Night Shift

The high school at night was a different beast. The silence was heavy, pressurized.

Elias and Maya moved through the shadows of the main hallway. Maya had picked the lock on the side door with a bobby pin—a skill she claimed was for "investigative purposes."

"Locker 304," Maya whispered, shining a penlight on the numbers.

Elias stood back. "I can't touch it again. The fear... it was too much."

"I got it," Maya said. She spun the combination dial. "Standard default code is the birth year for half these idiots, but Chloe was smart. Let's try... her jersey number. 18-18-18."

*Click.*

"Predictable," Maya muttered. She opened the door.

The locker was neat, organized. Maya grabbed the thick AP Biology textbook from the top shelf. She shook it. It didn't rattle. She opened it, flipping through the pages until she reached the glossary. The pages had been glued together and cut out, creating a square hollow.

Inside sat a silver USB drive.

"Jackpot," Maya whispered.

They retreated to the AV club room, where Maya had a laptop that wasn't connected to the school network. She plugged the drive in.

Elias stood by the door, keeping watch. "What's on it?"

Maya clicked through folders. Her face grew pale in the glow of the monitor. "Spreadsheets. Emails. Chemical analysis reports... Elias, look at this."

Elias stepped closer, keeping his gloves on.

"It’s Vane Logging," Maya said, her voice trembling with rage. "They’ve been dumping chemical runoff into the marshes north of town for five years. To save money on disposal fees. The chemicals... they leach into the groundwater."

"The sickness," Elias realized. "Mrs. Gable’s cancer. The reason everyone has 'summer flu' that never goes away."

"They’re poisoning us," Maya said. "Chloe found out. Her dad works for the company accounting firm. She must have stolen the data."

She opened the last file. It was a video. Chloe, looking terrified, sitting in her car.

*"If you're watching this, I'm gone,"* the video-Chloe said. *"Julian found out. He said he’d frame my dad for the embezzlement if I didn't hand over the drive. He said he’d ruin us. I have to meet him. I have to buy time. I'm going to the Starling Motel on the highway. I'm sorry."*

The video cut to black.

"The Starling Motel," Maya said, slamming the laptop shut. "That’s ten miles out. If she went there two days ago..."

"She might still be there," Elias said. "Waiting for a deal that never happened."