Chapter 4 - Flight into the Fog
The violent surge of current blew the room's secondary circuit, plunging the master suite into pitch darkness save for the sputtering orange shower of sparks. The two security guards shrieked as several thousand volts surged through their heavy-soled combat gear, throwing them violently backward against the shattered entryway.
Evelyn stumbled back, the pistol discharging with a deafening crack. The bullet tore through the ceiling plaster, showering the room in white powder.
""Elena! Go!"" Ethan shouted, coughing through the sudden plume of electrical smoke.
Elena didn't waste a second. She reached down, hauling Ethan off the mattress and onto a low-profile wheeled transport chair stored beside his wardrobe. Kicking the bedroom's private terrace doors open, she pushed him out into the freezing midnight air.
A wrought-iron spiral staircase descended toward the lower gardens, completely inaccessible to wheels.
""Leave me here!"" Ethan hissed, clutching her arm. ""You have the ledger! Run to the authorities!""
""Shut up and hold on to my neck,"" Elena growled.
Using the heavy nylon lifting harness strapped around his torso, Elena leveraged his weight against her back, bending her knees and groaning under the sheer, brutal strain. Step by agonized step, she carried him down the freezing metal spiral, the icy rain slicking the iron rungs beneath her worn sneakers. Her muscles screamed; the bitter wind tore the breath from her throat.
Behind them, Evelyn’s voice pierced the storm from the shattered terrace above. ""Kill them! Find them in the grounds and bury them!""
Elena hit the sodden grass of the estate gardens, collapsing onto her knees under Ethan’s weight. Mud soaked through her scrubs.
""Through the hedges... the old greenhouse wall,"" Ethan breathed, his lips against her ear, pointing toward a crumbling stone archway overrun with ivy. ""There’s a utility gate that leads to the service lane.""
Elena dragged him to his feet, letting him lean heavily across her shoulders. Together, a bruised specter and a relentless guardian, they stumbled through the thorn bushes, brambles tearing at their skin and clothes.
They burst through the rotted wooden gate into the unlit service alley just as the wail of private security sirens echoed through the Sterling valley. Parked beneath a flickering amber streetlamp was Elena’s battered ten-year-old hatchback.
She threw Ethan into the passenger seat, slammed the door, and vaulted behind the wheel. She keyed the ignition; the engine sputtered, protested, and finally roared to life. Tires screeching against wet asphalt, she tore away from the mansion just as two black SUVs swung around the estate gates, their high beams pinning her rear windshield in blinding white light.
Elena glanced in the rearview mirror, her eyes hard. Beside her, Ethan slumped against the headrest, clutching the leather ledger against his chest.
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""Where can we go?"" Ethan murmured, staring into the dark country highway ahead. ""She has tracking monitors on the city grid. The hospitals, the police precincts—they’re all compromised.""
Elena shifted into fifth gear, pressing the gas pedal to the floorboards. ""We aren't going to a hospital. We're going to the one place Evelyn's money has no value.""
