Chapter 10 - Broken Signals
""We can't use your bus,"" Arthur said, turning on a low work lamp. ""The GPS transponder inside the farebox is tied into the state satellite network. They’re tracking your heat signature every thirty seconds. That’s how they found you at the bridge.""
""Can you cut the transponder?"" Thomas asked, stepping toward the toolbox.
""Already done on my rigs twenty years ago,"" Arthur said, pointing his chin toward the far corner of the dark barn.
A heavy canvas tarp covered a massive, boxy shape. Arthur walked over, grabbed the edge of the canvas, and pulled it back with a cloud of dust.
Beneath it sat an ancient 1978 Crown Coach school bus, painted a faded, matte dark green, stripped of all commercial markings. Its windows were heavy safety laminate, its frame solid American steel with no onboard computers, no digital sensors, and no tracking transmitters.
""She runs on mechanical injection and pure diesel,"" Arthur said with a faint, crooked smile. ""Ain't no satellite in orbit that can find an engine with no wires.""
Suddenly, the burner phone in Thomas's pocket began to buzz again. It was a video call request from the same unknown number.
Thomas hesitated, then swiped the screen to answer, keeping the camera pointed at the corrugated wall.
The screen flickered. A man with cold, sunken eyes and a sharply trimmed beard appeared on the display. In the background, tied to a wooden chair inside what looked like an abandoned greenhouse, was Sarah Vance. Her face was bruised, her hair matted with blood, but her eyes were fierce.
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""Thomas,"" the man on the screen said, his voice flat and terrifyingly calm. ""You took a wrong turn. You have thirty minutes to bring the girl to the old Blackwood Glassworks on Foundry Lane. If the sun rises and we don't have the girl, Sarah's lungs will fill with the river water she tried to run across.""
""Marcus will never give you the manifests,"" Sarah suddenly screamed into the microphone before a gloved hand slammed across her mouth, cutting the video feed to black.
