Chapter 17 - The Antidote in the Shadows
A loud, metallic *CLACK* echoed from behind the industrial filter tanks behind Arthur.
Arthur’s eyes flickered toward the sound for a fraction of a second.
In that fraction of a second, Dr. Kenneth Cole charged from the darkness of the mechanical room wielding an iron pipe wrench with both hands. He struck Arthur across the forearm with sickening force.
The silenced pistol flew from Arthur’s grip, skittering across the slick tiles and splashing into the pool.
Arthur roared in pain, spinning around and driving a vicious elbow into Cole’s sternum. The doctor collapsed against the chlorine tanks, gasping for air. Arthur drew a second, smaller ceramic blade from his lapel, his face twisted into an expression of feral aristocratic hatred.
"Incompetent fools!" Arthur spat, lunging toward Cole to slit his throat.
*BANG.*
The gunshot ripped through the aquatic center, deafening and definitive.
Arthur Pendelton froze. He looked down at his pristine cashmere coat. A neat, smoking hole had appeared dead center in his chest.
At the edge of the bleachers, Rachel sat slumped against the wall, her face pale as a ghost, both hands trembling around the .45 caliber automatic Daniel had dropped earlier. Smoke drifted lazily from the barrel.
"Stay away from that girl," Rachel whispered, her voice shaking, before the weapon slipped from her blood-stained fingers.
Arthur took two staggering steps backward. His cold gray eyes looked past Daniel, looking down at the silver signet ring on his right hand. He coughed a spray of dark blood onto the floor, his knees buckling beneath him.
"You think... you won, Daniel?" Arthur rasped, his voice bubbling with fluid as he collapsed against the tile. "The board... has seventy members... across five continents... Lily is marked... she will always... be—"
His head snapped back against the concrete. His eyes stared blankly toward the shattered glass roof, where the summer rain fell softly into the crimson water.
Daniel didn't look at the corpse. He was pumping Lily’s chest with frantic, unyielding rhythm.
"Come on, baby! Come on, Lily! Look at me! BREATHE!"
"Daniel! The auto-injector!" Dr. Cole screamed, limping heavily toward them while clutching his bruised ribs. He reached inside his medical satchel and pulled out a heavy military-grade brass syringe filled with clear amber fluid. "Atropine-oxime synthesis! It neutralizes the peptide bridge! Her thigh! NOW!"
Daniel grabbed the injector, ripped the safety cap off with his teeth, and slammed the steel needle straight through Lily’s swim leggings into the muscle of her left thigh.
He drove the plunger home.
For three agonizing seconds, nothing happened. Lily lay limp, her pulse imperceptible, her skin as cold as marble under the harsh emergency lamps.
Then, her back arched violently off the floor.
A terrifying, ragged gasp tore through her throat. She coughed up a violent surge of pool water and bile, her small hands clawing desperately at the air until they found Daniel’s soaked shirt.
"D-Daddy!" she shrieked, her voice cracking in hysterical, sobbing terror. "Daddy! It was cold! I couldn't move! I couldn't move my legs!"
Daniel pulled her completely into his chest, burying his face in her wet hair, sobbing so hard his entire body shook. He wrapped both arms around her, rocking her back and forth on the bloody pool deck while sirens began to wail in the far distance, cutting through the fading storm.
May you like
"I've got you," Daniel wept, his tears mingling with the pool water on her face. "I've got you, Lily. You're out. You're on the deck. Look at me... look at Daddy. You're breathing. You're safe."
***
