Chapter 5: The Underground Operating Theater
"Make sure there’s no trace of the transponder left in her shoulder tissue, Viktor," Alessandro’s voice echoed coldly through the intercom speaker in the hallway. "If the feds find even a micro-fragment of her father’s encrypted payload, the entire import network collapses before the spring shipping season." Viktor nodded, raising the scalpel toward Camila’s unconscious shoulder. I didn't wait another second. Slipping through the automated sliding door that Maso had remotely jammed from the security control room, I raised the sedative dart gun and fired with absolute, lethal accuracy. The compressed-air dart struck Viktor directly in the neck, plunging the corrupt doctor into an instantaneous, heavy slumber as he collapsed face-first onto the stainless-steel instrument tray with a deafening clatter. Alessandro whirled around in absolute shock, his hand instantly flying toward the golden Beretta pistol holstered inside his suit jacket. But before his fingers could wrap around the grip, I stepped out from the shadows, leveling the heavy steel barrel of my father’s antique revolver straight between his eyes. "Move an inch, Alessandro," I whispered, my voice colder and deadlier than anything he had ever commanded in his entire life, "and I’ll paint this sterile wall with the brains of the man who thought he could use my birthday to slaughter innocent children."
