Chapter 13 - THE RUNWAY AT THE EDGE OF THE CITY
The morgue corridor smelled of bleach and cold metal.
Lily followed Maribel through a row of steel doors while Naomi walked behind them with the guard’s jacket pulled over her civilian clothes.
Celia carried a medical bag filled with bandages, syringes, and whatever supplies Maribel had grabbed.
They reached the laundry exit without encountering another officer.
An alarm began to sound somewhere above them.
Their absence had been discovered.
Maribel opened the exterior door.
A delivery truck waited in the alley with its engine running.
The driver was Father Gabriel.
A bruise covered one side of his forehead.
“I am beginning to dislike emergency calls from this family,” he said.
Lily climbed into the passenger seat.
“Montigue private airfield.”
Father Gabriel looked at Naomi.
“Is this legal?”
“No.”
He shifted into gear.
“Good.”
“The legal plan failed several churches ago.”
The truck pulled into traffic.
Naomi used a stolen radio to monitor police channels.
Every district had Lily’s description.
Bell described her as armed, unstable, and responsible for the courthouse convoy attack.
No broadcast mentioned Ethan being removed from the Montigue estate.
“Lucien controls the story,” Celia said.
“He controls the first story,” Lily replied.
“We need the last one.”
Naomi contacted an analyst she still trusted.
The Montigue jet had filed a flight plan to Montreal, then canceled it after takeoff clearance.
A helicopter had landed at the estate seven minutes earlier.
The aircraft belonged to a medical transport company partially owned by Dr. Hale.
“They may not be going to the airfield,” Naomi said.
Lily remembered the hidden elevator behind Ethan’s nursery.
“It could lead underground.”
“Lucien built a tunnel to the old rail depot,” Celia said.
Everyone looked at her.
“I cleaned his estate before I worked for Victor.”
“Serena used to meet men in the lower garage.”
“There was a tunnel with tracks.”
“Where did it end?”
“Near the airfield fuel depot.”
Father Gabriel turned off the expressway.
They reached the industrial district in twelve minutes.
The Montigue airfield was surrounded by fencing, cameras, and private guards.
A helicopter waited near the hangar with its blades turning.
The jet remained on the runway.
“They are using both,” Naomi said.
“One as a decoy.”
Lily looked at the helicopter.
Serena stood beside it holding Ethan.
Lucien argued with a pilot.
Two security men dragged a wounded man from a black SUV.
Victor.
His hands were bound.
Blood covered his shirt near the shoulder.
Lily’s breath stopped.
The convoy attack had not freed him.
It had delivered him to Lucien.
Naomi studied the perimeter.
“Too many guards for a direct approach.”
Celia pointed toward the fuel depot.
“The tunnel exit is beneath that building.”
“Can we enter from outside?”
“There is a storm drain behind the warehouses.”
Father Gabriel parked the truck beneath an overpass.
Maribel remained with him to coordinate an ambulance.
Lily, Naomi, and Celia crossed a drainage field and found the concrete channel.
The storm drain was half-filled with rainwater.
They crawled through darkness until Celia located an iron ladder.
The hatch above opened into the fuel depot basement.
A narrow rail track ran toward the Montigue estate.
Fresh tire marks indicated a small electric cart had passed recently.
They followed the tunnel toward the airfield hangar.
Voices echoed ahead.
Lucien spoke first.
“You have signed hundreds of orders without reading them.”
“One more will not damage your conscience.”
Victor answered with a dry laugh.
“My conscience is already damaged.”
“That does not make it available for rent.”
Lily approached a ventilation grate.
Through it, she saw Victor tied to a chair inside a maintenance room.
Lucien stood before him holding a document.
Serena remained near the door with Ethan.
The baby’s face was wet from crying.
“You will confess that Lily Carter planned the kidnapping,” Lucien said.
“You will state that Adrian manipulated Serena.”
“You will transfer temporary authority over Blackwood Holdings to me.”
“And you will instruct your captains to stand down.”
Victor looked at Ethan.
“What happens to my son?”
“He receives a new name.”
“He grows up somewhere respectable.”
“Without me.”
“That is the point.”
Serena shifted Ethan against her hip.
“He will not stop crying.”
Victor’s gaze moved to her.
“Give him to me.”
Lucien laughed.
“You are tied to a chair.”
“He will stop if he hears my voice.”
Serena looked irritated.
Lucien nodded.
She approached Victor.
Ethan reached for him immediately.
Victor leaned forward and pressed his forehead to the baby’s.
“I am here,” he whispered.
Ethan’s sobs softened.
Lily felt tears burn behind her eyes.
Lucien placed a pen between Victor’s bound fingers.
“Sign.”
Victor looked at the document.
“No.”
Lucien nodded to a guard.
The man struck Victor across the injured shoulder.
Victor’s body tightened, but he made no sound.
Ethan began to scream again.
Serena flinched.
“Stop hitting him in front of the baby.”
Lucien looked at his daughter.
