Chapter 43 - Eleanor's Intercom Broadcast
In the blinding cloud of freezing white vapor, Marcus drove his elbow into the soldier's throat, neutralizing him before scrambling across the floor toward the table where Chloe lay.
A gunshot cracked through the hiss of escaping freon.
The bullet sparked off the metal edge of the examination gurney, inches from Marcus’s ear. Marcus threw himself flat against the floor, dragging Chloe down with him beneath the steel lip of the console.
"You think you can run from me in my own sanctuary, Marcus?" Eleanor’s voice echoed through the vault, distorted by the screaming pressure relief valves. "The cemetery perimeter is locked down! State troopers are already on their way, and do you know what they’ve been told? That an unstable, grieving father abducted a critically ill child from Boston Memorial!"
Marcus didn't answer. His hands moved with desperate speed. He pulled the auto-injector from his pocket, tore off the yellow safety cap, and found the soft muscle of Chloe’s upper thigh.
*CLICK-CHUNK.*
The spring-loaded needle punched through her denim pants into the muscle. The emerald stabilizer fluid emptied into her bloodstream in less than two seconds.
Chloe gasped—a sharp, violent intake of air that shook her entire tiny frame. Her eyes snapped open wide, completely dilated, her back arching in a sudden, intense neuro-spasm as the antidote collided with the synthetic toxin in her system.
"Hold on, baby, hold on," Marcus whispered, pressing his hands to her chest to keep her from thrashing off the cold tile floor.
Above them, the console screen began flashing erratically. The breach of the cryogenic pod's coolant lines had triggered an automated emergency evacuation routine.
*CRITICAL TEMPERATURE FAILURE: POD 04 COMPROMISED.*
*CORE TEMPERATURE RISING: -140°C... -90°C... -40°C...*
*EMERGENCY DEFROST ENGAGED.*
A mechanical clanging sound filled the room as hydraulic locks disengaged around Pod 04. The thick acrylic door began to pivot open on its pressurized arms, thick, syrupy vitrification fluid spilling out across the floor like water from a broken dam.
Marcus turned his head.
May you like
Through the parting mist of liquid nitrogen, the frozen child inside the pod was waking up.
***
