Chapter 3 - The Ghost in the Machine
Nora froze. When she had found the locket lying beneath the grocery store shelf earlier that afternoon, it had been tightly shut. She hadn't forced it open. She hadn't even looked inside.
"I swear to you, I didn't open it," Nora said, her voice dropping an octave as she took a half-step back toward the doorway. Two guards immediately shifted their weight behind her.
"Calm yourself, Nora," Adrian said, stepping between her and the exit, blocking her path without touching her. "If you had opened it, you wouldn't be standing here right now. You’d be at the bottom of Lake Michigan. That microchip contains encrypted financial ledgers belonging to the Chicago Municipal Transit Authority—and evidence linking half the city council to a multi-million-dollar embezzlement ring."
Margaret leaned forward, her gaze locking onto Nora’s. "Someone tried to poison me today, Nora. The throat closure wasn't an allergic reaction; it was a localized neurotoxin applied to the handle of my shopping basket. They wanted this locket back, and they thought I was carrying it. But I wasn't. I slipped it into your coat pocket when you bumped into me while rushing to help."
Nora stared at the elderly woman in disbelief. "You used me as a mule? You planted evidence on a complete stranger while you were choking?"
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"I chose my lifeline carefully," Margaret corrected smoothly. "I knew a paramedic from the South Side wouldn't be searched by the assassins tracking me. And I knew you had the grit to survive what comes next."
Before Nora could process the sheer audacity of the confession, a deafening crash shattered the front windows downstairs.
