Chapter 1 - The Leap on Maplewood AvenueThe school bus was still moving when the biker grabbed the rear rail and pulled himself onto the roof.

Children screamed behind the windows. Parents on Maplewood Avenue froze beside their mailboxes. Someone shouted that he had a weapon. Another person called 911 and reported a hijacking.

The rider wore a black leather jacket, heavy boots, and a full-face helmet. He crawled toward the roof hatch while the yellow bus drifted across the centerline, clipped a plastic trash bin, and kept rolling toward the steep hill at the end of the suburban street.

Inside, twenty-seven elementary school children were crying and sliding across the green vinyl seats.

“Stay away from the hatch!” shouted Denise Porter, the veteran school aide. “That man is dangerous! Get down on the floor!”

At the wheel, Maria Alvarez, the regular driver, was slumped heavily against the driver's side window. Her hands barely touched the plastic steering wheel. A thin, chemical gray haze hung near the floor, smelling faintly of synthetic glycol, and twelve-year-old Sophie Cole pressed her sweater sleeve over her nose to stop a sudden coughing fit.

The biker struck the emergency hatch with his heavy fist.

“Sophie!” he yelled through the metal seam. “Move everyone to the very back and open this hatch right now!”

Sophie recognized the deep, booming voice instantly.

“That’s my dad!” she cried out.

Denise grabbed her arm with an icy, painful grip. “Your father was fired from the county bus garage last month, Sophie. He threatened the directors. Do not listen to him. He is trying to hurt us.”

Two police cruisers turned sharply onto the street, their sirens wailing. Officers stepped out with weapons raised and ordered the biker to get down on the pavement.

Instead, he tore off his helmet. Lucas Cole, thirty-eight, had blood running from his forehead where the bouncing bus had thrown him against a warning light housing.

“The driver is being poisoned by the ventilation system!” he shouted down to the police. “Open the windows! Get the kids out!”

Denise’s face turned an ugly, guilty white. Sophie saw it.

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Then Maria lifted her head for one second, her eyes bloodshot, and pushed a small red flash drive into Sophie’s hand. “If I pass out,” she whispered hoarsely, “give this to your father. Do not let Denise touch it.”

The bus suddenly lurched violently forward. Lucas ripped open the roof hatch, looked down at the terrified children, and shouted, “The brake lines are completely gone!”