VANESSA DUNLOP
Vanessa sat on a sofa in the waiting area of the Regional Hospital emergency room. Mathew leaned on her shoulder, fast asleep, and Travis slept against Mathew’s arm. At three-in-the-morning, they were the only people in the ER, which seemed unusual to Vanessa. Everything she’d ever heard about hospital emergency rooms was that they stayed busy most nights, especially in large population areas like Northern Virginia. This place was so quiet it seemed almost ghostly.
Jacob paced the floor in front of them, pausing to look at the check-in desk then pacing some more. For the tenth time, he wandered over to the counter to ask the nurse something. The nurse shook her head, so Jacob returned to sit beside his wife.
General Valdez and his diminutive wife, Ellen, entered the main
