Chapter 14 - The Winter Border
The train shuddered to a dead halt in the middle of a snow-dusted mountain pass along the Franco-Swiss border. The sudden stillness was suffocating. Above them, the deafening chop of helicopter rotors rattled the double-paned glass of the sleeper car.
“They shut down the regional rail grid,” Julian said, checking his magazine with ruthless efficiency. “Seven rounds left. They aren’t taking prisoners, Elena.”
“They don't want prisoners,” Elena whispered, peering through the blinds. On the snow beside the tracks, black-clad tactical units were dropping down fast-ropes from the hovering birds, their night-vision goggles glowing an eerie phosphor green. “They want the ledger wiped before we reach Geneva.”
Titan stood in the cramped compartment, pressing his massive body against Elena’s legs. He didn’t make a sound; he was an apex predator waiting for the signal to strike.
“Take this,” Julian said, shoving the heavy leather ledger into Elena’s coat and zipping it securely. “The Swiss border post is less than two miles down this ravine. Once you cross the treaty line, the Council's private contractors cannot touch you without triggering an international incident.”
“I’m not leaving you behind,” Elena hissed, grabbing his lapel. “We made it this far together!”
“I’m bleeding out, Elena!” Julian snapped, his voice breaking with rare, raw fury. He grabbed her wrists, forcing her to look at his pale, sweating face. “I can barely run twenty yards. I am dead weight, and you have Marcus Vance’s blood in your veins. You are the only one who can finish this.”
Before she could argue, the roof of the train car buckled inward with a deafening metallic screech. A breaching charge blew the emergency door off the end of the carriage, showering the corridor in blinding smoke and white sparks.
Julian shoved her out the exterior window onto the snow bank below. “Run, Elena! Titan, go with her! Protect!”
Elena hit the freezing snow shoulder-first, tumbling down the embankment into the icy shadows of the pine trees. Titan hit the snow beside her, instantly shielding her body with his own.
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Above on the tracks, the roar of Julian’s pistol echoed through the mountain air, answered by the deafening chatter of full-automatic rifles tearing through the steel carriage.
Elena swallowed the scream in her throat, tears freezing on her cheeks as she scrambled to her feet and plunged into the dark, snow-covered forest toward the lights of the Swiss border.
