She reached beneath the counter and pulled out an old laptop connected security cameras. Her fingers shook as she searched through the recordings. There. She rewound the footage. The screen showed Marcus helping the elderly woman with her groceries, then Travis arriving, then Ryan shoving Marcus, then Nia lifting her phone.
Every second, every angle, nothing missing. Linda immediately copied the files onto a flash drive. Before she could finish, someone knocked hard against the locked front door. Bang. Bang.
Bang. She froze. Ryan's voice echoed through the glass. Linda. No answer.
We know you're in there. She slowly backed away from the entrance. Another violent knock rattled the door. You don't want to make us suspicious. Linda looked down at the flash drive in her trembling hand.
If they got inside, the evidence would disappear. Outside, Dylan Hayes walked toward Travis. We searched her phone twice. And? Nothing.
No deleted videos, no hidden folders, no cloud storage. Dylan looked genuinely confused. It's almost too clean. Travis glanced toward Nia. You really came here with nothing?
She answered calmly. I came here with exactly what I needed. Again, that confidence. It irritated him because he couldn't explain it. Most innocent people desperately tried to convince officers they had done nothing wrong.
Nia wasn't trying to convince anyone. It was as though she had stopped caring whether these officers believed her at all. Miles away, inside the lead FBI SUV, Malcolm Pierce studied the live encrypted feed streaming across the dashboard tablet. The video remained stable despite the physical struggle. Vanessa Reed's voice came through the secure radio.
The upload is still active. Malcolm nodded. How? Redundant transmitters. He smiled slightly.
Nia planned for everything. Daniel Carter joined the conversation. Status? 20 minutes. Daniel checked another monitor inside headquarters.
No. He enlarged a satellite image. Traffic accident on Highway 27. Malcolm's smile disappeared. How bad?
You just lost 8 minutes. The vehicle fell silent. 8 minutes. To ordinary travelers, nothing. To an undercover agent surrounded by corrupt officers, it felt like forever.
Back in Red Creek, Travis looked toward the growing crowd. More people had arrived. Nobody spoke. Some pretended to fuel their cars. Others stood outside nearby businesses.
Watching. Waiting. Recording quietly from inside vehicles. Anonymous calls to dispatch continued arriving every few minutes. He could feel control slipping away.
That made him dangerous. He stepped directly in front of Nia. I'm getting tired of your attitude. I haven't said much. Exactly.
He pointed toward her face. Normal people get scared. I've met worse. Ryan laughed. Listen to that.
Travis tilted his head. Worse than us? Nia remained silent. He smiled coldly. I'll fix that.