The Generals Missile

Chapter 03 - The Promise Keeper

I rushed her to the car but Derek had taken the keys that morning as he always did on days he wanted to remind me that I owned nothing in this house...Not the car, not the room, not even the air I breathed.

Frustration clawed into me as I dialed for a taxi.

I folded my palm into a fist as the wait stretched to forty minutes because we lived in the Harrington estate and taxi drivers always hesitated to enter gated communities where the guards made them wait.

By the time we reached Eastgate Central Hospital, Lily was limp in my arms, her breath sounding like paper tearing, fragile and desperate.

I rushed to the reception desk, with my daughter in my hands as I called out to the lady at the front desk.

"I need a doctor," I said, my voice strained.

"My daughter... She cannot breathe." Panic set in.

The nurse behind the desk assessed my bandaged hand, my stained shirt, and the child in my arms, and without hesitation, she began typing something into her computer.

"Please what's your Name?" she asked, her eyes focused on the screen in alacrity.

"Lily Cole..." I replied, anxiety creeping into my voice as I watched her type again.

Then she frowned, and typed some more.

When she looked up at me, her expression mirrored that of enemies who realize they’re about to deliver devastating news to me.

"I am very sorry, sir," she said slowly, her voice diminished.

"Lily Cole has been flagged in our system by order of Sir Harrington, all medical services for members of the Cole household have been suspended pending a family review." She said to me

"What!?" I gasped, disbelief coursing through me.

"Your father-in-law has requested that no hospital in this network provide treatment to you or your dependents until further notice and I see that this was filed two weeks ago." She said looking up.

My heart raced as I looked down at little Lily, her eyes were half-closed, her small hand gripping my collar tightly like that of newborn baby... "Daddy," she whispered, her voice barely a breath, "it hurts."

My soul began to shatter into a million pieces.

Two weeks ago, Old Man Harrington had blacklisted me from the hospital network, and he had never said a word. He had sat at that dinner table last night, watching Derek slap me, knowing that if my daughter got sick, I would have nowhere to go. "Please," I pleaded with the nurse, my throat tight with desperation. "She is four years old."

"I am sorry, sir," she repeated, her voice unyielding. "I cannot override the restriction. You will need to resolve it with the account holder."

I carried Lily back outside into the cold night air, feeling her shiver against my chest. I stood on the hospital steps, cradling my daughter, who was slipping away from me, and for the first time in three years, I felt the old fire stirring behind my ribs... the fire I had buried, the fire my mother had begged me to extinguish... the fire of the Asura.

My phone buzzed, Lieutenant Kang again.

"Commander, the Voss cell has accelerated... They will arrive in twenty-four hours." He said.

"What are your orders?" He asked.

I looked down at Lily, then back at the hospital that refused to treat her, and finally at the city that remained blissfully unaware of the storm brewing.

Voss was coming and they had no clue!

I typed two words: "Wake everyone."

Then, against my better judgment, I called the one number I had sworn never to call again.

It rang three times before a voice answered, cold and professional.

"This is Northern Command Headquarters - State your authorization."

"Authorization code: Asura-Seven-Seven-Black," I replied, holding my breath.

Silence ensued, followed by a sharp intake of breath.

"General Cole? Sir, is that you?"

"Get me Commander Drake. Now."

"Yes, sir. Right away, sir! Welcome back, General."

As Lily coughed weakly in my arms, I held her tighter, feeling a sense of resolve harden within me.

I was done being ordinary.

The next morning, Derek Harrington threw a party...not just any party, but a celebration.

He had closed a major deal with the Hartwell Group, a logistics company that Old Man Harrington had been courting for two years and naturally, Derek claimed all the credit, as he always did.

Two hundred guests filled the halls, the Harrington family thriving on an audience for their cruelty. I was not invited, but Madam Harrington insisted I attend.

"Someone needs to carry the coats," she said, thrusting a garment rack into my hands as if I were hired help.

"Ethan, do stand by the entrance and smile... Try not to embarrass us." I was ordered like a door watch dog.

I stood by the entrance in a white shirt that Mrs. Patterson had ironed that morning.

My hand still throbbed from the vase incident, and Lily was upstairs with Mrs. Patterson, her fever reduced by the medicine I had obtained through Kang.

He had dispatched a military medic to a rendezvous point two blocks from the estate at three in the morning, the medic, a woman named Captain Fields, treating Lily without asking questions.

"She needs a full workup, Commander," Captain Fields had whispered urgently... "This fever is not ordinary... Her blood markers are irregular, I suspect an autoimmune condition." She said.

"She needs a specialist." She added.

"Can you find one?" I had asked, desperate for hope.

"The best in the country is Dr. Wallace at Johns Hopkins but he has a three-month waitlist and only takes patients referred by..." She had trailed off, and I had pressed her.

"By whom?" I demanded.

"By the military medical board, sir... One call from you and he would clear his entire schedule."

One call... Just one call.

But that call meant confirming that General Asura was alive and active, sending ripples across every intelligence agency on the continent.

One call would lead Voss to confirm my location.

I told Captain Fields I would think about it.

Now, standing at Derek’s party as a living hanger while my daughter slept upstairs with a disease I could not name and could not treat without revealing who I was.

The guests arrived in waves, businessmen in tailored suits, their wives in designer gowns, politicians pretending they didn’t know each other.

The Deputy Mayor was there, as was the CEO of Sterling National Bank and Director Lawrence from the city's largest hospital network...the same network that had blacklisted my daughter.

I was indeed a Filthy rag before them.

Director Lawrence walked past me, ignoring my presence as he handed me his coat as if I were nothing more than a rack with arms.

"Careful with that," he said dismissively.

"It is cashmere." He exclaimed.

I hung his coat, imagining the satisfaction of hanging him instead whilst Derek stood in the center of the hall, basking in applause.

"Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we celebrate not just a business deal, but the future of the Harrington empire! Hartwell is ours! the eastern corridor is ours and soon... very soon, the entire logistics chain from here to New York will bear the Harrington name," he boasted.

The crowd erupted into more applause.

Old Man Harrington nodded from his throne-like chair at the head of the table, while Madam Harrington clapped with the enthusiasm of a woman who had rehearsed her joy.

Victoria stood near the window, holding a glass of champagne that she wasn’t drinking.

She wore a red dress I had never seen before, one someone else had bought for her.

Not me... I hadn’t bought my wife anything in three years because I had no money and every cent I had ever earned was locked in military accounts I could not access without revealing my identity.