Chapter 5 - The Tactical Shift
Dominic walked out of the room, leaving Evelyn to her grief. He stood in the long, marble hallway, his fists clenched so hard they bled. He wanted to smash the walls. He wanted to kill Volkov. But he knew Evelyn was right. If he forced this transplant through a criminal trade, she would hate him for whatever time she had left, and her spirit would break before the disease could finish the job.
He descended to the basement command center, where Marcus and a team of data analysts were preparing the transfer contracts for the Boston ports.
"Tear them up," Dominic said.
Marcus looked up from his monitors, bewildered. "Sir? The contracts are almost finalized. Volkov’s men are already moving into position at the northern docks."
"I said tear them up," Dominic repeated, his eyes burning with a new, cold fire. "We aren't trading Boston. We aren't playing by Volkov’s rules anymore. If he has a hostage in Newark, we don't buy her. We take her."
Marcus’s face went pale. "Dominic... attacking a Volkov safehouse in Jersey? That’s an act of total war. It will trigger a bloodbath in the streets of New York. The authorities won't ignore it."
"Then we make sure they can't ignore Volkov either," Dominic said, leaning over the tactical map. "Marcus, I want you to leak the coordinates of Volkov’s illegal medical research facilities to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but with a twenty-minute delay. Our elite strike team goes in first, extracts the donor safely, and leaves before the feds arrive. We treat this as a high-value rescue operation, not an execution."
"And what about the donor?" Marcus asked. "If she's a relative of a Volkov lieutenant, she might not want to come with us."
"We offer her actual freedom," Dominic said. "We offer her protection, a legal identity, and five million dollars in a clean account anywhere in the world she wants to go. She won't be a hostage anymore. She’ll be an independent contractor saving a life by her own choice."
Dominic turned to his lead tactical officer, a former special forces operator named Reyes. "Reyes, you lead the team. No civilian casualties. No unnecessary noise. You get that girl out of that facility, and you bring her to a secure, private medical facility we’ve established in upstate New York—not here. She must feel entirely safe."
"Understood, boss," Reyes said, saluting before turning to assemble his men.
Dominic walked back up to his study and called Dr. Reed. "Doctor, prepare your surgical team. We are moving Evelyn to a private, clean-room facility in the Catskills tonight. We found a way to secure the donor legally and safely. But I need you to stay by her side and ensure her vitals hold during the transport."
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"Mr. Vale," Reed said, looking at him with a strange expression. "This is incredibly dangerous. Her immune system is practically non-existent right now."
"It's more dangerous for her to stay in this house while I go to war," Dominic said.
