DEAD LINE

Alex Ruiz never wanted to be a whistleblower. He was auditing server logs at a state election office when the numbers stopped matching the certified totals, and by the time he understood what he was seeing, his employer was already a target. Now he is running through the underground with an encrypted drive, a dying phone, and a real time countdown that the entire federal government is racing to beat. Every percentage point on his battery is a chance the story makes it out alive. Every minute is a chance it does not.