Chapter 6
The heavy black sedan idling at the railyard gate killed its headlights, plunging the entrance into an ominous, suffocating shadow. Two figures stepped out of the vehicle, wearing dark tactical coats that billowed slightly in the freezing wind.
Marcus Vance froze, his hand instinctively dropping to his side as he stared down the tracks.
“Thomas, who are they?” Marcus demanded, stepping protectively between his brother and the oncoming strangers. “Who has been hunting you?”
Thomas shook his head frantically, pushing Leo behind him into the dark safety of the boxcar.
“You shouldn’t have come here, Marcus. The viral video... it went too far. They monitor network traffic for our facial recognition signatures. When the hospital clip hit ten million views an hour ago, our digital footprint lit up like a flare.”
Clara jogged up from the SUV, her breath pluming in the frigid air as she took in the terrifying tableau.
“Who’s hunting you? Is this about debt? Medical fraud?” Clara asked, her voice tight with panic.
The taller of the two figures in tactical coats began walking down the gravel path toward the boxcar, his heavy boots crunching rhythmically against the frozen ground. As he stepped under the pale halo of the police cruiser’s overhead light, his face was revealed—scarred, cold, and carrying an official federal badge pinned to his belt.
“Federal Marshal Vance,” the man announced, though his badge didn’t belong to Marcus’s family. He addressed Thomas with chilling authority. “You violated your federal witness protection relocation agreement the moment you let your children step foot inside a public hospital and broadcast your face to the entire world.”
Leo gasped from inside the doorway, clutching the doorframe.
“Witness protection? Dad, what is he talking about?”
Thomas closed his eyes, a heavy tear freezing on his weathered cheek.
“I wasn't hiding from debt collectors, Leo. I was hiding from the cartel bosses your grandfather testified against before they murdered him. And by putting our faces on the internet tonight... we just invited them right to our doorstep.”
Marcus stepped forward, his corporate authority flaring up to protect his family.
“Listen to me, Marshal. My niece is currently on an operating table at Mercy General. You cannot just—!”
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The marshal pulled a folded document from his coat, thrusting it into Marcus’s chest.
“Your niece’s surgery is already being intercepted. A transport team just pulled her out of the operating room under a classified federal extraction order. She’s being moved to a secure black site three states away.”
