Chapter 12 - The Maintenance Tunnel
The back maintenance tunnel was a pitch-black, narrow concrete pipe barely four feet in diameter, forcing Clara, Jax, and Emma to scramble forward on their hands and knees through a couple of inches of freezing runoff water. Behind them, the muffled sounds of shouting tactical operatives breaching the control room echoed through the rock face, followed by the heavy thud of combat boots entering the bunker.
"Keep going! Don't look back!" Jax's voice echoed ahead of them in the cramped metallic cylinder.
Clara crawled frantically, her jeans tearing at the knees as she kept one hand clamped firmly around Emma's waist, pushing her daughter forward through the claustrophobic dark. The air grew stale and thick with the smell of old grease and damp earth, but Clara didn't care about the dirt, the cold, or the pain in her joints. The black USB drive was safely tucked in Jax's vest, and the entire digital architecture of the federal conspiracy was now exposed to the world—if they could just make it out of the mountain alive.
After what felt like an endless crawl through the subterranean labyrinth, a faint circle of moonlight appeared at the far end of the pipe, framed by the jagged silhouette of pine branches against the night sky.
"We're almost out," Clara panted, her chest heaving as raw air burned her throat.
Jax burst out of the tunnel first, his tactical shotgun ready as he scanned the steep, rocky slope outside. He reached back, grabbing Clara by the wrists and hauling her out onto the damp earth, then immediately lifting Emma out right behind her.
They were standing on a sheer cliffside ledge halfway down Eagle's Peak, hidden behind a dense wall of rhododendron bushes. Below them, a narrow logging road wound down toward the valley floor, where an old, rusted pickup truck sat parked beneath a camouflage tarp—an emergency stash vehicle Jax had set up years ago.
"To the truck," Jax ordered, keeping low as he moved toward the steep footpath leading down the ridge.
Suddenly, the harsh beam of a military spotlight cut through the darkness from the top of the peak, sweeping down the mountainside and illuminating the clearing fifty yards above them. The throrum of a heavy helicopter rotor began to build in the distance, a deep, ominous vibration that rattled the loose stones beneath their feet.
"They've got air support," Clara whispered in horror, her eyes widening as the spotlight’s beam began drifting downward toward their position.
"Run!" Jax grabbed Emma's hand, sprinting down the steep, treacherous footpath with a speed that defied his age and the heavy gear strapped to his chest. Clara scrambled after them, her boots sliding on the loose shale, her arms flailing as she fought to keep her balance on the edge of the abyss.
The helicopter crested the ridge, its powerful searchlight locking directly onto the path ahead of them, turning the night into blinding daylight. A deafening roar filled the mountain valley as the chopper flared its collective pitch, hovering directly overhead and kicking up a violent gale of wind that flattened the pine branches and whipped Clara's hair across her face.
"Get under the rock overhang!" Jax shouted, diving beneath a massive granite shelf that jutted out from the cliffside, pulling Clara and Emma down into the dark, shadowed recess just as a stream of tracer rounds chewed up the dirt path three feet behind them, setting the dry brush ablaze.
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Clara pulled Emma into her chest, squeezing her eyes shut as the deafening roar of the helicopter blades vibrated through the solid stone above them. The trap was closing, the exits were covered, and they were entirely out of mountain to climb.
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