Episode Ten
924 Words
*
The hand on my ankle yanks.
I hit the floor hard, breath knocked out of me. The box skids across the tile and clatters to a stop against the wall.
“Lucas!” I shout.
There’s no answer. Just the sound of footsteps moving fast in the dark.
I scramble for the box. Fingers find cold metal. Empty.
The flash drive is gone.
My jacket pocket is torn.
Someone cut it.
“Looking for this?” Ethan’s voice comes from somewhere to my left. Calm. Like we’re having tea.
A phone light flickers on. The flash drive dangles between his fingers.
“You’re fast,” he says. “But not fast enough.”
I push myself up, backing against the wall.
“Give it back,” I say.
Ethan laughs. “Why? So you can run to the police? They’re mine, Silvia. Always have been.”
Footsteps behind me. Probably Lucas. I can hear him breathing hard.
“Let her go,” he says.
Ethan turns the light on him. There’s blood on Lucas’s shoulder, dark against his shirt.
“Or what?” Ethan asks. “You’ll shoot me? With what?”
Lucas’s gun is empty. He dropped the magazine in the vault.
I look at the flash drive. My only proof. Gone.
_I almost surrender_
Ethan steps closer.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he says. “You’re going to come with me. Quietly. No more running. No more hiding.”
“And if I say no?”
“Then Lucas dies here,” Ethan says simply. “And I still get the drive. You lose either way.”
Lucas shifts, trying to get between us. I put a hand out to stop him.
It’s useless. There are three of them now. Two men and Ethan.
I look at the flash drive again.
All those names. All that proof. If I give it to him, it disappears forever.
If I don’t, Lucas dies.
Mom’s voice comes back to me: _Trust no one until you see the proof yourself._
I already saw it.
I know what’s on that drive.
“Fine,” I say.
Ethan smiles.
“Smart girl.”
I take a step forward, hands raised.
“Drop it on the floor,” I say. “Then I’ll come with you.”
Ethan frowns, but he crouches and sets the flash drive down.
That’s all I need.
**
I dive.
Not for the flash drive. For the box.
It’s still on the floor, open. Inside is the deed to the old house. Worthless now. But the box itself—
I grab it and swing.
Metal hits Ethan’s wrist. The flash drive flies out of his hand and skids under a filing cabinet.
Chaos.
One of the men grabs me from behind. Lucas moves, but he’s slow. The bullet wound is worse than he let on.
“Kill her,” Ethan says, holding his wrist.
The man’s arm tightens around my throat.
I can’t breathe.
Lucas fires.
Click. Empty.
“Get the drive!” I choke out.
Lucas understands. He dives under the cabinet as the man squeezes harder.
Black spots dance in my vision.
Then the man jerks back with a curse.
Lucas’s got the drive.
He stumbles to his feet, holding it up.
“Back off,” he says.
Ethan stops.
For a second, it looks like we might make it out.
Then the lights come back on.
```Finally```
The vault room is blinding after the dark.
Ethan blinks, then smiles.
“Really, Lucas? You think a flash drive matters now?”
He nods to the door.
Police flood in. Ten of them. Guns drawn.
At the front is Detective Edwin. Retired. Except he’s wearing his badge again.
He looks at me, then at Lucas, then at Ethan.
“Put the weapon down, son,” Edwin says to Lucas.
Lucas doesn’t move.
“Detective,” I say. “Mom sent me to you. The drive has everything.”
Edwin's face doesn’t change.
“Mr. Beckett’s been dead three years,” he says. “And that drive is evidence in an ongoing investigation. Hand it over.”
My stomach drops. The previous letter replayed in my head __"__take it to Detective Edwin. He's the only one I trusted._ ... _trust_ _no one_ ...........''
_Can I really trust him?_
Ethan laughs quietly.
“You see, Silvia,” he says. “Everyone has a price.”
Lucas steps in front of me.
“Don’t do it,” he says quietly. “If you give it to him, it’s over.”
Edwin levels his gun.
“Last chance.”
I look at Lucas. Bleeding, exhausted, still standing between me and them.
I look at Ethan. Calm, confident, already winning.
I look at the drive in Lucas’s hand.
And I make my choice.
**
I lunge for Lucas’s hand.
We smash the flash drive against the corner of the vault door.
Plastic cracks. Metal shards scatter across the floor.
“No!” Ethan shouts.
The drive is destroyed.
Edwin swears and moves forward.
Lucas grabs my arm and pulls me toward the back door. The one we came in through.
“Run!”
We burst into the alley. Rain hits my face.
Sirens wail behind us.
We make it to the street.
Lucas stumbles and drops to one knee.
“Go,” he says. “I’ll hold them.”
I don’t leave him.
Headlights turn the corner.
Ethan’s SUV.
And in the passenger seat, Damien is smiling.
-----
waaooow I perceive trouble. who else does?
- Writer
