Chapter 9
Before Arthur could finish packing the digital drives into a secure aluminum briefcase, the heavy wooden front door of the cabin exploded inward with a deafening crash. Splintered timber flew across the room as two heavily armed operatives in tactical gear breached the threshold, their automatic rifles raised and pointed straight at the center of the room.
"Nobody move! Hands where I can see them!" the lead operative shouted, his voice distorted by a ballistic mask.
Sarah reacted with instantaneous precision. She swept her leg across the edge of the oak table, flipping it over to serve as immediate cover just as a volley of suppressed gunfire chewed through the drywall above their heads. Wood splinters rained down on the floor as Arthur pulled Chloe down behind the overturned furniture, shielding her body with his own.
"Sarah, the back emergency exit!" Arthur yelled over the deafening report of the rifles.
Sarah drew a compact tactical pistol from her holster, leaning around the edge of the overturned table and firing two precise shots that struck the trailing operative's ballistic vest, sending him stumbling backward into the doorframe. The lead operative fired back, his bullets sparking off the steel workbench and shattering the computer monitors in a shower of glass and blue smoke.
"Move, move, move!" Sarah shouted, covering their retreat as she fired suppressive rounds toward the doorway.
Chloe grabbed her father’s hand, and together they scrambled through a narrow storage pantry at the back of the cabin, bursting out into the cool, rainy night air. The safehouse’s backyard opened up into a dense thicket of blackberry bushes and steep rocky terrain that sloped down toward a rushing river.
Gunfire popped behind them, a stray bullet clipping a low-hanging tree branch just inches above Chloe's head, sending a shower of fresh leaves down upon them.
"Stay low and follow the riverbed!" Arthur ordered, his breathing heavy as he pulled Chloe down the muddy embankment.
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They plunged into the freezing water of the shallow river, the current tugging fiercely at their legs as they waded through the rushing stream toward an old concrete culvert pipe that disappeared beneath the highway bridge. Sarah brought up the rear, firing a final warning shot from her pistol to deter any immediate pursuit before diving into the culvert behind them.
The concrete tunnel echoed with the sound of rushing water and their own ragged breathing as they crawled deeper into the subterranean darkness, putting distance between themselves and the burning safehouse.
