, wait! Don't run!" the guard who brought the news called out.
Xavier kept pushing his legs through the blackout-shrouded hallway. He relied entirely on his memory of the floor plan. His hand grazed the cold walls, using them as a guide. His breathing was ragged and heavy.
"Akh!" Xavier went down as his foot caught the edge of the stairs leading to the basement.
"Sir!" Frans caught up behind him, flicking on a small tactical flashlight.
Xavier scrambled back up even though his body was shaking violently. He took the stairs a few at a time, half-jumping down. The pain in his chest had vanished, swallowed by a paralyzing fear. He reached the door to Agatha’s medical suite and kicked it open.
"Brak!"
Flashlights from the medical team danced wildly around the room. It was pure chaos. Xavier saw Pierre rhythmically pressing down on Agatha’s chest. Melynda stood in the corner, her face drenched in tears.
"Do something, Pierre!" Xavier screamed.
"I can’t see a thing in this dark, Xavier! The monitors are dead! The defibrillator won't charge!" Pierre shouted back.
"Use the flashlights! Use anything!" Xavier countered, rushing to the side of the bed.
"Manual pump! Get the bag-valve mask now!" Pierre barked at a nurse.
A nurse with trembling hands fitted a plastic mask over Agatha’s face and began squeezing the air bag manually. The sound of forced air entering Agatha’s lungs was a haunting whistle in Xavier’s ears.
"Mmhh... hhh..." Pierre continued the chest compressions.
"Why did her heart stop? She was fine!" Xavier demanded.
"The blood pressure spike when you injected yourself with that stimulant affected her subconsciously, and then every piece of life support went dark at once!" Pierre explained without breaking his rhythm.
Xavier gripped the bedrail. He watched Agatha’s face turn a deeper shade of blue under the swaying flashlights. He felt like a murderer. The very device he activated to protect his family had become the weapon taking his wife’s life.
"I'm sorry, Agatha. I'm so sorry," Xavier whispered, his voice breaking.
"Xavier, get out of here! You're just in the way!" Pierre snapped.
"I’m not leaving!" Xavier fired back.
"You're bleeding all over the floor, son! You're going to collapse if you don't get treated!" Melynda cried out, grabbing Xavier’s arm.
"Let it happen! If she goes, I don't want to live anyway!" Xavier shouted, his eyes bloodshot.
"One... two... three... pump!" Pierre instructed the nurse.
A suffocating silence filled the gaps between the manual pumps. Pierre pressed his ear to Agatha’s chest, searching for any sign of life. He shook his head in frustration.
"Nothing yet. I need power! I need that defibrillator now!" Pierre yelled.
"Frans! Kill the jammer!" Xavier ordered into the radio pinned to his shoulder.
"I can't, Sir! If I turn it off now, Marco’s drones will lock onto this room and fire! They're already over the roof!" Frans replied over the comms.
"To hell with the rockets! Turn it off!" Xavier screamed.
"Don't you dare, Frans! Keep it on!" Don Cardios barked as he stepped into the room with a calm stride.
Xavier spun around and grabbed Don Cardios by the collar. "You want your granddaughter to die? The equipment needs power!"
Don Cardios pried Xavier’s hands off with a strength that belied his age. He stared Xavier down with eyes that were sharp and unyielding.
"Use your head, boy. If you turn the power on now, we’ll all be blown to bits before her heart even gets a chance to beat," Don Cardios said coldly.
"Then what? You want me to just stand here and watch her die?" Xavier challenged.
"Pierre, keep up the manual compressions. Don't stop until I tell you to," Don Cardios ordered.
Melynda suddenly went still in the corner. She closed her eyes tight, trying to dig through old memories of conversations with her late husband about the bunker’s construction. She remembered something vital.
"Wait!" Melynda cried out.
Everyone turned to her. The flashlights converged on her face, which was now filled with a flicker of hope.
"What is it, Mom?" Xavier asked.
