Chapter 7 - ABDUCTION
The plan was perfect. Vincent left for the city to present the evidence to the Commission, leaving me and Lily at the compound under the protection of twenty armed men.
But a cornered animal is the most dangerous.
It happened in the afternoon. Lily was playing in the rose garden with Button, her cloth rabbit. I was reading a book on the patio, occasionally glancing at the guards patrolling the perimeter.
Suddenly, the encrypted security radio on the table crackled. A guard’s voice gasped, “Gas. They breached the vents—”
Before I could react, a white canister arced over the garden wall, landing in the grass near Lily. Plumes of thick, grey smoke erupted.
“Lily!” I screamed, running toward her.
My lungs seized. The tear gas blinded me. I fell to my knees, choking, grasping blindly at the grass. I heard heavy boots thudding against the dirt. I heard Lily scream my name.
“Mommy!”
“Let her go!” I shrieked, forcing myself to stand, only to be struck hard across the temple with the butt of a rifle. I collapsed into the dirt.
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Through my blurring, tearing vision, I saw the sleek, vicious silhouette of Bianca Bellini. She was wearing a gas mask, dragging my crying daughter toward a breach in the wall.
“Tell Vincent the ledgers for the brat,” Bianca’s muffled voice echoed as the darkness closed in. “He has two hours.”
