Chapter 6 - The Burner Phone
The second Vanessa's black SUV disappeared around the corner, I ran back into the house.
"They aren't taking her to a shelter, Maria," I yelled, sprinting toward my home office.
"Those men were mercenaries, and they are kidnapping Lily."
I booted up my encrypted laptop and logged into the hidden GPS tracker I had sewn into Lily's diaper bag months ago.
A blinking red dot appeared on the digital map, moving rapidly toward the industrial district downtown.
I grabbed my coat and a heavy steel crowbar from the garage before rushing to my car.
Maria refused to stay behind, jumping into the passenger seat with a fierce determination in her eyes.
We sped through the city streets, ignoring red lights and speed limits until we reached a rundown warehouse district.
The GPS signal stopped at an abandoned textile factory sitting completely isolated by the river.
We crept through a broken chain-link fence and pried open a rusted side door with the crowbar.
The interior of the factory was dark, damp, and completely silent.
We found a makeshift office in the back corner containing a folding table, a laptop, and a cheap burner phone.
I grabbed the phone and managed to unlock it using the passcode written on a nearby sticky note.
The text messages on the screen revealed a terrifying international smuggling operation.
Vanessa had arranged to sell Lily to a powerful, anonymous buyer in Eastern Europe for five million dollars.
"They are leaving the country tonight," I told Maria, my hands shaking with rage.
Suddenly, the heavy metal door of the office slammed shut with a deafening crash.
I heard the distinct sound of a heavy padlock clicking into place on the outside.
A thick stream of raw gasoline began pouring under the door frame, soaking into the wooden floorboards.
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Before I could even react, a single lit match was tossed through a broken glass pane above the door.
The entire room instantly exploded into a wall of blinding, searing flames.
