Chapter 7
The drive from Seattle to Portland was a grueling four-hour journey through winding mountain passes slick with black ice. Clara drove her black SUV, gripping the steering wheel with white-knuckled intensity while Thomas sat in the passenger seat, cross-referencing digital copies of the shipping logs on a secure tablet. The winter afternoon was already fading into a bruised purple twilight as they navigated the steep inclines of the interstate, surrounded by towering pine trees heavy with snow. Suddenly, Thomas glanced at the vehicle's rear-view mirror, his posture stiffening immediately.
"Clara, we’ve got a tail," Thomas said quietly, his voice tight with alarm. "A dark sedan picked us up about ten miles back near Tacoma. They haven't used their turn signals, and they’re maintaining an exact distance of four car lengths, no matter how much I vary our speed." Clara checked her mirrors, her heart hammering against her ribs. Through the swirling snow kicked up by the tires, a large black SUV loomed in the distance, its headlights deliberately dimmed. "Are you sure it's them?" she asked, her foot pressing slightly harder on the accelerator.
"Corporate security doesn't use standard plates," Thomas replied, leaning forward to watch the vehicle. "Watch the next exit. If we take it and they follow, we’re compromised." Clara signaled smoothly, easing the SUV off the interstate onto a desolate rural off-ramp that led toward an abandoned logging outpost. The black vehicle mirrored her movement instantly, accelerating to close the gap. Panic threatened to override her rational thought, but she forced her breathing to slow down, channeling Julian’s calm, analytical demeanor under pressure. She knew those mountain roads far better than any corporate goon rented from a private security firm.
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She switched off her headlights completely, plunging the SUV into total darkness for three seconds as she rounded a sharp, hairpin curve hidden by a dense stand of pine trees. Trusting her spatial memory, she whipped the vehicle onto an old, unplowed logging track buried deep in the snow, killing the engine the moment the SUV came to a halt behind a natural barrier of fallen timber. They sat in absolute silence, holding their breath. A few seconds later, the roar of a powerful engine echoed through the trees as the pursuer overshot the hidden turnoff, their headlights slicing frantically through the falling snow down the abandoned road.
Thomas let out a long, shuddering breath, wiping sweat from his forehead despite the freezing cabin temperature. "That was entirely too close, Clara. They are actively hunting anyone who has access to these logs." Clara restarted the engine quietly, her hands steady on the steering wheel as she backed the SUV out of the timber line. "They’re desperate," she said, her voice hard as flint. "That means we’re getting closer to the truth. Let’s get to Portland before they realize we doubled back."
