Chapter 6 - The Dialing Tone
Julian’s breath stopped in his throat.
His thumb scraped the dried yellow residue off the USB drive. It was a standard 64GB rugged drive, marked with a red sharpie line across the casing.
Outside the iron door, heavy footsteps crunched on the gravel lining the basement corridor.
Step. Drag. Step. Drag.
"Julian," Sterling’s voice came through the thick iron frame, muffled but clear enough for Julian’s sharp thính giác to catch every syllable. "I know you're in there. That vault was built to keep narcotics safe from patients, but it locks from the outside if I drop the external bar."
Julian didn't answer. He pulled his beat-up Android phone from his pocket. No signal. The six feet of reinforced concrete surrounding the vault completely blocked the cellular tower three miles out.
"You're a smart boy," Sterling continued, his tone light, conversational, like a teacher explaining a math problem to a slow student. "You keep your head down. You don't make trouble. But you have your mother's ears, don't you? She always heard things she wasn't supposed to hear, too."
Julian’s jaw clenched so hard his back molars creaked. "Where is Clara?" he shouted at the door, his voice cracking with a mixture of rage and terror.
Silence held for three seconds on the other side of the iron.
"Clara is safe," Sterling replied softly. "She's at my house in Oak Ridge. Resting. She’s a very sweet girl, Julian. Very obedient. Unlike you, she doesn't go prying into locked rooms."
A heavy iron bar dropped into place outside the vault door with a loud, metallic THUD.
The sound echoed through the small concrete room like a gunshot.
"I'm going to turn off the main ventilation fan now, Julian," Sterling said through the steel. "It’s 11:30 PM. The demolition crew arrives at 6:00 AM. In six hours, this room will be three feet under concrete rubble. Nobody is going to check the pharmacy vault."
The hum of the distant air shaft died instantly. The room went dead silent, save for the sound of Julian's own ragged breathing.
Footsteps receded down the hall, fading into nothing.
May you like
Julian was alone in the dark.
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