Chapter 6 - The Memory Card in a Stranger’s Hand
Vince moved fast for a man his size.
The teenager froze.
I stepped between them and drove my shoulder into Vince’s chest, not hard enough to injure him, only enough to break his line. He slammed into the edge of a seat and caught himself on the yellow pole.
“Run it forward,” I told the boy.
He stared at me.
“The card,” I said. “Give it to the driver.”
The teenager snapped out of his fear and threw the memory card over the seats.
Mason reached for it.
An older woman batted his hand aside with her purse.
The card struck the floor, slid beneath two rows, and stopped near Harris’s partition.
A college-age passenger kicked it forward.
Harris reached down without taking his eyes off the road and swept it beneath his seat.
The entire exchange lasted three seconds.
It changed the balance of the bus.
The passengers were no longer frozen.
They were still afraid, but fear had become collective. Vince’s control depended on everyone believing resistance would leave them alone. Now they had seen one another act.
Vince saw it too.
“You people have no idea what you’re protecting.”
The older woman lifted her chin. “Neither do you.”
Mason grabbed her purse and flung it aside.
Ranger took one measured step forward.
Mason immediately released the strap.
I looked at the driver.
“Can you secure the card?”
“There’s a lockbox under the console.”
“Use it.”
The hooded gangster raised his radio.
“Evidence copy recovered by passengers. Driver has it.”
The voice responded at once.
“Disable the driver.”
The hooded man reached for Harris.
I caught the yellow overhead rail and swung my body into the narrow space between them. My forearm blocked his arm before he touched the driver.
He tried to shove past.
I trapped his elbow against the partition.
The scanner clipped to his belt crackled beside my hip.
“Unit Four at intercept point.”
Harris swerved around a delivery truck.
Everyone shifted with the motion.
The hooded man lost balance. I guided him into an empty seat and kept his arm pinned behind the seatback.
“Name,” I said.
He laughed nervously. “Go to hell.”
I increased the pressure.
“Name.”
“Cal.”
“Full name.”
“Cal Dwyer.”
Vince shouted, “Stop talking.”
Cal looked back at him with open resentment.
“You said this was a retrieval.”
“It is.”
“They just ordered me to take out a bus driver.”
Harris locked the memory card inside the small metal box beneath his console. The key remained on a retractable cable attached to his belt.
Claire watched every movement.
“You need to get that footage public,” she said.
Harris shook his head. “Transit control receives the recordings.”
“Not if control is compromised.”
I looked at the emergency alert panel.
“Can you contact another bus?”
“Radio network.”
“Same system?”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t.”
Claire removed her hospital badge from the floor and turned it over. A handwritten phone number was taped to the back.
“I have someone outside the system.”
Vince stiffened.
“Who?”
Claire ignored him and reached for her phone.
The screen was cracked from the purse hitting the floor, but it lit up.
No signal.
Cal glanced at his scanner. “They’re jamming cellular.”
One of the passengers checked her phone.
“No bars.”
Another did the same.
The bus had become an electronic island.
Claire stared at the number on her badge.
“His name is Dr. Elias Grant. He helped me copy the files.”
“Can he verify what’s on the drive?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“He was supposed to meet me at midnight.”
Vince laughed.
The sound was wrong—too satisfied.
Claire turned toward him.
“What?”
“You’re late,” he said.
Her face emptied.
Vince leaned closer, lowering his voice.
“Dr. Grant isn’t waiting for you anymore.”
Claire’s knees nearly gave way.
Then Cal’s scanner transmitted a new order.
“Confirm Grant secured at St. Vincent loading dock.”
Claire stared at the device.
The voice continued.
May you like
“Dispose after nurse recovery.”
📖 Read why Dr. Grant’s capture forces Claire to reveal the hospital secret she had been protecting even from Noah in CHAPTER 7. 👇