“Do not mistake your role for authority.”
For the first time, Serena looked afraid of him.
Lily whispered to Naomi.
“We need to separate Lucien from the guards.”
Naomi pointed toward the fuel control panel.
“A pressure alarm will evacuate the hangar.”
Celia moved toward it.
Lily caught her hand.
“Once you trigger it, they will know someone is below.”
Celia looked at Ethan through the grate.
“They already know someone is coming.”
She pulled the emergency lever.
Sirens erupted.
Red lights flashed through the hangar.
A mechanical voice ordered immediate evacuation due to a fuel vapor leak.
The guards shouted into their radios.
Lucien cursed.
“Move the child to the helicopter.”
Serena carried Ethan toward the door.
Victor drove both feet into the guard beside him.
The chair tipped backward.
Lucien moved away as Victor struck the floor.
Naomi kicked open the maintenance grate.
She fired into the ceiling.
“Federal agent.”
“Drop your weapons.”
No one obeyed.
Gunfire filled the room.
Lily crawled through the opening and ran toward Serena.
Serena backed into the hangar with Ethan in her arms.
“Stay away.”
“You know he wants me.”
“He wants anyone who gives him what he wants.”
“He cries for you because you trained him.”
“He cries because you hurt him.”
Serena’s face twisted.
“You walked into my life and watched me every day.”
“You judged every mistake.”
“You were waiting for Victor to choose you.”
“I was waiting for Ethan to survive you.”
Serena moved closer to the helicopter.
The pilot had already started lifting the engine power.
Rotor wash tore at their clothes.
Lily raised her hands.
“Give him to me and walk away.”
“My father will kill me.”
“Then come with us.”
Serena laughed through tears.
“You think you can protect me?”
“No.”
“But your testimony can.”
The word struck Serena.
Testimony meant leverage.
Leverage was the only language she trusted.
Behind them, Naomi exchanged fire with Lucien’s guards.
Celia cut Victor’s restraints.
Lucien ran toward the helicopter from the far side of the hangar.
“Get in,” he shouted at Serena.
She looked at her father.
Then at Lily.
Ethan reached toward Lily with his good hand.
“Li.”
Serena’s face collapsed.
For one second, she looked less like a villain than a woman discovering no child would ever reach for her.
Then she threw Ethan toward Lily.
Lily lunged forward and caught him against her chest.
The force drove her to one knee.
Ethan screamed, but she held his injured arm secure.
Serena ran toward the helicopter.
Lucien grabbed her before she reached it.
“You gave him away,” he said.
“He was never ours.”
Lucien struck her across the face.
The blow knocked her beneath the spinning rotor shadow.
Victor reached Lily and covered her and Ethan with his body as bullets struck the hangar wall.
Naomi shot one guard in the leg.
Celia triggered the foam suppression system.
White fire-retardant foam poured from the ceiling and swallowed the floor.
Visibility dropped to almost nothing.
Lucien disappeared into the cloud.
The helicopter lifted.
Lily saw one figure climb inside.
She could not tell whether it was Lucien or Serena.
The aircraft rose above the hangar and turned east.
Naomi ran outside and fired at the landing gear.
The shots missed.
Victor held Ethan against his chest.
The baby buried his face beneath Victor’s chin.
“You came back,” Victor whispered.
The words were for Ethan, Lily, or both.
Police sirens approached from every direction.
Naomi looked at the unconscious guards and the abandoned jet.
“We need to leave before Bell arrives.”
Victor shook his head.
“No more running.”
“You are wanted for escape and multiple homicides.”
“I did not escape.”
“I was kidnapped.”
“Bell will call that a lie.”
“Then we give him a lie he cannot hold.”
Victor walked into the open runway carrying Ethan.
Lily stayed beside him.
Naomi followed with her empty hands raised.
News helicopters had tracked the Montigue aircraft and now circled the airfield.
Every camera captured Victor surrendering while holding his injured son.
He lowered Ethan into Lily’s arms before kneeling.
State police surrounded them.
Bell arrived last.
He saw Lily, Victor, and Naomi alive.
His face hardened.
“Take the child,” he ordered.
No officer moved.
They had all watched the live nursery footage.
They had seen Serena drag Ethan by his broken arm.
Bell shouted again.
A female patrol officer stepped forward.
“Sir, the emergency order was suspended ten minutes ago.”
“By whom?”
“Judge Crane.”
Bell looked stunned.
The public broadcast had forced Crane to protect himself.
Ethan would enter neutral medical custody under federal observation.
Bell placed Lily and Victor under arrest anyway.
As handcuffs closed around Lily’s wrists, she looked toward the eastern sky.
The Montigue helicopter was gone.
A phone began ringing inside the abandoned jet.
Naomi asked an officer to retrieve it.
The caller was Adrian.
His voice played over the speaker.
“Lucien is not in the helicopter,” he said.
“He is beneath the airfield.”
May you like
Then the fuel depot exploded.
THE NANNY'S TESTIMONY
