The Generals Missile

Chapter 05 - The Coat Rack

Ninety seconds later, a black SUV pulled up with two black tinted G-Wagons beside me, and Captain Fields jumped out, her expression shifting from focus to alarm as she took one look at Lily, her face going pale.

"Get in! Now," she commanded, urgency in her voice.

In the back of the SUV, Fields worked on Lily with the efficiency of someone accustomed to treating soldiers on battlefields, starting an IV, administering oxygen through a small mask, drawing blood with hands that did not shake.

"Her oxygen levels are at 82 percent," Fields stated, her brow furrowed in concern.

"She needs a hospital." She said.

"Not a clinic and a real hospital with a pediatric ICU."

I felt a knot tighten in my chest, the realization hitting me hard even more because: "Every hospital in the Harrington network has blacklisted us," I replied out of frustration rising in my head.

"Then we go to one outside the network." She added brilliantly, "Central Military Hospital is forty minutes away," Fields countered, her tone firm.

"If I walk into a military hospital... Every intelligence agency in the region will know Asura is active," I argued with my voice strained as I glanced at Lily, whose small face was hidden behind the oxygen mask.

Fields met my gaze, then looked back at Lily.

"Commander! with respect... Your daughter's oxygen is dropping and If we do not get her to a proper ICU in the next thirty minutes... She could suffer brain damage or worse." Her words followed.

My heart sank as I looked at my daughter...four years old, blue lips, struggling to breathe because a vindictive old man had blacklisted her from medical care to punish me.

"Fine, Drive to Central Military Hospital," I finally ordered, the decision weighing heavily on my shoulders, I was revealing my disguised self.

"Yes, sir," Fields responded, her voice steady as the SUV turned north with the rest G-Wagons.

She called ahead, ensuring that help would be waiting.

By the time we arrived, a team of six was already waiting at the emergency entrance, unaware of who was coming... Kang had only said it was a critical pediatric case so they were on alert.

I carried Lily through the doors, a nurse stepping forward to take her from me.

"Sir, we need to register the patient... Name?" she asked, her demeanor professional yet urgent.

"Lily Cole," I replied, urgency tightening my throat.

"And the guardian's name?" she pressed, looking up expectantly.

I hesitated, feeling the weight of my past bearing down on me... This was the moment I had been avoiding for three years... The moment I stepped back into the world I had left behind.

"Ethan Cole," I said finally, the name heavy on my tongue like a ballistic missile had stroke its target.

The nurse typed it in, and nothing happened.

No alarms, no salutes, just a nurse doing her job.

Well that's very weird!

Then Captain Fields leaned over, whispering something to the head doctor, a man named Dr. Harrison.

I caught the flicker of fear on his face as he looked at me, then back at the nurse.

"Clear the pediatric ICU," he ordered, voice firm.

"All of it... This patient gets priority one."

"Full team! Call Dr. Wallace in Baltimore and get him on video in ten minutes." The doctor ordered.

"Dr. Wallace? But he has a three-month waitlist..." the nurse protested, but Dr. Harrison cut her off.

"Call him... Tell him..." He swallowed hard, glancing at me again... "Tell him Asura requests his assistance." The doctor said fear and fire in his every move.

My could feel Asura! - My war Names presence again in the environment I currently was in, that dark past had reunited with me again in this world.

The nurse stared at Dr. Harrison, then at me, standing there in pajama pants, barefoot, with dried cognac still in my hair from Derek's party.

She picked up the phone, and within five minutes, Lily was in the ICU and within ten minutes, Dr. Wallace, the foremost pediatric specialist in the country, was on a video call from Baltimore, reviewing Lily's bloodwork in real time... Giving Lily the premium service she deserved.

"Commander Cole," Dr. Wallace said on the screen, his expression serious.

"Your daughter has a rare autoimmune condition called hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, HLH... It is treatable, but she needs a specific protocol that only three facilities in the country can administer and I will fly to your location personally." He said.

"I can be there by noon." He assured.

"Thank you, Dr. Wallace," I replied, desperation mingling with hope.

"Commander, there is one more thing," he continued, his gaze piercing through the screen.

"This condition... it does not develop randomly... In children this young, it is almost always triggered by extreme environmental stress, tell me, has your daughter been under unusual stress recently?" He asked.

I thought of Lily crying because her grandmother called her a cockroach, of her eating pancakes in a cramped staff kitchen because she was not allowed in the main house, of her asking me if I was going away because her uncle told her I was a bad man.

"Yes," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

"She has been under a lot of stress." I added.

I sat beside Lily's bed in the ICU, relief washing over me as I saw she was stable now, sleeping with tubes in her arms and monitors beeping softly.

Her color was coming back, the oxygen mask doing its job, then my phone buzzed, and I recognized Kang's name flashing on the screen.

"Commander," Kang began, his voice steady.

"Iron Protocol is in place with twelve operatives surrounding the hospital... Nothing gets within two hundred meters without our knowledge, Also, I found the local contact feeding Voss information." He said and my eyes widened to know this person.

"Who?" I asked, my heart racing.

"You are not going to like this, sir," he warned, and I felt dread wash over me, I had been so secretive too.

"Who, Kang?" I pressed, impatience creeping into my tone.

"Derek Harrington..." He said like it was a blow.

That wicked idiot!?

"Your brother-in-law." Kang added.

"He has been in contact with a Voss intermediary for six weeks and he does not know who Voss really is but he thinks he is dealing with a foreign investor who wants to 'remove a problem' from the Harrington family and provided your daily schedule, your daughter's school location, and the estate security codes, a perfect undercover secret disguise that Voss network can track to be sure it isn't you." He said.

I closed my eyes, feeling a wave of anger and betrayal crash over me, so Derek Harrington...the man who slapped me at dinner, who poured wine on my head, who threatened to put my daughter in an orphanage, had also sold us to Voss, he sold my daughter to a man who would kill her to get to me.

Wow! ~ He crossed the line in his own wickedness.

"Commander? Your orders?" Kang's voice pulled me back to the moment.

I opened my eyes, focusing on Lily sleeping in the hospital bed... "Do nothing, Not yet, When the time comes, Derek Harrington is mine." He smiled.

The hospital corridor smelled like bleach and fear as I sat on a plastic chair outside Lily's room, my elbows on my knees, watching the floor tiles blur.

The IV drip had stabilized her platelet count to 47,000... Still dangerously low for aplastic anemia, but stable.

For now.

My phone buzzed again, this time Commander Drake on the line: "Sir, we have a problem... Voss has moved twelve operatives into the city - Ex-Blackridge contractors and they're armed...They entered through the south port using forged customs clearances."

"Twelve?" I said, keeping my voice flat.

"What's their deployment pattern?" I asked.

"Two teams of six."

"One is stationed near the Harrington family compound and the other... sir, the other is within a two-mile radius of Eastgate General Hospital." He said.

Ha! So they're close I see.

My blood ran cold, and I gripped the phone so hard the case cracked.

"Sir?" He called.

"Put eyes on both teams... No engagement... I want names, weapons, vehicles, and communication patterns within forty-eight hours." I ordered.

"If any of them step within five hundred meters of this hospital, you have authorization to intercept." I commanded, a wave of energy surging through me.

"Rules of engagement?" he asked cautiously.

"Non-lethal... For now," I said, ending the call.

My hands were shaking...not from fear, but from the effort of keeping the monster inside me caged.

Asura force was burning to be used and soon it will replace my heart, then they'll be no going back.

The elevator doors opened at the end of the hallway, and I heard her voice before I saw her.

"Where is he?" She yelled.

"Where is that useless piece of garbage!"