Chapter 100 Struggle for life
Ariella hated that Victoria was right.
“We need to discuss this,” Aiden said. “Privately.”
Victoria checked her watch. “You have five minutes. Then I call Dr. Chen anyway and we see if you can live with yourselves.”
They walked to the far corner, out of earshot.
“We can’t sign this,” Aiden whispered. “Everything we’ve done.”
“Everything we’ve done doesn’t matter if Elena dies.”
“If we sign, Victoria walks free. The network survives. She’ll kill again. Other people’s children will die…”
“But ours won’t!” Ariella’s voice broke. “I don’t care about other people’s children right now. I care about Elena, who's dying because we exposed the network. Because we chose justice over safety.”
“So we just give up? Let Victoria win?”
“We let Elena live. That’s winning.”
Marcus’s voice crackled in their earpieces: “FBI is eight minutes out. Don’t sign anything. Stall…”
“Eight minutes is too long,” Ariella said. “Victoria calls Dr. Chen in five.”
“We can get a location trace on the phone…”
“And by the time you find Elena, she’s dead.”
Aiden looked at her. “So we sign.”
“Lets sign.”
“And we live with letting a mass murderer go free.”
“We live. That’s what matters.” Ariella grabbed his hand. “We can fight Victoria later, after Elena is safe, after we’ve regrouped. But right now…right now let's save our daughter.”
They walked back to Victoria.
“We’ll sign,” Aiden said. “But first…you call Dr. Chen. Video call. Let's watch her prepare the antidote, then we will sign.”
Victoria smiled. “Smart, making sure I don’t double-cross you.”
She pulled out her phone and made the call.
Dr. Chen appeared on screen, she's an Older woman with a Kind face. The face of someone who’d held Elena for vaccines and wellness checks. The face of someone they’d trusted.
“Show me the child,” Victoria said.
Dr. Chen panned the camera to Elena, and she was still breathing. Still alive. But her skin had a grayish tint that made Ariella want to vomit.
“She’s getting worse,” Dr. Chen reported. “Blood oxygen dropping. We need to administer the antidote soon or…”
“They’re signing now, Prepare the injection.”
Dr. Chen held up a syringe of Clear liquid.
“This is the antidote?” Aiden asked.
“Yes. Sodium thiosulfate with additional compounds to counteract the specific toxin, It’ll take effect within minutes.”
“How do we know it’s real?”
“You don’t, but if you don’t sign, you’ll never find out.”
Ariella picked up the pen.
Put it on the paper, and started to sign.
And then
Gunfire.
Massive, everywhere, the warehouse erupts in chaos.
The FBI had arrived early.
Victoria’s men returned fire, The phone flew from Victoria’s hand and skittered across the floor.
On the screen: Dr. Chen, startled, dropping the syringe…
“NO!” Ariella screamed.
More gunfire is heard, Aiden tackled her behind a shipping container.
“Marcus!” Aiden shouted into his earpiece. “We need that location NOW! Dr. Chen has Elena and she’s panicking…”
“Working on it…got it! She’s in a van. Mobile. Two miles from your location…”
“Send units…”
“Already done. But if she runs…”
Victoria was trying to reach the phone, FBI agents were storming the second floor, and her men were falling.
The network was collapsing.
Again.
But none of it mattered if Elena died.
Ariella ran for the phone with Bullets whizzing past and grabbed it.
The screen showed Dr. Chen scrambling. The van was moving, and Elena’s monitor was beeping frantically.
“Dr. Chen!” Ariella shouted. “STOP! Please! The antidote….”
“I can’t…they’re coming…I have to…”
The call cut off.
Ariella stared at the dead screen.
“MARCUS!” she screamed. “Where is she?”
“Units are in pursuit. She’s heading toward the Verrazano Bridge. If she makes it to Brooklyn…”
“Stop her!”
“We’re trying…”
More gunfire. Victoria was down. Wounded. FBI agents are securing her.
But Ariella didn’t care.
She ran.
Down the stairs. Out of the warehouse. To their car.
Aiden was right behind her.
“We’re going after her,” Ariella said.
“FBI will….”
“FBI might lose her! We’re going!”
They peeled out of the lot. Following Marcus’s GPS coordinates.
The van was three miles ahead. Then two. Then one.
“There!” Aiden pointed.
White van. Speeding. Weaving through traffic.
Behind it were three FBI vehicles in pursuit.
Ahead was the Verrazano Bridge. Toll plaza. Traffic.
The van didn’t slow down.
It crashed through the barrier and kept going.
FBI vehicles followed, Ariella and Aiden followed behind Onto the bridge. Racing at ninety miles per hour with Traffic scattering.
The van was cornered, No way off the bridge. The FBI was ahead and behind, It stopped.
Middle of the bridge, with the Doors opened.
Dr. Chen stepped out holding Elena, she was holding their daughter like a shield.
“STAY BACK!” she screamed. “Or I drop her!”
She was at the edge of the bridge, Wind whipping, and the water far below.
FBI agents stopped, they couldn’t shoot. Not with Elena in her arms.
Ariella and Aiden got out of their car.
Walked slowly toward Dr. Chen.
“Please,” Ariella said. “Please don’t hurt her. She’s a baby. She’s done nothing…”
“Neither had I!” Dr. Chen’s voice cracked. “I was a good doctor! I helped people! Then the network destroyed my career because I reported fraud! I lost everything! So when they offered me a way back…a way to matter again…I took it!”
“It’s not too late…”
“IT IS!” Dr. Chen looked at Elena, at the dying baby in her arms. “Oh God. What have I done? I’m a doctor. I swore an oath…”
“Then honor it,” Aiden said quietly. “Give us our daughter. Give her the antidote. Be the doctor you were supposed to be.”
Dr. Chen was crying. “I don’t have the antidote, Victoria lied to you, There is no antidote. The toxin is…it’s irreversible. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry…”
She looked at the water below.
“NO!” Ariella lunged forward.
Dr. Chen stepped back.
Toward the edge, slipped and fell.
But she threw Elena forward.
Toward Ariella.
Ariella caught her daughter, barely. Fell to her knees. Clutching Elena against her chest.
Behind her was Dr. Chen hitting the water. Gone.
And Elena wasn’t breathing.
“No no no no…” Ariella was doing CPR, breathing into her daughter’s mouth, Compressions. “Come on baby. Come on…”
Aiden was on the phone. “WE NEED PARAMEDICS NOW! CHILD NOT BREATHING…”
An FBI agent ran forward. “I’m an EMT…let me…”
He took over. Professional. Efficient.
Thirty seconds…Sixty.
Elena’s monitor flatlined.
“No,” Ariella sobbed. “No please…”
The EMT didn’t stop, he kept going, Compressions, Rescue breaths…Compressions.
Two minutes.
Then…
She gasps.
It was weak and barely there.
But it was a breath.
Elena’s eyes fluttered open, unfocused, Confused But alive.
“We need a hospital,” the EMT said. “Now. Whatever she was given…she needs advanced care…”
Paramedics arrived and loaded Elena into an ambulance.
Ariella and Aiden climbed in and the doors closed.
And as they raced toward the hospital, Ariella held her daughter’s tiny hand and prayed.
Prayed she’d be fast enough, Strong enough, Lucky enough.
One more time.
Just one more time.
The monitor beeped, Irregular, and Failing, but still beeping, still fighting Like her parents and everyone who’d ever fought the network without giving up.
The war wasn’t over.
But today…today they’d survived.
And sometimes, survival was enough.