Chapter 8 - The Ghost Train
Olivia stared in sheer horror at the digital face of the man she had buried nine years ago.
Her father’s eyes were cold, lifeless, and filled with a dark, calculating intelligence.
"You really thought you could hide on a public freight line?" Commander Mitchell taunted.
"I own the infrastructure of this entire grid."
Hale instantly woke up, drawing his weapon and aiming it uselessly at the screen.
"What do you want, Mitchell?" Hale barked.
"I want my daughter to deliver her blood to the vault," the Commander replied smoothly.
"And if she refuses?" Olivia asked, stepping closer to the monitor.
Her father offered a terrifying, hollow smile.
"The train you are on has been remotely hijacked," he explained calmly.
"I have overridden the braking system and set the engine to full throttle."
"It is currently carrying ten thousand gallons of highly flammable liquid chemical."
"If you do not surrender at the next checkpoint, I will crash this train directly into the center of downtown Chicago."
The screen flickered and went entirely black.
The boxcar violently lurched forward as the train’s engines accelerated to a terrifying speed.
The heavy steel doors were magnetically sealed, trapping them inside the metal cage.
"We have to manually decouple the engine from the fuel cars," Hale yelled over the deafening roar of the tracks.
He pointed his gun at the heavy locking mechanism on the sliding door and fired three point-blank shots.
The lock shattered, and they pushed the heavy door open against the rushing wind.
They climbed out onto the narrow metal ledge of the speeding train, the freezing wind whipping at their clothes.
They leaped across the terrifying gap between the boxcars, fighting to keep their balance.
Apex mercenaries were waiting for them on the roof of the next car, armed with assault rifles.
A brutal firefight erupted at eighty miles per hour.
Hale provided cover fire, taking down two mercenaries before a bullet clipped him in the thigh.
He fell hard onto the metal roof, dropping his weapon in agony.
Olivia sprinted forward, tackling the last mercenary off the side of the speeding train.
She scrambled down the ladder between the engine and the passenger cars, locating the heavy coupling lever.
She struck the release pin with a heavy wrench, and the massive metal clamps finally snapped open.
The engine surged forward, leaving the dangerous fuel cars safely slowing behind them.
Olivia sighed in massive relief and climbed back up to the roof to help Hale.
A dying mercenary on the roof suddenly started laughing weakly, blood spilling from his mouth.
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"You decoupled the wrong section, you idiot," the mercenary choked out.
"The bomb is not in the fuel cars, it is strapped directly beneath this engine."
