––––––––
Christie paced around her living room, kneading the thumb drive in her hands. She’d thrown it in the trash and fished it out again a dozen times in the past twenty minutes. Indecision clung to her every thought and action.
Part of her wanted to plug the drive into her computer and see what was on it.
But another part knew that could get her killed.
What if there was information about the device that caused everyone in the subway to go mad? Maybe industrial secrets were contained on it. It could have even been a small bomb disguised to look like a thumb drive.
Christie jumped at the thought, dropping the drive to the floor. She flinched as it bounced twice and slid under the couch. If it had been a bomb, then dropping it like an idiot probably wasn’t the smartest idea.
She knelt down and reached under the couch.
Dust bunnies brushed against her fingers.
After she grabbed the cylinder and wiped off tangles of hair and dust from its surface, she pulled the cap off again and stared at the USB plug. What could be so important on such a small device? She was being silly. How bad could it possibly be? Before she could talk herself out of it again, Christie walked around her couch and sat down.
She plugged it in.
Waited forever for the PC to detect the device and pull it up.
The drive appeared.
She double clicked it.
A window popped up, asking for a password.
“Damn it.” Christie typed in crazypeople as a joke and hit ENTER.
The little window shook on her screen and the PASSWORD window cleared.
She stared at it for several seconds. “Probably for the best anyway.”
Without entering another password in, she hit ENTER again with the field blank.
And then a single folder opened in the window named PHASE II. Christie’s heart rate accelerated. Sweat slicked her palms. She opened the folder, found a series of files.
She opened the first one, a .DOC file. Some kind of blueprints or schematics popped up. Christie tried scrolling down, but just found image after image of the same confusing plans.
Her cell phone bleated beside her.
Christie flinched, almost dropped her laptop. Leaving it open, she placed the old computer on her coffee table and reached for the phone.
It was her mother.
She accepted the call. “Mom, you won’t believe what happened to me today.”