Chapter 54 - The Breath of Life
Outside the master bedroom, the smell of burning steel was suffocating. A massive operative in full ballistic armor was cutting through the heavy security hinges with a blue-flame thermal lance.
I didn't slow my stride. Drawing my combat knife, I threw my entire momentum into a sliding tackle, driving the blade under his armpit where the ceramic plating ended. He bellowed in rage, dropping the torch, but Julian was already there, delivering a crushing blow with the butt of his assault rifle that dropped the giant unconscious.
"Sarah! Open up! It's Mommy!" I pounded the reinforced wood with my bloody palm.
The heavy steel deadbolts clicked. The door swung open to reveal Sarah, her face blackened by soot, a smoking shotgun clutched in her trembling hands.
Behind her, on the massive bed, lay my son.
Leo was so pale he looked translucent. His tiny chest was barely moving, his lips tinged with a terrifying shade of blue. The bedside vitals monitor was emitting a flat, agonizingly slow beep.
"His heart is failing, Clara," Sarah wept, collapsing against the doorframe. "I couldn't stop the convulsions..."
I dropped to my knees beside the bed, tossing off my tactical gloves. My hands were shaking, but the moment my skin touched his cold, fragile forehead, every ounce of fear transformed into absolute clarity.
"I'm here, baby," I whispered, kissing his damp cheek. "Mommy is here. Nobody will ever hurt you again."
I pulled the armored syringe from my chest pocket. The sapphire serum caught the faint light of the bedroom lamp. Finding the central venous line already set in his arm, I locked the needle into the port and slowly, steadily depressed the plunger.
The blue liquid coursed through the clear tubing and disappeared into Leo’s veins.
For ten agonizing seconds, nothing happened. The flatline alarm began to scream its dreadful, continuous tone.
"Clara..." Julian stepped forward, his eyes full of sorrow.
"No!" I roared, placing both hands over Leo's tiny sternum, initiating rhythmic compressions. "Live! Leo, you fight! You survived the dark room, you survived their cruelty, you survive this! Breathe, my angel! Breathe!"
One. Two. Three. Four.
Suddenly, a violent shudder racked Leo’s little frame.
A brilliant flush of pink surged back into his porcelain cheeks. The vitals monitor broke out of its death whine, jumping to seventy, eighty, one hundred beats per minute!
Leo’s eyes fluttered open. His big, luminous brown eyes—so full of innocence, so remarkably clear—focused directly on my face.
"Mama...?" his voice was a fragile, raspy whisper.
Tears spilled over my lashes, washing away the blood and soot on my cheeks. I gathered his small, warm body into my arms, burying my face into his hair, sobbing so hard my ribs ached.
"Yes, my brave boy. Mommy's got you. You're safe."
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Julian stepped back into the doorway, keeping watch over the smoking stairs. A rare softness touched his hardened features, but his radio crackled to life with alarming news.
"Clara," Julian said quietly, his voice turning lethal once more. "Eleanor’s main force has intercepted our transport coordinates. She knows the transponder was disabled. She’s sending her entire fleet to incinerate Florence."
