Chapter 2 The stranger's Mercy

I should have taken the highway.

That thought kept looping through my head as I drove through the empty industrial district. Dinner had run late. Three hours of talking business with clients who could not make a decision to save their lives. My tie felt like a noose, and all I wanted was to get home, pour a drink, and forget the day existed.

The GPS promised this route would save me fifteen minutes. What it did not say was that those fifteen minutes meant driving through a part of town that looked like it had been abandoned twenty years ago. Warehouses on both sides. Broken streetlights. Pavement cracked with potholes that bounced my car like a toy.

I loosened my tie with one hand and cranked up the radio. Some talk show hosts were rambling about the economy. I was not listening. I just wanted noise.

Then I saw it.

Smoke.

At first, I thought it was trash burning. Would not have surprised me in a neighborhood like this. But as I got closer, there was too much of it. Thick black clouds rising into the sky, glowing orange underneath.

Fire.

I slowed. My first instinct was to keep driving, call 911, and let someone else deal with it. I had enough of my own problems. But something made me stop. Maybe the way the flames pulsed inside the building. Maybe the wine at dinner dulling my judgment. Either way, I pulled over.

The warehouse sat fifty yards off the road behind a chain link fence full of holes. Flames flickered through the windows. I grabbed my phone and called 911.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"There's a fire. Big one. Industrial district off Marsh Road. Old warehouse complex."

"Is anyone injured?"

"I don't know. I just saw it from the road."

"The fire department is on the way. Sir, please stay clear of the building."

"Yeah. Okay."

I hung up. The smart thing was to wait in my car. But then I heard a sound that froze my blood.

A scream.

Faint. Almost swallowed by the fire. But definitely human.

My stomach dropped.

Someone was in there.

I was out of my car before I could talk myself out of it. My shoes were not made for running through gravel and broken glass, but I did not care. I ran to the fence, found a gap, and slipped through.

The heat hit like a wall. Even outside, it felt like standing too close to an oven. Inside would be worse.

"Hello!" I yelled. "Can anyone hear me?"

Another scream answered, weaker this time.

I circled the building. The front was a wall of flames. Impossible to enter. I found a metal side door. Rusted but intact. I grabbed the handle and jerked my hand back. Hot. I wrapped my jacket around my hand and tried again. The door would not move.

"Hold on!" I shouted. "I'm coming!"

I searched for something to pry it open. A length of rebar stuck out from debris nearby. I wedged it into the frame and threw my weight into it. Nothing. Again. Still nothing.

The screaming stopped.

Panic clawed at me.

I tried one more time with everything I had. The metal snapped and the door flew open. Smoke poured out in thick waves.

I covered my mouth with my shirt and stepped inside. I could not see anything. The smoke burned my eyes and throat. Heat pressed against my skin like open flames were inches away.

"Where are you?" I shouted.

No answer.

I followed the wall with one hand, moving deeper. Every breath felt like fire inside my lungs. I had maybe thirty seconds before I passed out.

Then a shape appeared on the floor.

A person.

I dropped to my knees, crawled forward, and felt warm skin. An arm. I pulled the body toward me. A woman. Small, thin, unconscious but breathing. Blood streaked her face and hands. Rope burns cut into her wrists.

Someone had tied her up.

No time to think. I lifted her. Too light. She felt like someone who had not eaten in days.

A beam crashed down behind us, spraying sparks. The building groaned. I ran, or tried to, the weight of her throwing me off balance. I lunged toward the glow of the exit and hit the door frame before stumbling outside.

Fresh air hit like ice.

I collapsed to my knees, still holding her, dragging oxygen into my burning lungs. Behind us, the warehouse collapsed with a deafening roar. Flames shot upward.

Thirty seconds later and we both would have been dead.

I looked down at her. Soot and blood covered her face. Dark hair matted. She did not move.

"Hey," I said, patting her cheek. "Wake up."

Nothing.

I checked her pulse. Weak, but there. Her breathing was shallow and ragged. I called 911 again.

"This is Ethan Cross. I called about a fire. There's a woman here. She needs an ambulance now."

"Fire department and EMS are three minutes out."

"Make it faster."

I hung up. The road was empty. Just me and this woman who should not be alive.

Who was she? Why had she been tied up in a burning building?

Sirens cut through the night. Getting closer.

Her eyes fluttered behind her eyelids. Her lips moved.

"Don't try to talk," I told her. "Save your strength."

But she forced the words anyway. I leaned in.

"What?"

Her eyes opened for the briefest moment. Pain and fear burned inside them.

"Don't trust anyone named Chen."

Then she went again.

Chen. What did that mean?

The ambulance arrived. The paramedics rushed over with a stretcher. They worked fast, checking vitals, putting an oxygen mask on her, starting an IV.

"Is she going to be okay?" I asked.

"We need to move. Now."

I climbed into the ambulance. They did not argue.

The ride was a blur of medical jargon and shifting numbers on monitors. I sat in the corner, trembling as adrenaline drained away.

"Sir, are you injured?" one paramedic asked.

"No. I'm fine."

"You should get checked out for smoke inhalation."

"Later."

The hospital came into view. More staff rushed out to take her inside. A nurse stopped me at the doors.

"You can't go back there," she said.

"I need to know if she's okay."

"Speak with the police. They'll need your statement."

Two officers showed up within minutes. They asked everything. I told them everything except the warning about Chen. Something told me to keep that to myself.

After they left, I waited. One hour. Two. No updates.

I bought terrible coffee from the vending machine. Sipped it. Rubbed my eyes.

Then I saw him.

A man in an expensive suit standing by a black sedan in the parking lot. Perfect posture. Still as a statue. Watching the hospital entrance.

Our eyes met for a second.

Then he turned, got into his car, and drove away.

Probably nothing. But something inside me twisted.

I stopped a security guard walking past.

"There was a guy in the parking lot. Black car. Expensive suit. Can you check the security cameras?"

The guard frowned. "Why?"

"Just a feeling."

He brought another guard, older and more serious. They led me to the security office and pulled up the footage.

"What time frame?" the older guard asked.

"Last thirty minutes."

He clicked through cameras. Frowned. Clicked again.

"That's strange."

"What?"

He turned the screen toward me.

"The footage from the parking lot is gone. Deleted."

My stomach dropped. "Deleted? How?"

"No idea. Someone wiped the last hour from all exterior cameras."

We stared at the blank footage together, both thinking the same thing.

Someone did not want to be seen.

Someone who knew exactly what they were doing.

Someone who might have been looking for the woman I pulled from that fire.

Her whisper echoed in my head.

Do not trust anyone named Chen.

Maybe she had been right.

Maybe we were both in more danger than I had realized.