Cowboy Like Me: Criminal Minds

Derailed

The train's steady rhythm provided the perfect background noise for an afternoon spent reading. Sloane Barrett flipped through the pages of her book, but her mind kept wandering. Maybe it was the long journey or the fact that she'd been on assignment for weeks. She had always loved getting lost in a good story, something that reminded her of home. Texas had shaped her in more ways than one—it was where she'd learned the value of hard work and resilience, traits that had carried her far in her career as an FBI agent.

Her roots were deep, though she'd left the Lone Star State behind years ago for the Bureau. Still, there were days when she missed the open plains, the wide skies, and the quiet calm of a simpler life. This train ride, while meant to be a break, was just another stop in her endless routine of work, travel, and the occasional stolen moment of peace.

Sloane sighed softly and glanced out the window. The landscape flashed by in a blur, but it didn't offer the solace she was hoping for. It never did anymore. She turned back to her book, determined to focus on something other than the nagging feeling that always seemed to accompany her travels these days. The feeling of being caught between two worlds—her life as an agent and the simpler one she'd left behind.

The book, some worn paperback thriller she'd grabbed at the last airport, wasn't exactly gripping, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. Reading was supposed to be an escape, after all. She missed the days when she could completely lose herself in fiction. Before everything became work. Before it was impossible to turn off that part of her mind that always looked for patterns, for threats, for things that didn't add up.

A few rows ahead, a man stood up abruptly, jolting Sloane from her thoughts. Her eyes flicked up, just in time to see him shove his hands into his jacket. He was muttering something, but his voice was too low for her to make out. At first, she thought it was just a restless passenger—someone annoyed with a delay or irritated by the confined space. She had seen plenty of that during her travels.

But something about him was different. He was agitated in a way that wasn't quite right. His movements were jerky, his body language tense, like he was bracing for something. A headache began to form behind her eyes, a familiar pressure building at her temples. Great. Just what she needed on top of an already long day.

Sloane shifted in her seat, trying to shake the feeling off. She had always been sensitive to things like this—picking up on small changes in people's behavior, subtle shifts in the atmosphere. It was one of the reasons she'd been so good at undercover work in her earlier years at the Bureau. But that part of her career was behind her now. Now, she was supposed to be taking things a little easier. She wasn't on a case, wasn't supposed to be constantly analyzing the people around her.

Still, the man's movements were hard to ignore. He was fidgeting now, tapping his fingers against his leg, his eyes darting around the train car. He was muttering again, this time a little louder. Sloane couldn't quite make out the words, but the tone was unmistakable—anger, paranoia. She closed her book, a quiet sense of dread beginning to creep up her spine.

It was like a switch flipped inside him. One minute he was standing there, twitching and muttering to himself, and the next, he was pulling out a gun.

The air in the train car seemed to freeze as the weapon came into view. Gasps and murmurs rippled through the passengers, who instinctively recoiled, some ducking behind their seats, others frozen in shock. Sloane felt her pulse spike, adrenaline flooding her system in an instant. She was on her feet before she had fully processed what was happening.

But this wasn't her case. This wasn't supposed to be her problem.

Yet, here she was.

The man raised the gun, pointing it toward the nearest group of passengers. "They're controlling it! They're controlling everything! The government's been tracking me, and now they've got me on this damn train! They're using all of you to get to me!"