Chapter 9: The Devil's Ride
The tinted window slid down smoothly, revealing not Agent Miller’s stern face, but the sharp, calculated features of Detective Sarah Chen—the lead investigator assigned to the university’s missing persons division.
"Get in, Julian," Detective Chen said, her voice taut with urgency as she unlocked the passenger door from the inside. "Before Vance’s private security detail realizes Miller diverted them."
Julian hesitated, his hand resting instinctively on his pocket where Clara’s USB drive throbbed against his thigh. "How do you know my name? Who sent you?"
"Clara sent me an encrypted dead-man switch three hours ago," Chen snapped, glancing anxiously in her rearview mirror. "She knew Alistair was going to try and bury the pharmaceutical trials tonight. Now get in the car before someone sees you standing out here bleeding on the university steps."
Julian pulled the door open and slid into the passenger seat, wincing as his mangled hands brushed against the fabric of the dashboard. The interior of the unmarked car smelled faintly of rain and cold black coffee. Chen immediately slammed her foot on the gas, peeling away from the curb just as a pair of unmarked SUVs turned the corner at the far end of the quad.
"They're tracking my phone," Julian warned, pulling the dead device from his pocket and tossing it onto the floorboards.
"I know," Chen replied, navigating the winding campus roads with practiced ease. "That's why we're heading off-campus. The university board is completely compromised by Vance’s funding. Every server on campus routes through his private firewall."
Julian looked sideways at the detective, taking in the tight set of her jaw and the federal-issue badge clipped to her visor. "Miller acted like he was arresting Alistair back in the lab. Was that a show?"
"It was theater," Chen confirmed grimly. "Miller is on Vance’s payroll. By taking Alistair into custody officially, they get him out of the jurisdiction of the state police and into a private federal holding facility where his lawyers can secure a release within the hour."
Julian’s chest tightened. He pulled the small USB drive out of his pocket and held it up between two blood-stained fingers. "Clara gave me this right before she died. She said it has the complete audit trail."
Chen glanced at the drive, her eyes widening slightly in the dim glow of the dashboard lights. "That’s the master key to the off-site server farm in Westbridge. If we plug that into an independent rig, we expose every illegal human trial Vance ran over the last decade."
"Then let's drive to Westbridge," Julian urged, shifting uncomfortably in his seat as the pain in his wrists flared anew.
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Chen’s hands tightened on the steering wheel as she took a sharp, unannounced turn down a narrow, tree-lined service road that led away from the city center.
"We can't go to Westbridge, Julian," Chen said, her voice dropping into a dangerous, chilling register. "Because Westbridge was burned to the ground two hours ago."
