Chapter 23 - Tarmac Standoff
The Gulfstream slammed onto the tarmac of Aspen-Pitkin County Airport with a deafening screech of burning rubber.
Reverse thrusters roared, showering mist and rain across the dark runway lights.
The moment the aircraft ground to a halt outside the private hangar, the main hydraulic door hissed open into the freezing mountain air.
Red and blue emergency lights washed violently over the interior of the cabin.
Three paramedics in high-visibility gear rushed up the metal boarding stairs, carrying a collapsible trauma gurney and emergency trauma kits.
"Stand back, please!" the lead paramedic shouted, pushing into the cabin. "Where is the patient?"
"Right here!" Daniel yelled, stepping aside while keeping Emily’s trembling hand locked tightly inside his own. "She’s twenty-two weeks pregnant. Severe abdominal trauma and internal hemorrhaging!"
"Excuse me!" Vanessa’s voice cut through the commotion, shrill and imperial.
She stood blocking the aisle, adjusting her pristine cashmere coat as if she were hosting an elite gala.
"I am Vanessa Van Allen," she declared haughtily to the paramedics. "This is a private family matter. We will transport her in our private limousine to our family clinic."
The paramedics paused, bewildered by the woman’s chilling arrogance.
"Ma'am, step aside immediately!" the paramedic snapped. "The patient requires urgent surgical evaluation!"
"You do not speak to me like that," Vanessa sneered, lifting her chin. "Do you have any idea who signs the funding checks for this county’s hospital wing?"
Daniel shoved his mother aside with a brutal, unyielding forearm.
Vanessa stumbled against the leather seats, gasping in utter shock.
"Touch my wife, or delay these doctors by one more second, and I will throw you out onto the tarmac myself!" Daniel roared.
The crew wasted no time.
They lifted Emily onto the gurney, securing the straps while monitoring her dangerously plummeting blood pressure.
"Blood pressure is eighty over forty-five! Heart rate tachycardic at one-thirty!" the medic shouted. "Move! We need the trauma bay right now!"
Daniel ran beside the gurney, bursting out into the freezing alpine night.
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Rain mixed with sleet stung his face, but he didn't feel the cold.
All he felt was the agonizingly weak pulse fluttering beneath Emily’s pale wrist.
