Chapter 2 - The Proximity Trigger
The heavy first-class curtains were instantly drawn shut by the automatic lockdown system.
Leah stood perfectly still, holding the sudden weight of the baby.
The infant had stopped crying the exact moment she had removed the blanket from over the device.
The father kept his gun pressed violently against his guard's head.
"Who let this onto my plane, Marcus?" the father asked.
"Sir, I swear I swept the entire cabin myself before we boarded," Marcus pleaded.
The father stared at him for a long, agonizing moment before finally lowering the weapon.
He turned his full, terrifying attention back to Leah.
"My name is Silas," he said, taking the baby gently back from her arms.
"You are a long way from economy, little girl."
Leah looked at the black disc still clinging to the baby's skin like a dark parasite.
"You need to take it off him right now," Leah whispered.
Silas shook his head, his eyes glued to the tiny, blinking red light.
"I cannot touch it," Silas said.
"It is a biometric pulse trigger."
"If it loses contact with my son's heartbeat for even a second, it detonates."
Leah felt all the air completely leave her lungs.
She thought about the identical disc she had found under her kitchen table back home.
She had picked that one up with her bare hands.
"It did not explode when I found one," Leah blurted out.
Silas froze, staring at her as if she were a ghost.
"You found one of these before?" he asked.
"Four days ago, in my house," Leah replied, trembling slightly.
Silas quickly pulled a specialized scanner from his briefcase and ran it over the baby's ribs.
The digital screen lit up with a terrifying, pulsing readout.
"It is a paired device," Silas muttered, panic finally breaking through his composed exterior.
"It only arms itself when the secondary device is brought within a one-mile radius."
Leah's stomach dropped to the floor.
"Where is the second device?" she asked.
Silas looked up from the screen, his face completely pale.
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"It is right here on this plane," Silas said.
"And according to this signal, it is arming right now."
