Chapter 10 - FLIGHT THROUGH THE MIST
"Down!" Marcus screamed, tackling Lily to the floor as the silenced rounds whistled over their heads, embedding themselves into the plaster wall behind the nurses' station.
Detective Berg returned fire, her standard-issue Glock roaring three times in the narrow hall, the loud reports echoing deafeningly off the hard surfaces. One of the orderlies crumpled back into the room, while the second grabbed James’s gurney and shoved it violently through the rear double doors toward the service stairs.
Dr. Vance stepped calmly through the smoke and shattered glass, snatching his briefcase from the floor and slipping into the stairwell behind his operative.
"Lily, go!" Berg yelled from behind the overturned steel desk, keeping her weapon trained on the doorway. "Get the child out of the estate! They aren't after James—they're coming for the master encryption key in your father's vault!"
Lily didn't waste a second. She scrambled to her feet, grabbed Marcus by his jacket, and ran toward the main hospital entrance.
They burst through the sliding glass doors into the freezing night air. Rain was falling in heavy, vertical sheets, soaking them instantly as they sprinted across the asphalt parking lot toward Marcus’s dark SUV parked near the perimeter fence.
"Where is Maya?!" Marcus gasped as he unlocked the doors with his remote key.
"She’s with my father's old housekeeper in a safe house in Holmenkollen," Lily said, throwing herself into the passenger seat as Marcus fired up the powerful V8 engine. "She's safe for now. But Vance knows about the vault."
The SUV roared out of the parking lot, its tires spraying rainwater as Marcus merged aggressively into the empty, glistening late-night traffic of the Ring 3 highway.
In the rearview mirror, two dark sedans with tinted windows pulled out from the hospital side street, their headlights turning into long, predatory beams cutting through the thick mist behind them.
"We have company," Marcus growled, gripping the steering wheel so tight his knuckles turned white.
"Don't head toward Holmenkollen," Lily commanded, pulling her wet hair back from her face. Her dark eyes reflected the passing streetlights, burning with a cold, unstoppable determination. "Take us back to Blackwood Manor."
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Marcus glanced at her in disbelief. "Are you insane?! The manor is compromised! It's an open crime scene!"
"The manor is where the vault is, Marcus," Lily said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the silver USB drive she had taken from James’s office earlier. "And Vance doesn't realize that the master key isn't a code or a password. It's the physical house itself."
