67 The Mayo Clinic

Luca,

I was relieved the moment I got Emma on the phone. The doctor at Ashfield said my father had silver shards in him, but he couldn't get it all out because he needed equipment and the equipment was in the hospital. As much as I wanted to risk it and take my father to the hospital, I knew Ashfield had been taken over, and we would be sitting-ducks there.

Gerald was moving as fast as he could, and I hoped we got to Celio on time. I wondered why Bruce and Olsen's phones were switched off; maybe they forgot to charge them.

My father was given a sedative, so we laid him across the car's back seat while I sat at the passenger's side. We had gone halfway when people started shooting at us. I could not believe the clan had people in Seafield, a small town before Celio. The situation was insane.

"Where are the guns?" I asked Gerald, who was trying to dodge direct shots. He opened the centre console and pointed at the glove box. I opened both places and found three guns altogether.

I wo