Chapter 8 - Leo’s Eight Minutes
The ventilation opening was barely wider than Leo’s shoulders.
Mark attached the small camera to his son’s shirt while Detective Moreno tested the radio.
“You speak to us constantly,” Mark said. “You do not turn anywhere unless Evelyn tells you.”
Leo nodded.
“If you become frightened, you come back.”
“What about Mommy and Elise?”
“We will reach them another way.”
“Promise?”
Mark hesitated.
“I promise I will do everything I can.”
Leo crawled into the shaft.
Mark watched his shoes disappear into darkness.
Each second felt like a betrayal.
The camera transmitted a shaky view of metal walls. Leo moved slowly, breathing hard.
“Turn left at the first opening,” Evelyn instructed.
“I see it.”
The alarms grew louder.
Six minutes remained.
Moreno’s team prepared to breach the surgical wing once Leo disabled the locks.
Mark stood beneath the vent, listening.
“Daddy?”
“I’m here.”
“It’s dark.”
“Keep talking to me.”
“Tell me about Mommy.”
Mark closed his eyes.
“She used to sing when she cooked.”
“She burned the pancakes.”
“Yes.”
“You said they were good.”
“They were terrible.”
Leo laughed faintly.
The sound nearly broke Mark.
“Keep moving,” Mark said.
Leo reached a vertical drop.
Evelyn guided him down an old maintenance ladder. At the bottom, he found a ventilation grate overlooking the surgical corridor.
Through the camera, they saw Gerald’s men wearing respirator masks.
Anna and Elise were locked inside separate glass rooms.
Gerald stood near a control panel.
Four minutes remained.
“There should be a junction box on your right,” Evelyn said.
Leo turned.
“I found wires.”
“Open the red cover.”
“It’s stuck.”
“Pull harder.”
Leo grunted.
The cover snapped open.
Three minutes.
“Find the yellow switch.”
“There are two.”
“The one marked E-V-A-C.”
Leo reached toward it.
A voice sounded behind him.
“Don’t touch that.”
The camera turned.
Vanessa crawled into the shaft from another opening.
She held a knife.
Mark shouted into the radio.
“Leo, move!”
Vanessa lunged.
Leo kicked backward, striking her wrist. The knife clattered through the grate and fell into the corridor below.
Vanessa grabbed his ankle.
“You ruined everything,” she hissed.
Leo screamed.
Mark climbed onto a chair and tried to force himself into the vent, but his shoulders would not fit.
“Fight her!” Moreno shouted.
Leo twisted and kicked again.
Vanessa dragged him toward her.
The camera showed her face, scratched and wild.
“You should have stayed in the cage.”
Leo reached blindly toward the junction box.
His fingers found the yellow switch.
He pulled it.
The alarms stopped.
The glass doors throughout the surgical wing unlocked.
Moreno’s team breached the main entrance.
Gunfire echoed beneath the hospital.
Vanessa released Leo and tried to crawl away, but Evelyn opened a maintenance panel farther down the passage and blocked her escape with the rifle.
“Move toward me, Leo,” Evelyn called.
The boy crawled past Vanessa.
Evelyn pulled him out and handed him to Mark.
Mark held his son so tightly that Leo gasped.
“You did it.”
“Mommy.”
Moreno’s officers entered the surgical wing.
Gerald retreated behind Anna, holding a pistol against her head.
Elise remained trapped in the glass room, pounding against the door.
Mark entered with his hands raised.
“Let Anna go.”
Gerald backed toward an elevator.
“You already chose the boy over her once.”
“I never chose that.”
“You accepted her death because it was convenient.”
Anna’s eyes met Mark’s.
There was grief in them.
And anger.
But also something he could not name.
“Gerald,” she said quietly, “you don’t need me anymore.”
“I need your testimony.”
“You forced me to sign.”
“A court will see a traumatized woman rescued after years of captivity. They will believe you surrendered Elise willingly.”
“I never surrendered her.”
Gerald pressed the gun harder against her temple.
“Then you will die beside her.”
Mark took another step.
“Shoot me instead.”
Gerald laughed.
“That noble act is six years late.”
Elise slammed a metal chair against the glass.
It cracked.
Gerald glanced toward her.
Anna drove her elbow into his ribs.
The pistol fired.
Mark rushed forward.
Gerald struck Anna and ran into the elevator.
The doors closed before officers could reach him.
Mark dropped beside Anna.
Blood covered her side.
“Anna.”
She stared at him as though seeing a ghost.
“You came.”
He pressed his hands against the wound.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For believing you were gone.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“You were supposed to believe it.”
The glass behind them shattered.
Elise stepped through the broken opening.
Evelyn ran to her and wrapped her in both arms.
Leo stood at the doorway.
He looked at Anna uncertainly.
She reached toward him.
“My baby.”
Leo ran into her arms.
Anna cried out from the pain but refused to release him.
Mark placed one hand on Leo’s back and the other over Anna’s wound.
For one moment, the broken family held each other beneath the red emergency lights.
Then Anna whispered into Mark’s ear.
“Vanessa isn’t your wife.”
Mark pulled back.
“What?”
“She used someone else’s identity.”
Anna’s gaze shifted toward the ventilation shaft where officers were dragging Vanessa into custody.
“Her real name is Elise Shaw.”
Across the room, the teenage girl beside Evelyn turned pale.
Mark looked between them.
May you like
There were two Elises.
And one of them was not his daughter.
