Chapter 8 – Rex Saved the One Witness Everyone Wanted Dead
Emergency backup lights flickered on.
Red.
Dim.
Barely enough to see.
Then came footsteps.
Not one person.
Many.
Daniel counted at least a dozen figures moving through the tunnel.
"They're here!"
Masked men rushed into the command room.
Daniel shouted,
"Protect the evidence!"
Officers scrambled for cover as chaos erupted.
Hard drives were ripped from computers.
Documents flew across the room.
The attackers weren't trying to fight.
They were trying to erase everything.
One masked man reached a frightened young woman hiding beneath a desk.
She looked barely twenty years old.
"Please..." she cried.
"I'll tell them everything!"
The attacker raised his weapon.
Before he could move—
Rex launched forward like lightning.
The German Shepherd slammed into the masked man, knocking the weapon across the floor.
Daniel tackled another attacker while officers rushed the young woman to safety.
Within minutes...
The attackers fled through hidden escape tunnels.
The room fell silent again.
The young woman sat trembling against the wall.
Daniel knelt beside her.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Emily."
"I worked for them."
"You helped them?" Daniel asked.
Tears streamed down her face.
"I had no choice."
"They kidnapped my little brother three years ago."
"They forced me to monitor police cameras."
"They promised they'd let him go."
Daniel's voice softened.
"Where is he now?"
Emily looked down.
"I don't know."
"But I know where the real leader is."
Every officer leaned closer.
She slowly pulled a small flash drive from inside her jacket.
"I copied everything."
"Names."
"Bank accounts."
"Every corrupt officer."
"And the identity of the man who controls them all."
Daniel reached for the flash drive.
Before he could take it—
A single gunshot echoed through the tunnel.
The flash drive slipped from Emily's hand.
She collapsed.
Rex barked furiously toward the tunnel entrance.
A lone sniper's laser sight briefly flashed across the wall...
...before disappearing into the darkness.
Daniel caught the flash drive just before it hit the ground.
On it, a handwritten label read:
"Open only if you trust no one."
Daniel looked around at the exhausted officers.
After everything that had happened...
He realized he no longer knew who was friend...
May you like
...and who was the enemy.
To be continued in Chapters 9 & 10...
