Dark Corners by David Archer

Author:David Archer [Archer, David & Vogel, Vince]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Eight

New Jersey.

The desolate East State Highway unfurls beneath the cold grip of night, devoured mile after mile by the predatory advance of three sleek black vans. Each vehicle moves with a singular purpose, their headlights slicing through the encompassing darkness, casting eerie luminescence over the road’s fog-kissed surface.

Inside the lead van, Musa’s hands, clammy with a sheen of sweat, cling tightly to the steering wheel. The dashboard’s sickly green glow casts ghostly light over his weathered face, revealing the map of anxiety etched into his skin. Periodically, he steals glances into the rearview mirror. The sight that meets his eyes is haunting: dozens of plastic drums standing in regimented rows, reflecting cold light. Each one represents potential destruction, but it’s the secret beneath them that truly unsettles Musa. They have a falsified permit for the ammonium nitrate. They don’t for what is underneath it.

As the van jostles over an uneven patch of road, there’s a faint muffled sound—a stifled whimper, almost lost among the drone of engines. Unknown to anyone else on this road, beneath the drums in the first van, under a cunningly constructed false floor, lie Michael and Mayu.

Gagged, bound, and drugged, they are trapped in a nightmarish limbo.

The radio crackles to life, tearing Musa from his grim reflections. “All good up there?” Ayoub’s voice, from the second van, carries a note of apprehension.

“All clear,” Musa manages to reply, though his voice is laced with undeniable tension.

Silence reigns once more, punctuated only by the constant drone of engines.

In the third van, Uma’s eyes dart nervously, every shadow beyond the windows a potential threat. Fields, blanketed in darkness, seem to watch him with a thousand unseen eyes. He’s on edge, every nerve raw, anticipating danger at every turn.

“Remember, no stops. No matter what,” Musa’s stern voice cuts through the radio static, each word heavy with unspoken dread.

Trying to break the tension, Ayoub quips, “Wouldn’t want our precious cargo being late.” Yet, the humor falls flat, the silence that follows more oppressive than before. The magnitude of their task, the devastation they could unleash, looms large in each of their minds.

Time stretches, every second an eternity. The dark landscape rushes past, yet dawn is still a distant promise. As the horizon slowly starts to light up, the impending realization of what the future will bring becomes increasingly chilling.

***

New York.

Kara sits across from the agent, a table between them—the surface cluttered with documents, some of which have familiar faces on them. The New York FBI field office buzzes outside the room, but in here, there’s an uneasy silence.

After taking pictures, Kara had called the police. It wasn’t long before the FBI arrived. Now she’s here.

“I was looking for an accomplice of Yasin Farid,” Kara starts, her voice wavering slightly. “I didn’t expect to find those photos.”

The agent leans in, her eyes sharp. “So you claim. But how did you get access to the apartment?”

Kara’s irritation is clear. “I told you, the building manager let me in.”

“Why didn’t you call the police when you suspected whose apartment it was?”

Kara goes red.

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