Chapter 6 - The Unlikely Savior
The impact sent me sliding backward across the slick, curved metal of the train roof.
I scrambled desperately for purchase, my heavy boots scraping uselessly against the frozen steel.
My legs slid over the edge of the roof, dangling perilously above the rushing ground.
I slammed my hands down, my fingers desperately catching the narrow rain gutter running along the edge of the car.
My entire body swung off the side of the speeding train.
The sheer velocity whipped my legs violently through the freezing air.
I looked up, gritting my teeth as the metal gutter bit deep into my freezing fingers.
Vance laughed from the center of the roof, turning back to the master pneumatic valve.
I tried to pull myself up, but my arms were exhausted from the overnight shift at the maintenance yard.
My grip began to slip.
I closed my eyes, preparing for the inevitable fall into the darkness.
Suddenly, a pair of warm, manicured hands clamped tightly around my wrists.
I opened my eyes and looked up.
Sloane was leaning dangerously over the edge of the roof, her ivory jacket stained with grease.
She had kicked off her expensive red-soled heels to climb the ladder.
"Hold on to me!" Sloane screamed over the roaring wind.
She braced her knees against the metal gutter and pulled with surprising strength.
I managed to swing my boot up, hooking the edge of the roof to relieve the pressure on my arms.
Together, we hauled my body back onto the relatively flat center of the train car.
I lay flat on the cold steel, gasping for air as the world rushed past us in a blur.
"Thank you," I choked out, looking at the woman my husband had brought onto this train.
Sloane wiped tears from her wind-burned face.
"Ethan told me his marriage was a corporate arrangement that ended three years ago," Sloane yelled over the noise.
"He told me you lived in London and refused to sign the divorce papers out of spite."
I let out a harsh, bitter laugh.
"I live in Boston, and I make his breakfast every morning," I yelled back.
Sloane’s expression hardened from guilt into pure, unadulterated fury.
She reached into the pocket of her ruined designer jacket and pulled out a heavy, encrypted flash drive.
"Ethan told me to carry this onto the train in secret," Sloane said, handing the metal drive to me.
"He said it contained the manual override codes for Vanguard’s software."
I stared at the drive in absolute shock.
"Ethan thought he could stage a glitch and then use this drive to swoop in and save the day," I realized aloud.
"But Vance went rogue and cut the physical brake line," Sloane added.
May you like
I gripped the flash drive tightly.
"We need to get this to the diagnostic panel in the front car," I said.
