Chapter 4 - The Crack in the Wall
Marcus lunged across the small room.
I didn't scream. I didn't brace for impact. With the last reserve of my adrenaline-fueled strength, I threw my body sideways, yanking the heavy iron chain taut. The metal link slammed against his shins, sending his heavy frame crashing onto the hard tile floor.
The burner phone flew from my hand, sliding under the radiator.
"Toby! Get in here!" Marcus screamed, scrambling to his knees, his face twisted in psychotic fury.
Toby burst into the room, followed closely by Brenda. Toby took one look at Marcus on the floor and drew a heavy black pistol from his waistband.
"What happened?!" Toby shouted, his eyes wide with drug-induced paranoia.
"She had the burner!" Marcus spat, wiping blood from his lip where he’d hit the tile. "She was messing with the stream! Check the upload logs!"
Toby rushed to the radiator, plunging his thick arm underneath and pulling out the burner phone. He tapped the screen, his eyes scanning the notification bar. His face instantly drained of color.
"Marcus..." Toby’s voice shook. "It says... Upload Complete. Data sent to external servers. It sent a ping to an external IP address."
"What IP?!" Marcus yelled, grabbing Toby by the collar. "What IP, you idiot?!"
"I don't know! It looks like a federal routing domain!"
Silence fell over the room, thick and suffocating. Even the hum of the overhead fluorescent light seemed to drop in pitch.
Marcus turned his head slowly toward me. The fury in his eyes gave way to something far more dangerous: calculated desperation. He realized the clock had just started ticking.
"We're burning the place," Marcus said, his voice terrifyingly quiet. "We take the money from the safe, put her in the trunk, and hit the highway to Mexico tonight."
"Marcus, no!" Brenda gasped, taking a step back toward the door. "If the feds are tracking this signal, they’re already watching the highways! We need to leave her here and run!"
"Leave her?!" Marcus bellowed, stepping up to Brenda and grabbing her by the throat, shoving her against the doorframe. "She’s the evidence! If they find her alive, we all get needle in the arm! She dies tonight, Brenda. And if you soft-heart on me, you go in the hole right next to her!"
Brenda choked, her eyes wide with terror, catching my gaze over Marcus’s shoulder.
In that split second, the power dynamic in the room shattered. They were no longer the all-powerful captors; they were panicked rats trapped in a burning house. And panicked rats make fatal mistakes.
I sat up slowly, resting my back against the wall, holding my belly to protect my unborn child.
"You can kill me, Marcus," I said, my voice echoing off the concrete with chilling stillness. "But the stream was set to auto-record your face five seconds ago. Right now, three federal agents are watching you hold Brenda by the neck. Every word you say is being transcribed."
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Marcus froze. He looked down at the burner phone still sitting in Toby’s shaking hand. The small red light in the top corner of the frame was flashing rhythmically.
Blink. Blink. Blink.
