“Minji?” Alec’s voice whispered. “Minji, you here?”
“You made it,” she said with relief, coming out of hiding.
“How did you make it? You should have been knocked out.” Alec touched her cheek then Ava’s. “Both of you.”
“It’s the child entity.” Minji pointed to her head. “I felt it do something to my brain to keep me awake. I’m not sure what. I can’t feel it now though. Are Simone and Bailey okay?”
“They’re outside waiting. The mesmerized calmed down after you entered the elevator.”
“Deputy Hatcher?”
“Dead.” Alec sighed.
“So tired of people dying,” Minji grumbled.
“At least you’re okay. Have you seen Arthur?”
Minji shook her head. “And he has a gun now.”
“Shit.” Alec pushed on the door, and it swung shut with a hiss. “Okay, we need to get this done. Now.”
“Is there really a tablet in that doctor’s office?”
“No. I lied.” Alec shrugged. “I was trying to buy us time.” Withdrawing the tablet, Alec typed in a password. “It wouldn’t have done Arthur any good anyway. He doesn’t know how to access it.” The screen opened to the application Dr. McCoy had been working on when she died and Alec exited out. “Okay, the file has downloaded, so I just have to follow the steps.”
When the manual popped onto the screen, Minji leaned forward to study it. “Complete with pictures, huh?”
“Step by step instructions,” Alec gave her a small grin. “We can do this. Now to find out how to open the doorway.” Swiping through the directions, Alec’s brow furrowed with concentration. “Okay, found it.”
“Good, good.”
Lifting his eyes, Alec said, “Are you sure, Minji? Absolutely sure that the mother is on the other side and only wants her baby?”
Doubt pricked at her mind.
“Minji?”
“Why are you asking me now?”
“It brought all those people here. Why did it do that?”
The words almost choked her as Minji placed the final piece into the puzzle. “So we wouldn’t kill the baby. Like Deputy Hatcher taking me hostage, she did the same. But she couldn’t communicate with us.”
Alec hesitated, then said, “Okay. But one or both of them also killed millions, Minji.”
“They were torn apart. Separated. Afraid. They’ve both been reaching out to me, Alec.” Though parted by choice, Minji longed to hold Bailey in her arms again. She could only imagine the pain of having a child torn away.
“They’re not human, Minji. We are. Our world needs to come first. If I open that portal, the mother will be waiting. And that scares me shitless.”
Minji covered her face with both hands. She’d been so determined to save her family, the world, and the baby entity, she hadn’t really considered if the mother would take vengeance on them. What would she do in the mother’s place?
“Is she going to come through and finish what she’s started, Minji? We have to ask ourselves that.”
“No, no. She won’t. She just wants her child.” A tiny sliver of doubt still pricked at her. The mother entity had gone to great lengths to appeal for help. That had to be important.
“You sound unsure, Minji.”
“No. No. I’m sure,” she responded, lifting her chin. “I’m sure.”