Chapter 7: The Midnight Flight
Rain pelted Clara’s face like icy needles as she sprinted down the narrow urban corridor. Lily clutched Clara’s neck tightly, burying her face into her mother's collarbone without making a sound, as if understanding the life-or-death stakes.
Clara knew her old sedan was compromised. Instead of heading toward the street, she ducked beneath the rusted iron staircase of an abandoned textile warehouse. She slid behind a row of industrial recycling bins, pulling a waterlogged tarp over herself and her daughter.
Her breathing was ragged, her plum dress torn and soaked through with muddy rainwater. She sat in the dark, listening to the heavy footsteps of Julian’s mercenaries splashing through the puddles outside the alley.
“Mommy, are the bad men gone?” Lily whispered, her small body shivering violently from the cold.
“Shh, baby. We’re safe right now. Mommy is right here,” Clara murmured, wrapping her own warm coat around Lily.
Clara opened the laptop beneath the shelter of the tarp. The screen cast a blue glow across the damp brickwork. The progress bar for the decryption program was locked, flashing a stark red prompt:
*ENTER BIOMETRIC OR HEREDITARY PASSPHRASE TO PROCEED.*
Clara looked at the prompt. It wasn't a standard password. It was a security question her father had written years ago, designed only for her:
*“What was the promise made beneath the oak tree?”*
May you like
Tears welled in Clara’s eyes as memories of her childhood rushed back. Her father, sitting with her after her mother passed away, carving a small wooden sparrow beneath the old oak in their backyard.
---
