The Generals Missile

Chapter 07 - The Crawl

"Victoria," I said, my voice calm and surgical.

"Take Lily's rabbit, go into her room, close the blinds... all of them... Do it now." I ordered.

She stared at me, confusion etched on her face.

"What? Why?" She asked.

"Do it now, Victoria... Do not ask questions, do not hesitate... Close every blind in that room and do not stand near the windows." I said to her.

Something in my tone must have reached her because, without another word, she moved.

Madam Harrington watched her go, her expression twisting into a mask of contempt as she turned back to me with one of her witchy eyebrows up.

"What kind of dramatic nonsense is this? Closing blinds? Are you having one of your episodes?"

I ignored her, focusing instead on calling Drake.

"Code Drake... I need the sniper neutralized."

"Make it Non-lethal." I replied.

"I want him alive, and I want his equipment."

"Sir, my team is twelve minutes out."

"I said eleven minutes Drake." I added.

"You have nine now." I gritted my teeth.

"Understood... Moving." He responded.

I ended the call, striding past Madam Harrington toward the nurses' station.

The head nurse, Patricia, a woman with twenty-three years of experience and hands that never shook, looked up at me.

"I need Lily Cole moved to an interior room immediately... No windows... Preferably a room adjacent to the MRI suite on the second floor."

"Sir, we cannot just move a patient without..." She said before she confirmed who was talking to her.

"Her current room has a structural concern, I do not want to repeat myself." I added as she paced.

Madam Harrington followed me like a storm cloud, her voice rising as I turned away from her.

"You do not give orders in this hospital, Ethan!"

"You are a nobody... You are nothing! My husband funds the pediatric wing too, The board answers to us, not to some delusional..." She said as I cut her short.

"Your husband funds the pediatric wing," I interrupted, stopping to face her, my voice low and steady.

"And yet, your husband blacklisted his own granddaughter from receiving treatment... what kind of grandfather does that, Madam Harrington?"

"What kind of family lets a four-year-old's blood platelet count drop to 12,000 because punishing her father was more important than saving her life?"

Her mouth opened, then closed, as if lost for words, but I pressed on.

"I have the medical records... Every hospital that refused Lily, every call log, every email from the Harrington Foundation to the hospital board directing them to deny treatment... Those records are now in the hands of people who do not answer to your husband." She fired back at her.

"You are bluffing." She scoffed.

"Am I?" I leaned closer, my tone devoid of threat but firm enough to convey the truth.

"Try me."

My phone buzzed again, and I glanced down at Drake’s name flashing on the screen.

"Target neutralized."

"Zero casualties."

"Sniper is former Blackridge, name is Karl Werner, German national, carrying a Remington MSR 338 Lapua with thermal scope."

"He had photographs of the girl, sir. Photographs of Lily, recent ones, taken from inside the hospital."

Inside the hospital!?

The realization crashed over me like a wave.

Someone within these walls was working for Voss!

I should have never underestimated him.

"Secure him!"

"I need full interrogation." I added.

"I want to know who gave him those photographs and how he got building access credentials." I replied.

"Yes, sir." Sergeant Drake replied.

I turned just in time to see the orderlies wheeling Lily's bed out of Room 412.

She was still sleeping, the sedative keeping her under while the platelet transfusion worked its magic.

Victoria walked beside the bed, her hand on Lily's arm, her expression carved from stone.

Madam Harrington grabbed my sleeve, desperation in her grip as she looked into my eyes.

"What is going on?"

"Why are you moving her?"

"Ethan, I demand an answer."

I gently removed her hand from my arm, firm enough that she understood something had shifted.

"Madam Harrington, there was a man with a rifle pointed at your granddaughter's hospital room."

"A professional assassin."

"He had photographs of Lily."

"He was waiting for a clear shot."

The color drained from her face.

"That is... that is impossible."

"It is very possible and it is happening right now."

"This is happening because your husband made deals with people who solve problems with bullets instead of boardroom votes." I fired at her.

"My husband would never..."

"Your husband sold my military records to General Marcus Voss six years ago and voss used those records to frame me as a traitor, strip my command, and erase my identity for dead but he never thought I was stupid enough to marry into the same home that betrayed me disguised and now Voss found out that I am still alive and he wants me dead, and he does not care if a five-year-old girl dies in the process. That is the man your husband does business with." I said to her and realization hit her deep.

She realized my marriage to her daughter Victoria was no way ordinary, only the real madam Harrington, the deceased great grand mother knew who I was and had signed off Victoria, her grandchild to me as a wife for a repayment of old man Harringtons Evil crime.

She took a step back, her heel catching on the tile, nearly sending her tumbling.

A nurse reached for her, but she slapped the hand away, her fury igniting.

"You are lying!"

"You are a liar and a manipulator and..." I interrupted her mid sentence

"Room 412 faces east, Seventh floor of the Meridian Tower, six hundred meters away... A man named Karl Werner was set up with a .338 caliber rifle equipped with a thermal imaging scope." I said.

"He is now in custody... You are welcome to verify this with the police, except the police in this city also answers to your husband, so I doubt they would tell you the truth." I said back to her.

Victoria had stopped walking, standing in the middle of the corridor, holding Lily's stuffed rabbit against her chest with her eyes locked onto mine, filled with a mixture of disbelief and something deeper.

"Ethan... who are you?" She asked.

The question lingered in the air, thick and heavy, like smoke after a gunshot.

I met her gaze, taking in the woman I had married, the woman I had loved in silence for three years while her family treated me like garbage.

In this moment, she was looking at me with a blend of fear and recognition.

"I am Lily's father," I replied, my voice steady.

"That is all you need to know right now."

"That is not an answer." She fired.

"It is the only answer that matters." I declared.

Madam Harrington straightened, smoothing her suit jacket as she reassembled her mask of superiority, but it cracked, the facade failing to hold as tightly as it once had.

"I am calling my husband," she said, her voice trembling slightly.

"He will sort this out."

"He will rather sort you out." I said.

"Call him," I said, holding her gaze.

"Tell him Asura says hello." I opened up.

I'm sure even old Man Harrington never knew who I was really but maybe now he will find out!

She blinked, confusion flickering across her features.

"What?"

"Just tell him... He will understand." I said patting her shoulder as her breath intensified.

With trembling fingers, she pulled out her phone and walked toward the elevator, her every step a testament to the unraveling of her reality.

Victoria watched her go, then turned back to me, her expression a mix of concern and curiosity.

"Asura? What does that mean?" Victoria asked.

Before I could answer, my phone buzzed again.

Drake calling once more.

I held up one finger to Victoria, signaling for silence as I answered.

"Reporting sir!" Drake said.

"Before you report, tell me..." I said in outrage.

I had one enemy and this enemy needs to die.

"Where is General Voss!" I asked.