Chapter 5 - The Glass Trap
Adrian did not hurry. He limped slowly across the polished terrazzo floor, his boots making a dull, wet sound with every step. The passersby in the busy terminal paid him no mind, mistaking him for just another injured vagrant or distressed traveler.
I didn't try to run. I couldn't run even if I wanted to. I simply sat straight on the wooden bench, my hands clasped tightly over the brass top of my cane, watching him approach.
He stopped three feet in front of me, leaning down so his blood-splattered face was only inches from mine. He smelled of engine oil, burnt rubber, and copper.
"Where is she?" he asked. His voice was a rasping, broken whisper.
"She is far away from you," I said softly.
Adrian turned his head slowly, looking past me toward the glass walls overlooking the departure bays. Through the window, the silver Greyhound bus to Chicago was idling, its heavy diesel engine roaring as air brakes hissed in the cold bay air.
Through the tinted glass of Row 6, he saw her. Lucy was looking out, her hands pressed against the glass, her face pale with horror as she saw her husband standing right in front of me.
Adrian reached into his heavy jacket pocket.
My heart stopped.
He didn't pull out a knife or a gun. He pulled out a small, heavy black object—a remote garage door clicker, modified with crude wiring and a bright red LED light flickering at the top.
"You think you're smart, old woman?" Adrian hissed, his mouth twisting into a grotesque sneer. "You think you're a hero? Look at the back wheel of that bus."
I turned my head slowly to look through the glass wall.
Attached to the inner frame of the bus’s rear axle housing was a small, heavy black box wrapped in duct tape—a magnetic GPS tracker wired directly to a commercial road-flare incendiary pack.
"I worked six years as an auto mechanic," Adrian whispered in my ear, his breath hot and sour. "If that bus moves faster than twenty miles per hour, or if I press this toggle switch right here, the chemical pack ignites. It will burn through the fuel tank in four seconds. Everyone on that bus will burn alive before they reach the highway."
My blood ran cold as ice. The world around me seemed to tilt and spin.
"You're a monster," I breathed.
"I'm a husband who wants his family back," he corrected me, his thumb resting lightly on the small red switch of the remote. "Now, you are going to stand up. You are going to walk over to that gate. You are going to tell the attendant that there is an emergency and that Lucy needs to get off the bus with my son."
He leaned closer, his eyes burning with demonic intensity.
"If you make a noise, if you signal to a guard, if you look at anyone the wrong way... I press the switch. And you can watch your little friend and her bastard child turn to ash right in front of your eyes."
May you like
Outside, the bus driver engaged the gear shift. The heavy silver vehicle gave a slow, deep rumble as it prepared to back out of the bay.
"You have ten seconds, Mrs. Carmen," Adrian whispered, his thumb pressing down slightly until the red LED light glowed steady and bright. "Choose."
