Chapter 14 - Ash and Dawn
The morning sun began to pierce through the heavy hemlock canopy, casting long, golden fingers of light through the thick grey smoke lingering over the ruined forestry depot. The Black Hawk had vanished over the eastern ridge, leaving behind only the distant, retreating hum of its engines.
Marcus worked with furious, systematic speed. He dragged the three unconscious operators away from the burning shed, laying them in the damp brush near the road where local emergency responders would find them. He retrieved the tactical tablet from the shed, wiped the hardware memory completely with a high-intensity degaussing magnet from the team leader's kit, and destroyed the casing with a sledgehammer from the tool bench.
Sarah stood by the station wagon, holding Lily against her shoulder. The little girl had finally fallen back into an exhausted, deep sleep, her face tucked into the crook of her mother’s neck, unaware of the blood, fire, and shattered metal that surrounded them.
Marcus walked over to them, his uniform charred, his face streaked with soot and sweat. He looked at his wife—not the gentle woman he had left behind ten months ago, but a woman who had pulled a trigger to defend their lives without a second of hesitation.
""The car can make another hundred miles before the transmission gives out,"" Marcus said quietly. ""We need to abandon it at the state line and switch to commercial transit under new identifications.""
""Who gives us new identifications?"" Sarah asked, her voice hollowed by shock as the adrenaline slowly drained from her system.
""Miller had contacts in the Northern Border network,"" Marcus answered. ""People who help intelligence assets disappear when the state decides they’re inconvenient. We have twelve hours before the Pentagon damage control teams realize the leak can't be contained by force.""
""And Clara Vance?"" Sarah asked, tears finally welling in her eyes as she looked down at the bloodstains on Marcus’s sleeves. ""What happens to her?""
""The documents prove Miller was murdered by state contractors,"" Marcus said, his jaw tightening. ""His name will be cleared. Her pension will be restored, and the men who signed that order will spend the rest of their lives in front of closed congressional tribunals. Miller won. He just didn't get to see the end of the war.""
Sarah looked at the burning shed, then up at Marcus’s scarred face. She reached out with her free hand, intertwining her fingers with his calloused, trembling ones.
May you like
""Let's go,"" she said softly. ""Before the sirens get here.""
Marcus turned the key in the station wagon’s ignition. The engine sputtered, caught, and rolled out of the burning clearing, leaving the ashes of their former lives behind in the rearview mirror.
