Chapter 35 Escape Plan
Elara heard Darius's voice getting louder in the hallway and knew she had maybe two minutes before he found a way into Adrian's room.
She grabbed her phone and texted Maya: "Darius is at the hospital, please we need extraction, I got a text earlier from Kai that you guys are in a nearby town and he has infilled you guys with all the details."
The response came immediately:
"Yes, we got a muffled voice message and everything is loading, it will be coming through south entrance in 5 minutes. Black SUV."
Elara gently shook Adrian awake. "Baby, we need to go."
"I'm tired mama," Adrian mumbled.
"I know, but we have to leave right now," Elara said and started disconnecting his IV tubes, her hands shaking as alarms started beeping.
A nurse burst through the door. "What are you doing? He needs those medications."
"We're leaving," Elara said.
"Against medical advice?" the nurse asked. "I can't let you..."
"You can't stop me," Elara interrupted and wrapped Adrian in a blanket before lifting him.
She pushed past the nurse into the hallway where Darius was arguing with hospital security fifty feet away.
"There she is," Darius shouted. "Stop her!"
Elara ran in the opposite direction, Adrian clutching her neck as she navigated through corridors following signs for the loading dock.
Behind her she heard footsteps and Darius shouting orders, and she burst through a stairwell door taking the steps two at a time.
Adrian whimpered. "Mama you're scaring me."
"I'm sorry baby," Elara gasped. "We're almost there."
She hit the ground floor and ran through a maintenance corridor, past confused staff and equipment carts, until she saw the loading dock entrance ahead.
A black SUV sat idling and Maya threw open the back door. "Get in!"
Elara dove inside with Adrian and the SUV peeled out before the door even closed, tires squealing as they shot away from the hospital.
"Anyone following?" Maya asked the driver—Liam, his face grim as he navigated through traffic.
"Not yet," Liam said. "But they will be."
Elara looked at Maya who'd aged in the two years since she'd seen her, stress lines around her eyes and gray in her previously perfect blonde hair.
"Thank you," Elara breathed.
"Don't thank me yet," Maya said. "We've got about twenty minutes before Darius alerts every authority in the region that you kidnapped Adrian from the hospital."
"I didn't kidnap him, he's my son," Elara said.
"Try explaining that to the police," Maya said. "As far as they're concerned, you removed a minor from medical care against doctor's orders."
"Where are we going?" Elara asked.
"Somewhere Darius won't look," Liam said from the driver's seat. "My family's cabin about two hours north, completely off-grid."
"How was kai able to reach you guys, Mandivus has hum," Elara said. "He wants me to trade Adrian for him within twenty-two hours."
Maya and Liam exchanged looks.
"We know, kai has contacted over a week ago and apologized" Maya said. "So we've been helping and tracking Mandivus's movements since, he took Kai to his compound in the borderlands."
"Why did you agree to help him easily?" Elara asked.
"Because we've been building a case against him for the past year," Maya said. "After what he made me do to you, after learning what Darius was planning, Liam and I decided someone needed to stop them."
"Why?" Elara asked. "Why would you help me when you are part of what destroyed me?"
"I know," Maya said quietly. "I was a terrible friend, I betrayed you for status and money, and I've been trying to make up for it ever since."
"By investigating a borderlands Alpha?" Elara asked.
"By investigating everyone who hurt you," Maya said. "Darius, Mandivus, the whole network of people who profit from trafficking and exploitation."
She pulled out a tablet and showed Elara files—photos, documents, witness statements, all detailing crimes committed by Mandivus and his associates.
"This is enough to bring him down," Maya said. "But we need time to present it to the right authorities, time we don't have if you're supposed to deliver Adrian in twenty-two hours."
"So what's the plan?" Elara asked.
"We don't give him Adrian," Liam said. "We give him something better."
"Like what?" Elara asked.
"Leverage," Maya said. "Evidence that will destroy his entire operation, proof of crimes that will have every authority in five territories hunting him."
"He'll kill Kai before we can use it," Elara said.
"Not if we move first," Liam said. "There's a federal task force that's been trying to get Mandivus for years, if we give them this evidence and Kai's location, they'll launch a rescue operation."
"How long will that take?" Elara asked.
"Twelve hours to organize maybe," Liam said. "If we're lucky."
"That leaves us with ten hours to spare," Maya said. "Assuming Mandivus keeps his word about the timeline."
"He won't," Elara said. "He'll kill Kai the moment he has Adrian regardless of any deal."
"Then we make sure he never gets Adrian," Maya said firmly.
They drove in tense silence until they reached the cabin.
It was smaller than the one Kai's found earlier but well-hidden in dense forest with a creek running behind it.
Inside, Liam spread maps across a table while Maya set up communication equipment.
"This is Mandivus's compound," Liam pointed to a location on the map. "Heavily fortified, at least twenty guards, multiple entry points but all monitored."
"How do you know this?" Elara asked.
"We've been surveilling it for a while now," Liam said. "Waiting for the right moment to move against him."
"This is the right moment," Elara said. "He has Kai and he's expecting me to show up."
"Which makes you the perfect distraction," Maya said. "You go in the front with a fake Adrian—a decoy that will pass initial inspection—while the federal team breaches from the rear."
"A fake Adrian?" Elara repeated.
"We have a contact who can arrange it," Maya said. "A child actor around the right age who'll be sedated enough to seem sick but not enough to be in danger."
"That's insane," Elara said.
"Do you have a better idea?" Maya challenged.