Chapter 8 - Claudia’s Account
By morning, Route Fourteen had become national news.
A retired school bus had crashed through a scrap yard gate while armed men pursued it. Security footage appeared online. Reporters gathered outside the district office. Malcolm Vale issued a statement claiming that “unstable individuals had stolen confidential student data.”
He named Mara.
He described her as a grieving widow experiencing a pregnancy-related emotional crisis.
The campaign to declare her incompetent had begun.
Daniel drove the bus into an abandoned municipal garage. Isaac copied the hard drive onto several encrypted devices. Claudia contacted parents she believed had not been recruited by the program.
Mara called Sophie every twenty minutes.
Mrs. Park reported no unusual activity, but Mara could hear fear beneath her calm voice.
“We need to move Sophie,” Mara said.
Daniel shook his head.
“Every road camera is searching for you.”
“I am not leaving her.”
“Then we create a public event. Witnesses, phones, live streams. Malcolm avoids exposure.”
Claudia suggested organizing the parents at the main bus stop under the pretense of demanding answers about the route cancellation.
“We place Sophie inside a district bus with other children,” she said. “Malcolm won’t take action in front of twenty families.”
Mara looked at her.
“The program has operated for years in front of families.”
Claudia had no answer.
Isaac examined the account records.
“The cancellation request came from Claudia’s login.”
“I submitted it,” Claudia said. “I told you why.”
“But you didn’t submit only one request.”
She moved toward the screen.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your account scheduled a replacement bus for tomorrow. Same children. Different driver.”
“I didn’t do that.”
“The request used your phone verification.”
“My phone was in my possession.”
Daniel checked the login map.
“The authorization came from behind your house.”
Claudia stared at the coordinates.
“There’s an old service road there.”
“Who has access?”
“No one.”
“Cameras?”
“One at the back gate.”
They drove to Claudia’s home.
The gate camera showed a hooded figure approaching at 6:38 a.m. The person held a device near the wall and remained there for six minutes.
At 6:44, the figure turned.
Mara paused the video.
The face was partially visible.
A teenage girl with dark braids.
Nia Carter.
The child Adrian believed had been taken years earlier.
“She would be fifteen now,” Claudia said.
Isaac enlarged the image.
A silver ring shone on Nia’s hand.
Sophie had said the man at Stop Zero wore a silver ring.
“What if she mistook Nia for a man?” Daniel asked.
Mara shook her head.
“Sophie knows the difference.”
Claudia checked the exterior wall.
A small black device had been attached beneath the electrical box. Adrian’s model. NVS-4.
Isaac removed it carefully.
“It copied Claudia’s phone credentials whenever she connected to the home network.”
“Why use Nia?” Mara asked.
“Maybe she works for the program now,” Daniel said.
“She was raised by it,” Claudia replied. “She may believe the Director saved her.”
The tracker contained a recent signal history.
One location appeared repeatedly.
Willow Creek Elementary.
Another appeared near Mrs. Park’s house.
Mara called Sophie.
No answer.
She called Mrs. Park.
No answer.
They reached the house in nine minutes.
The front door stood open.
Inside, a lamp had been knocked over. A cup was shattered beside the couch.
Mrs. Park lay unconscious in the kitchen, breathing but bleeding from the back of her head.
Sophie was gone.
Mara searched every room.
On Sophie’s bed lay the yellow raincoat she had worn at the bus stop.
A note had been pinned to it.
BRING THE ORIGINAL ARCHIVE TO ROUTE FOURTEEN.
NO POLICE.
NO COPIES.
Mara crushed the paper in her fist.
Daniel found the black phone under the bed.
A new recording had been saved.
Sophie’s frightened voice spoke first.
“Mom, they said not to cry.”
Then Nia answered.
“You are not being hurt.”
“Where are we going?”
“To the last stop.”
“Why?”
“Because the Director wants to meet your mother.”
A man’s voice entered the recording.
“Tell Mara to bring Claudia. The woman who canceled the route must answer for what she did.”
Claudia stepped backward.
“I don’t know that voice.”
Mara turned on her.
“He wants you.”
“He wants all of us.”
“What did you do?”
“I approved the routes.”
“That isn’t all.”
Claudia’s face hardened.
“No.”
Mara advanced.
“My daughter is gone. This is the last time you hide something.”
Daniel positioned himself between them.
Claudia looked at the yellow raincoat.
“When my daughter became sick, Malcolm didn’t only offer treatment. He said another child could provide what she needed.”
“What does that mean?”
“A bone marrow donor.”
Mara waited.
Claudia began to cry.
“The donor was Nia Carter.”
The room went silent.
“They took Nia because of you?” Mara asked.
“I didn’t know they would take her. Malcolm told me her parents consented.”
“But they didn’t.”
“No.”
“And your daughter died anyway.”
“Yes.”
Mara understood why Nia wanted Claudia brought to the final stop.
The kidnapped child had grown up.
May you like
She had returned.
And she remembered exactly who had paid the price for her disappearance.
