Contemporary Fiction

The day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage. After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan. As his phone vibrates with incoming texts he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter is inside…