Chapter 12
David didn't hesitate. He shoved Clara through the rotting wooden door of the ticket office, diving in right behind her and throwing the heavy iron security bolt just as a volley of rifle fire splintered the door frame into splinters. The room was pitch black, smelling of stale dust and old paper.
"The transmitter, where is it?" David muttered, sweeping his hands across the cluttered desk until his fingers brushed against a heavy metal radio console.
He flicked the main power toggle. The old tubes hummed to life, glowing with a warm amber light as the frequency dial lit up. Outside, heavy boots pounded against the wooden porch steps, and the sound of a crowbar jammed into the door frame signaled that their time was measured in seconds.
"Come out now, Miller, and we can make this quick!" Officer Miller’s voice echoed through the splintered wood.
David spun the tuning dial, ignoring the voice entirely. He slammed the microphone button down and began shouting the emergency override code for the state police dispatch network, broadcasting his badge number and the GPS coordinates of the Saint Jude corruption files stored on his cloud drive.
"This is investigative journalist David Miller, calling from Blackwood Valley. We are under armed siege by corrupt municipal officers led by Mayor Thomas Henderson. Send immediate tactical backup! They are—"
The heavy wooden door burst inward with a deafening crash, splintering into matchwood as Officer Miller stepped into the room, leveling his rifle directly at David's chest.
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"Broadcast over, David," the officer sneered, stepping forward to smash the radio console with the butt of his rifle.
The screen sparked violently and went completely dead, leaving the room in stunned silence. But as Officer Miller lowered his weapon with a smug grin, the distinctive wail of distant state police sirens began to echo down from the mountain pass, growing louder by the second.
