Chapter 8 - The Face in the Hallway
The emergency exit doors were bathed in the harsh, flashing red glow of the fire alarm strobe. Standing squarely in front of the panic bar was Kevin’s older brother, Marcus—the infantry soldier who had been talking trash at the bus stop just yesterday. But he wasn't wearing his usual green service uniform today. He wore civilian jeans and a heavy canvas jacket, and in his right hand, he held a sleek, military-issue tactical flashlight pointed directly at Lily’s eyes.
Lily threw her hands up to shield her face from the blinding beam, stumbling backward a step.
"Marcus? What are you doing here?" Lily gasped, her voice trembling as she clutched the brass key at her chest. "You're supposed to be at Fort Benning."
Marcus lowered the flashlight slightly, though he didn't move an inch away from the doors. His face was set in a hard, unreadable expression that looked far too old for someone barely out of his teens.
"Plans change, Lily. Just like your dad’s," Marcus said, his voice terrifyingly calm compared to the chaos echoing from down the hall. "My unit didn't get deployed to the front lines. We were assigned to asset recovery. And right now, you are carrying the most important asset in the entire Tri-State area."
Lily’s blood ran cold. The note in her pocket suddenly felt like a piece of burning coal. Find the man with the red scarf. She looked down at Marcus’s neck. Tucked neatly beneath the collar of his canvas jacket was a frayed, dark crimson wool scarf—the exact one her father had described.
"You're... you're the backup?" Lily whispered, confusion warring with raw terror. "My dad said to find the man with the red scarf. He said you'd be waiting by the water tower."
"Your dad trusted the wrong people when he stole that drive from the bio-lab," Marcus said, stepping slowly toward her with his hand extended, palm up. "And now he’s paying the price for it. Hand over the brass key and the contents of your hoodie pocket, Lily. If the guys in the gray suits catch you first, they won't just lock you up in a black site. They'll quarantine this entire town to erase what your father exposed."
"You're lying!" Lily shouted, backing away until her shoulders pressed hard against the cold lockers lining the hallway. "My dad is a good man! He wouldn't steal anything unless it was to save people!"
"He saved himself by making you a target," Marcus shot back, his voice hardening as the sound of boots grew closer around the corner behind Lily. "Drop the act, kid. We don't have time for a moral debate. The federal extraction team is twenty seconds away from turning this hallway into a war zone."
Before Lily could react, a heavy hand slammed down on her shoulder from behind, spinning her around with brutal force.
It wasn't Marcus. It was the lead federal agent, his face twisted into an ugly snarl, his service weapon pressed directly against the side of Lily’s pink pastel hoodie.
May you like
"Got you, little girl," the agent rasped, his eyes locking triumphantly onto Marcus across the hall. "Drop the weapon, soldier. Federal custody trumps whatever rogue op you're running."
---
