Chapter 6 - The Ransom Demand
The toxic white smoke burned my eyes and throat with the brutal intensity of battery acid.
I coughed violently, falling completely to my knees on the cold, unforgiving concrete floor.
David drew his federal weapon and fired three rapid rounds directly into the electronic lock of the steel door.
The lock sparked brightly and shattered, but the heavy door remained completely jammed in its thick frame.
"Help me force it open!" David yelled, throwing his entire body weight fiercely against the solid metal.
Lucy and I joined him immediately, pushing with every single ounce of remaining strength we possessed.
The smoke was growing incredibly thick, making it completely impossible to see more than a foot ahead.
I heard Mom groan weakly from the hospital bed, her breathing becoming dangerously shallow in the toxic air.
We shoved against the door one final, desperate time, and the rusted hinges finally screamed in loud protest.
The steel door flew violently open, sending us tumbling out into the fresh air of the underground garage.
Dr. Evans tried to run quickly past us, but David tackled him hard against the hood of a parked car.
"Give me the keys to your vehicle right now," David demanded, pressing his hot gun barrel to the doctor's chest.
Evans tossed a set of keys onto the concrete ground, sobbing pathetically from behind his protective mask.
We loaded Mom carefully into the back of the doctor's spacious SUV, leaving the stolen truck behind forever.
David took the wheel immediately, peeling out of the garage and smashing right through the iron gates.
We were finally back on the road, but we had lost valuable time, and the sun was setting rapidly.
"Wade knows exactly where we are now," I realized, looking nervously at the darkening horizon.
Lucy pulled out her laptop and inserted the silver flash drive I had guarded fiercely all day.
"This drive has the master bypass codes to Wade's offshore corporate bank accounts," Lucy explained quickly.
"If I can connect to a secure server, I can drain his entire illegal empire in five minutes."
She typed furiously on the keyboard, bypassing complex layers of expensive digital security with ease.
"I am entirely in the system," she announced, a triumphant smile spreading across her badly bruised face.
"Transfer everything to the FBI's fraud division instantly," David instructed from the driver's seat.
Lucy hit the enter key confidently, initiating a massive wire transfer that would leave Wade completely penniless.
The green loading bar hit ninety-nine percent and suddenly froze completely on the screen.
A terrifying live video message popped up on the laptop instead of a confirmation window.
It was Wade, sitting very comfortably in the local bank manager's private office.
He was holding a loaded gun directly to the head of a terrified woman I immediately recognized.
It was Miss Clara, the sweet elderly bank teller who had given Mom lollipops since I was a little girl.
"Cancel the transfer, Lucy, or Clara pays the ultimate price for your betrayal," Wade threatened on the live feed.
"He is bluffing to scare you," David said, gripping the leather steering wheel tightly.
"My dad never bluffs about violence," Lucy cried, her finger trembling over the cancel button.
Before we could decide our next move, the live feed abruptly cut to completely black.
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A text message popped up on the screen in bright, menacing red letters.
"Meet me at the construction site in twenty minutes, or the old lady dies tonight."
