Chapter 11 - The Shattered Glass
The heavy 9mm rounds did not shatter the bulletproof glass.
They struck the steel tray at an oblique angle, the lead kinetic force driving the heavy metal drawer backward into Victoria’s side of the window with the force of a hydraulic ram.
The steel tray slammed directly into Victoria’s right wrist with a sickening CRACK of splintering bone.
Victoria let out a short, high-pitched scream—the first human, unpolished sound she had made in three weeks—and fell backward onto the white marble floor of the observation room, clutching her shattered wrist as blood splattered across her beige trousers.
The auto-injector syringe rolled off the counter, bouncing across the floorboards.
Daniel didn't wait. He threw his weight against the central glass panel, driving his boot heel directly into the seam where the glass met the steel frame.
The frame buckled inward.
Daniel squeezed his body through the opening, dropping onto the floor inside the observation room. He grabbed the glass auto-injector syringe, pulled Victoria’s suppressed pistol from her coat pocket, and stood over her as she lay gasping on the floor.
Her sleek blonde bun had finally come undone, strands of golden hair hanging wildly across her pale, sweat-streaked face. Her pale blue eyes were wide, filled with a sudden, violent realization of her own mortality.
"Where is the secondary neutralizer?" Daniel spat, kneeling on her chest, his heavy hands gripping her blouse collar.
"It... it's in the syringe..." Victoria choked out, her voice raspy and broken as she gestured toward the glass tube in his hand. "That's the only one... Daniel, please... my wrist..."
Daniel didn't listen to her pleas. He dragged her across the marble floor by her collar, pinning her right arm into a heavy steel restraint strap attached to the surgical table. He clicked the iron lock shut with a heavy SNAP.
He picked up the auto-injector syringe, checked the clear blue fluid inside, and stuffed it into his inner jacket pocket alongside his pistol.
He looked down into Victoria’s terrified face.
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"You said God remembers the forgotten, Victoria," Daniel whispered, his voice cold as the granite cliffs outside. "Let's see if he remembers you."
He turned and sprinted back through the shattered glass frame, down the long white corridor, and out through the crimson door into the howling wind of the mountain pass.
