Chapter 30. Someone Has Been Here

S:

Kieran checks the dumpsters.

I move along the rusted train cars.

The metal groans beneath my grip as I drag the third door open.

Dust breathes out.

Cobwebs sway like ghosts.

Nothing.

Just rot and silence.

Then—

“S!”

His voice cuts through the stillness.

I’m already moving.

He’s crouched between two old shipping containers, hand lifted, holding something out.

His eyes are sharper now.

The numb disbelief from earlier is gone.

Now there’s heat in him. Focus.

“A burner,” he says. “Under the tarp.”

Cheap thing. Cracked screen. Battery clinging to life.

I flip it open. Hit redial.

Disconnected.

Figures.

Still—it wasn’t wiped.

Someone got careless.

I hand it back. “Pull everything. Numbers. Timestamps. Texts.”

Kieran’s already ahead of me, USB in hand, fingers working the keys like he's trying to tear answers from it.

I pace whil