Chapter 6 - The Ambush at Pine Creek
“Inside! Everyone inside now!” Daniel shouted, springing to his feet with surprising speed, pulling Emma and Richard through the doorway and slamming the heavy oak door shut.
Maya ran inside right behind them, locking the iron bolts into place.
The cabin interior was a fortress of low-tech brilliance. The walls were lined with custom-built radio receivers, legacy computer terminals from the late 1990s running on solar-powered batteries, and stacks of hand-written engineering notebooks.
“ATTENTION INSIDE THE CABIN,” a booming, amplified voice echoed from a loudspeaker mounted on a helicopter hovering outside. “THIS IS STERLING GLOBAL SECURITY. YOU ARE SURROUNDED. SURRENDER THE HARD DRIVES AND STEP OUTSIDE WITH YOUR HANDS RAISED.”
Daniel ran over to a heavy wooden desk in the corner, sweeping aside a pile of circuit boards to reveal a rusted steel floor safe built directly into the cabin’s concrete foundation.
“Daniel,” Richard said hurriedly, leaning against his cane. “We know about Project Echo. Maya has traced the offshore accounts.”
“The accounts are only half the story, Richard!” Daniel shouted over the deafening roar of the helicopter blades above. “Julian didn't just sell the surveillance backdoor to private buyers. He integrated it directly into the core infrastructure of Hale Meridian’s new military communications contract! If that fourteen-billion-dollar merger goes through tomorrow morning, Julian will have master administrative access to every defense satellite in the Western Hemisphere!”
Maya gasped, her eyes wide with terror. “He’ll be able to shut down national defense grids with a single keystroke!”
“That’s why I brought you here,” Daniel said, pulling a glowing blue USB drive—a custom, military-spec hardware key—from the safe. “This drive contains the root cryptographic key. It’s the only thing on Earth that can purge Project Echo from the core algorithms without destroying the entire global network.”
CRASH!
The glass of the front window shattered inward!
A tear gas canister clattered across the hardwood floor, thick, acrid white smoke billowing into the room.
“Cover your faces!” Daniel yelled, grabbing a heavy wool blanket and soaking it in a bucket of water near the sink, throwing it over the smoking canister.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Automatic weapon fire ripped through the wooden front door, splintering the heavy oak.
“They aren't taking prisoners!” Maya screamed, ducking behind a heavy bookshelf as bullets tore through the room, shattering radio equipment and kerosene lamps.
Daniel grabbed Emma’s hand, pulling her toward a hidden hatch hidden beneath a braided rug near the kitchen fireplace.
“There’s an old mining tunnel underneath the floor!” Daniel instructed urgently, lifting the wooden hatch door. “It leads out to the creek bed half a mile down the valley! Richard, Maya, get in!”
“What about you, Dad?” Emma cried out, refusing to let go of his hand.
“I’m coming with you, sweetheart,” Daniel said, his eyes filled with fierce determination. “I spent twenty-two years running from these monsters. I am never leaving you again.”
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Richard slid down the wooden ladder into the dark tunnel first, followed by Maya. Daniel guided Emma down the ladder, stepping down right behind her, pulling the heavy hatch shut and locking the iron latch from the inside just as the cabin’s front door was breached by armed men above.
The sound of boots stomping on the wooden floorboards echoed overhead as the four of them scrambled down the dark, muddy tunnel into the cold mountain earth.
