Chapter 11 - The Safe House
The rusted iron grating of the greenhouse snapped shut behind them as Clara and Helena collapsed against the moss-covered brick wall of the abandoned structure. The afternoon sun beat down warmly, drying the damp chill from their clothes, but the adrenaline still pulsed through their veins. Clara checked her shoulder bag; the manila folder and the encrypted flash drive were safe, protected from the dirt and moisture of the tunnel.
"We made it," Helena breathed, closing her eyes as she leaned her head back against the brickwork. "What do we do now, Clara? We can't go back to the estate, and Marcus knows we have the files."
Clara stood up slowly, brushing dry leaves and dust off her crisp white shirt. Her dark hair was slightly messy from the crawl, but her posture remained resolute. "We don't go back. We go straight to the federal prosecutor's office downtown. With this flash drive, Marcus and Arthur's entire network goes down permanently."
Before they could step out onto the public road to hail a taxi, the crunch of gravel behind the greenhouse made them both freeze. Clara instinctively stepped in front of Helena, shielding the older woman with her body.
A sleek black sedan pulled silently around the corner of the greenhouse path. The rear window rolled down smoothly, revealing not one of Marcus’s thugs, but the familiar, piercing gray eyes of the federal lead agent from the previous night.
"Mrs. Vance," the agent said calmly, opening the car door from the inside. "We’ve been looking for you. Get in, please. You're no longer safe on these grounds."
Clara hesitated for a fraction of a second, scanning the agent's credentials as he held them up against the window. Reluctantly, she helped Helena into the back seat of the sedan before sliding in beside her and pulling the heavy door shut.
"How did you find us?" Clara asked, buckling her seatbelt as the car immediately accelerated down the private access road toward the highway.
"We didn't find you by accident," the agent replied, looking back through the rearview mirror to ensure they weren't being followed. "Your father’s legal team flagged a suspicious data transfer originating from your home network right after Arthur’s arrest. We placed a perimeter monitor around the estate coordinates."
Helena let out a long, shuddering sigh of relief, sinking deep into the comfortable leather upholstery. "Then the federal government has the evidence?"
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"Not yet," Clara said, pulling the encrypted flash drive out of her shoulder bag and holding it up. "The physical files are right here. And this contains everything Marcus and Arthur tried to bury."
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