"Argas once installed an independent backup power system in this bunker. He called it the 'Isolated Current System' for nuclear emergency scenarios," Melynda explained breathlessly.
"What do you mean?" Pierre asked.
"The cables are lead-lined and run on a completely different frequency. The jammer can't touch that current because the lines are buried deep under the concrete floor," Melynda continued.
Xavier felt a sliver of light in the darkness. "Where’s the switch, Mom?"
"It’s not a normal switch. It’s behind the wall panel in the sterilization room next door. But the problem is, the power comes from an old chemical battery," Melynda said.
"How long will it last?" Don Cardios asked.
Melynda looked at her son and Don Cardios in turn.
"That battery can only supply full power for three days," Melynda answered.
"Only three days?" Xavier repeated in a low voice.
"After three days, it’ll be completely drained and can't be recharged manually without the main generators," Melynda added.
Xavier went quiet for a second. Three days. It was a terrifyingly short window. It meant they had to end the war with Marco D’Angelo within seventy-two hours, or they would lose Agatha forever.
"Frans, did you hear that? Find the panel in the sterilization room!" Xavier barked into the radio.
"I'm at the panel, Sir! Found it!" Frans replied.
"Flip it now!" Xavier shouted.
"Klik!"
A low hum began to vibrate behind the walls. Slowly, the red emergency lights in the ceiling of the medical room flickered to life. The monitor beside Agatha’s bed let out a short beep and displayed a horrifying flat line.
"Monitor's up! Defibrillator is live!" Pierre shouted with renewed energy.
Pierre grabbed the paddles. He quickly applied gel to Agatha’s exposed chest.
"Charge to two hundred joules!" Pierre ordered.
"Ready, Doc!" the nurse replied.
"Clear! Shock!"
Agatha’s body jolted violently on the bed as the current hit her heart. But the monitor remained flat. Xavier held his breath until his face turned red.
"Again! Bump it to three hundred!" Pierre yelled.
"Pierre, remember the baby!" Melynda warned, her voice hoarse.
"If the mother isn't breathing, the baby doesn't stand a chance anyway, Melynda! Shock!"
Agatha’s body arched again. Xavier closed his eyes, unable to watch the agony. The whine of the medical equipment charging felt agonizingly slow.
"Bip... bip... bip..."
The monitor’s tone changed. The flat line began to show small, irregular, but steady spikes.
"We have a pulse! It’s weak, but she’s back!" Pierre said, wiping sweat from his brow.
Xavier slid to the floor. He leaned his back against the leg of Agatha’s bed. He felt an overwhelming sense of relief, but his mother’s words were still ringing in his head. Three days. They only had three days before this little rose withered for good.
Xavier looked at Don Cardios, who was still standing tall.
"Three days to end Marco D'Angelo," Xavier muttered coldly.
Don Cardios pulled a pocket watch from his jacket and watched the second hand tick.
"Our clock is officially running, Xavier," Don Cardios said, eyeing the exit.
Xavier gripped the pistol at his waist. He knew what had to be done next. He looked back at the faintly beating heart monitor one last time.
"Mom, make sure not a single second of that power is wasted on anything unnecessary," Xavier instructed.
"I understand. Go," Melynda replied.
Xavier stood up with whatever strength he had left. He looked toward the corridor, which remained dark outside the reach of the red emergency glow.
"Xav, we have a message from the manual spotters at the east gate," Frans’s voice crackled over the radio.
Xavier brought the radio to his lips. "Talk to me."
"They’re moving in by land with heavy vehicles, Xav. They don't need the drones anymore," Frans reported.
Xavier let out a thin smirk in the shadows. His gaze turned pitch black, darker than the room without power.
"Let them come deeper," Xavier said.
"Why?" Frans asked, confused.
Xavier glanced at Melynda, who was busy helping Pierre secure the medical leads.
"Because I want them to die right under this window," Xavier replied.