The cable car was suspended in mid-air, and I was blackmailed for 140,000.

Synopsis

The cable car hung suspended in mid-air. Over the intercom, a staff member's voice crackled: "It's past closing time for the park. You're coming down this late, so you'll have to pay me overtime." "Let's make it a flat fee of 7,000 bucks. That's for the whole 7,320-meter cable car ride, I'll even round it down for you." "Transfer the money, and I'll restart the cable car. If you don't, you can all hang here in mid-air tonight!" I pleaded with the staff member to restart the cable car because two elderly people had suddenly collapsed from high blood pressure and were already unconscious. The staff member scoffed, "Then pay up for your lives, simple as that. No money? Then you deserve to die there!" Without warning, the cable car shuddered to a halt, leaving us dangling in the vast emptiness. The steel cables groaned and shrieked in the wind, a sound that grated on my teeth. Below, the valley plunged into an abyss, the twilight bleeding ink-black into the horizon, rapidly devouring the sky. Inside the cabin, our senior tour group of twenty elderly passengers, just starting to unwind from a day of sightseeing, were now plunged into the abyss of panic by this sudden stop. "What's going on?" "Why did we stop? Is something wrong?" "Chloe, dear, is