Chapter 9 - The Counter-Play
Elena slammed the laptop shut. It was 5:15 a.m. She had forty-five minutes before Thorne executed a mother of two.
“We can’t go to the local PD, and we don’t have time to brief the FBI field office,” Elena said, pacing the narrow aisle of the laundromat. “If I go to that railyard alone, he kills me, he kills Sarah, and he takes the drive. He leaves no loose ends.”
“Then we don't play by his rules,” David said sharply. “Elena, I have a friend in the federal cyber-crimes division. Agent Carter. He’s a straight arrow, entirely outside Thorne’s reach. We can’t wait for a tactical strike team, but we can secure the data.”
“What’s the play?” Elena asked, stopping her pacing.
“I’m going to copy the ledger and send it to Carter right now,” David explained. “He’s going to prep a mass email to every major news outlet in the state, the FBI director, and the State Police. But he won’t hit send yet.”
Elena understood instantly. “A dead man’s switch.”
“Exactly. You take the physical drive to Thorne to buy Sarah’s life. But you make sure he knows that if you or Sarah don’t walk out of that railyard alive, the entire world gets a copy of his little black book at exactly 6:15 a.m.”
It was incredibly risky. Thorne was a man used to total control, and backing a predator into a corner was the easiest way to get bitten. But it was the only card she had left to play.
“Do it,” Elena commanded. “Send the file to Carter. I’m heading to the railyard.”
May you like
She grabbed her laptop, secured her vest, and walked out into the freezing morning. The sleet had stopped, leaving a heavy, silent blanket of snow over the city. The sky was just beginning to turn a bruised, dark purple in the east.
Dawn was coming. And with it, a reckoning.
