Maizie made her way down the aisle of the train and sat down by a window. The train was reasonably full, but she was glad she could sit quietly by herself and read. It had been a ridiculously busy day at the pediatrician’s office where she worked. It seemed every toddler in the city had contracted flu this week and a lot of the harried Moms weren’t looking much better.

She had just opened her book and picked up where she had left off this morning on her commute when a rather large man threw himself into the seat next to her, bumping her arm in the process.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

“No problem.” She moved her elbow off the shared armrest and inched over closer to the window, eyeing the man next to her. He looked to be in some kind of distress, wringing his hands and he kept checking out the train car, and closely observed everyone who was boarding. When the car finally began moving, he visibly relaxed but still seem hyper vigilant.

Maizie had read about 15 pages when she heard the connecting door behind her slide open, and her seat partner stiffened. Suddenly he stuffed something into her hand, and stared into her face.

“Guard this with your life, understand?”

“But I don’t...”

“You name! Quickly!”

“Maizie Cronyn. But...”

“I will find you! Hide that and don’t say a word. “

With that he stood up and began running down the aisle of the train. The woman who had just entered the car began to run after him, but as he left the car he yanked the emergency line and within seconds Maizie felt the train begin to brake. Before it came to a complete stop the man turned toward the woman and pointed a gun at her. The sound of the pistol echoed through the car and people began to scream and hide behind the seats. The woman stopped dead and then collapsed in the aisle right next to Maizie.

Maizie sat paralyzed in her seat. She looked down at what the man had thrust into her hand and saw a flash drive. She pushed it into her coat pocket and thought , “What the hell just happened here?”

She was soon to find out.