Chapter 5 - The Flash Drive
The moonlight glinted off the serrated edge of Elena's knife as she lunged toward me.
Survival instinct overrode my exhaustion, and I threw a handful of loose graveyard dirt directly into her eyes.
She screamed, dropping the titanium box as she clawed at her face.
I didn't wait to see if she recovered.
I grabbed the heavy metal box from the grass and sprinted blindly toward the cemetery gates.
I heard her cursing loudly behind me, promising horrible things if she caught me.
I burst onto the empty street and kept running until my legs absolutely refused to carry me any further.
I collapsed into the shadows of a dark alleyway, gasping for air.
When my heart finally stopped hammering in my ears, I inspected the titanium box.
The lid had popped loose when it hit the ground.
Inside, resting on a bed of velvet, was not money or jewels, but a simple black flash drive.
I pulled the burner phone from my pocket and quickly dialed the only number stored in its memory.
A man answered on the second ring, his voice calm and surprisingly familiar.
"I assumed you would figure out a way to escape my sister," the voice said.
My blood ran ice cold in my veins.
It was Carl.
"You're dead," I whispered into the receiver.
"I watched them lower your casket into the ground."
Carl chuckled, a dark, raspy sound that made my skin crawl.
"A medical paralytic is a wonderful tool if you need the world to think your heart has stopped."
"Why did you do this to me?" I cried softly.
"I needed a proxy, a grieving widow with no criminal record to retrieve the master ledger without drawing suspicion."
"Arthur was supposed to escort you safely, but it seems his greed got the better of him."
"Where are you?" I demanded, staring at the flash drive.
"I am at the place where our beautiful journey began," he replied smoothly.
"Bring the drive to the old hospice building in one hour, or I will leak the documents framing you for my murder."
The line went dead.
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I was trapped in a nightmare with no way to wake up.
I tucked the drive into my pocket and stepped out of the alley.
