Chapter 5 - Shards of Glass and Stolen Answers
The deafening crash of breaking glass drowned out the audio tape completely. Before the sound had even finished echoing against the colorful alphabet posters, a heavy tear-gas canister rolled across the linoleum floor, hissing violently as thick, blinding white smoke began to billow toward the ceiling.
"Get down! Everyone under the desks!" Jax roared, abandoning his stance against Lucas to sweep Lily off her feet and shove her beneath the heavy oak table.
Panic exploded through the room. Children screamed, scrambling blindly beneath their seats while Mrs. Gable dropped to her knees, coughing violently as the stinging gas hit her lungs. Through the swirling white haze, Jax saw the shadowy silhouette of Lucas turning toward the shattered window, leaping effortlessly through the broken frame into the courtyard outside.
Jax didn't hesitate. He vaulted over the rows of desks, ignoring the burning sensation in his eyes and throat, and threw his weight against the window frame. He thrust his head and shoulders through the opening just in time to see Lucas sprinting across the wet asphalt toward a black utility van parked illegally beside the playground swing set.
"Hey! Stop right there!" Jax yelled, coughing as a lungful of gas caught him in the chest.
Lucas paused beside the sliding door of the van, turning his head back just enough for Jax to see his mocking grin through the haze of rain and smoke. He tossed something small into the mud near the base of the playground fence before diving into the vehicle. The tires shrieked against the wet pavement, kicking up a rooster tail of gravel as the van accelerated around the corner and disappeared out of the school gates.
Jax backed out of the window frame, pulling himself back into the classroom just as the school's emergency alarm system began to wail its high-pitched klaxon. Sprinklers hissed to life overhead, drenching the children's colorful artwork and turning the construction paper pinned to the walls into soggy pulp.
"Lily! Are you okay?" Jax shouted over the blaring alarm, dropping to his knees beneath the wooden desk where he had left her.
Lily crawled out into the aisle, her tie-dye shirt soaked from the overhead sprinklers, coughing into the crook of her elbow. "I'm okay, Dad! I'm okay!" she cried, throwing her arms around his neck as he pulled her tight against his chest.
Mrs. Gable crawled out from behind her desk, wiping soot and water from her face, her beige cardigan ruined. "What was that? Who was that man, Sergeant Miller? I'm calling the federal authorities this time, not local police!"
"Federal authorities are the ones who sent him," Jax said darkly, his voice trembling with a mixture of adrenaline and terrifying realization. He stood up, scooping Lily safely into his arms despite her protests that she was big enough to walk. "Pack your things, Martha. Get these kids out to the gymnasium now. The school is compromised."
"Where are you going?" Mrs. Gable demanded, grabbing his arm as he turned toward the door. "You can't just leave after causing this disaster!"
"I dropped something outside," Jax said, his eyes hard.
He carried Lily out into the flooded hallway, parting the stream of crying children and frantic teachers evacuating toward the auditorium. But instead of following the evacuation route toward the front exit, Jax slipped through the heavy fire doors leading toward the playground courtyard where Lucas’s van had been parked.
The rain was coming down in sheets now, washing away the traces of tire tracks in the mud. Jax waded through the puddles beneath the swings, his military boots sinking into the wet earth until his heel struck something metallic buried near the fence line.
He knelt down in the mud, brushing away the sodden woodchips and earth with his bare hands. It wasn't another dog tag. It was a weather-sealed military flash drive, scratched and caked in dirt, with a single word scrawled across its plastic casing in permanent marker: TRUTH.
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With hands that refused to steady, Jax pocketed the drive, picked Lily up from where she stood shivering beside him, and walked toward the parking lot—unaware that a pair of binoculars was tracking his every move from a parked sedan across the street.
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