Chapter 9 - The Safehouse in the Pines
They drove through the winding logging roads of the northern county for three hours without using headlights, relying only on the faint moonlight filtering through the pine canopy. In the back seat, Leo had finally succumbed to exhaustion, curled up with his thumb tucked securely into his mouth, his tear-streaked face resting against the padded car seat.
Elena stared out the passenger window, her fingers clutching a field trauma kit. ""They’re using private contractors, Thomas. Mercenaries tied to a shell company funded by former procurement officers. When your convoy was hit, five million dollars in unregistered currency disappeared from the transport vehicle. Marcus Diaz saw who took it.""
""So they left him to rot in an unacknowledged prison across the border,"" Thomas said, his knuckles whitening on the wheel. ""And now they're tying up loose ends.""
They pulled into an abandoned hunting cabin buried deep within the forest. Thomas rolled down the ramp, carefully carrying Leo inside and laying him on a dusty mattress covered in wool blankets. The boy stirred, murmuring softly before sinking back into deep sleep.
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Thomas wheeled over to the small pine table where Elena had laid out satellite maps. ""If Marcus is alive, where are they holding him?""
Elena pointed to a cluster of coordinates marked in the rugged borderlands of Eastern Europe. ""A decommissioned radar facility. But we have a bigger problem, Thomas. The command order authorizing this operation came from someone inside the Pentagon. Someone you trusted.""
