Chapter 4 - The Child Who Had Been Targeted Since BirthOliver had been taken by someone using a legitimate hospital transportation vehicle.
That was the first nightmare.
The second was that every camera between his school and the highway had been disabled for exactly thirteen minutes.
The third was the note left in his empty classroom.
HE WAS NEVER YOURS TO PROTECT.
I nearly collapsed when I saw it.
Sebastian stood beside me.
His jaw was clenched so tightly I could see the muscles moving.
Gabriel was speaking to security.
“Pull traffic cameras.”
“Already done.”
“State police?”
“Compromised.”
Gabriel froze.
Sebastian looked at him.
“What?”
“One patrol unit requested the transportation records.”
“Which unit?”
“Badge number 417.”
Gabriel's expression became cold.
“That unit doesn't exist.”
Sebastian looked at me.
“Claire, we're dealing with someone inside the city system.”
I shook.
“He's eight.”
“I know.”
“He's asthmatic.”
“I know.”
“He needs his medication every four hours.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you standing here?”
Sebastian stared at me.
“Because I'm trying to stay calm enough to bring him back alive.”
I hated him for being right.
We spent the next hour tracing the vehicle.
It led to an abandoned warehouse.
Sebastian insisted on coming.
He had taken thirty-seven steps that morning.
Now he was walking toward a building filled with armed men.
Gabriel tried to stop him.
“You're not ready.”
“I don't care.”
“You could damage the nerve recovery.”
“I don't care.”
“You could fall.”
“I don't care.”
He looked at me.
“She won't go alone.”
My heart twisted.
Inside the warehouse, we found twelve men.
Not Oliver.
A room filled with medical equipment.
Not Oliver.
Documents.
Not Oliver.
Then I saw the wall.
Photographs.
Children.
Dates.
Medical conditions.
Dosages.
Outcomes.
Some names were crossed out.
One photograph stopped me.
Oliver.
His picture was taken when he was three.
Underneath it:
SUBJECT 14 — IMMUNE RESPONSE UNSTABLE
I touched the photograph.
Someone had written beneath it.
MOTHER REQUIRES REMOVAL IF SHE INVESTIGATES.
My body went cold.
“Sebastian.”
He saw it.
Something inside him broke.
“Get everyone alive.”
Gabriel moved.
Then a gunshot rang out.
One of the guards fell.
Chaos erupted.
I dropped behind a table.
Sebastian grabbed a weapon from the ground.
The man who had fired saw him.
“Impossible.”
Sebastian stood.
Not perfectly.
Not steadily.
But he stood.
The man's expression went white.
“Lombardi?”
Sebastian fired.
The man dropped his weapon.
Then ran.
Sebastian chased him.
I followed.
We reached the second floor.
The man entered a room.
Sebastian opened the door.
Inside was a computer.
And a video.
A man appeared on screen.
Victor Lombardi.
Sebastian stopped breathing.
Victor smiled.
“You finally learned to walk.”
Sebastian's hand tightened around the gun.
“What do you want?”
Victor looked directly at him.
“I don't want anything.”
He smiled.
“I want everything.”
Then the screen changed.
Oliver appeared.
He was sitting in a chair.
Alive.
Scared.
An inhaler beside him.
I screamed his name.
“Mom!”
I ran toward the screen.
Victor continued.
“Your son has something I need.”
“What?”
“Your son carries a genetic anomaly.”
My stomach dropped.
“What anomaly?”
“One that should not exist.”
He leaned forward.
“He's resistant to a neurological compound we've spent twenty years trying to perfect.”
Sebastian went still.
“That's why your leg moved.”
Victor smiled.
“Exactly.”
I looked at Sebastian.
He looked at his own leg.
Then at the screen.
Victor continued.
“Your body was injured by the original compound.”
“What are you saying?”
“The bomb wasn't designed to kill you.”
Silence.
“It was designed to expose the Lombardi bloodline to the treatment.”
Sebastian's face turned pale.
“You did this.”
Victor smiled.
“Not me.”
A second face appeared beside him.
An older man.
Sebastian's father.
Dead for twenty years.
Alive on screen.
Sebastian nearly fell.
“No.”
Victor's voice was almost gentle.
“Your father ordered the experiment.”
Sebastian shook his head.
“My father died.”
Victor laughed.
“Your father planned everything.”
Then the transmission ended.
I looked at Sebastian.
His world had just collapsed.
Again.
But this time, he was standing.
And somewhere, my son was still alive.
We had only one option.
May you like
Find Victor.
Before he moved Oliver.
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