Chapter 13 - SARAH CAME TO TOWN AND WALKED STRAIGHT INTO THE TRAP
“Jack!”
I ran toward the sound.
Rex was faster.
We climbed a gravel slope behind the crusher building and found Sarah on her knees beside an old service road.
Her hands were zip-tied.
Blood covered one sleeve.
I dropped beside her.
“Where are you hurt?”
“Not mine.”
She leaned into me, shaking.
For one second, the entire world shrank to the feeling of her forehead against my chest.
Then she pulled back.
“You have to listen.”
“Who brought you here?”
“No one. I came.”
I stared at her.
“You came after someone broke into our house?”
“They wanted the envelope, Jack.”
“What was in it?”
“That’s why I came.”
She looked at Cole, Mia, and Lauren.
“Not here.”
A shot cracked from the ridge.
Rex barked.
We dropped.
Another round struck the dirt.
“Move!”
We slid behind the gravel pile.
Sarah took something from inside her jacket.
A small waterproof memory card.
“I switched it.”
“What?”
“The envelope. Years ago.”
My anger flashed.
“You opened it?”
“You told me to open it if you died. After your nightmares got worse, I decided I wasn’t waiting for a funeral to learn what could get you killed.”
Fair.
I didn’t like it.
But fair.
“What’s on the card?”
“I don’t know. I copied it before they took the original.”
Cole nodded toward the road.
“We need to get off this hill.”
We moved back toward the vehicles.
Rex suddenly stopped.
His nose lifted.
Then he turned—not toward the shooter.
Toward our truck.
He sat.
Explosive alert.
“Back!”
We ran.
The SUV detonated three seconds later.
Heat punched my back.
The blast rolled the vehicle onto its side.
Sarah screamed.
Everyone was alive.
That was enough.
Cole looked at me through the smoke.
“Now what?”
I held up the memory card.
“We find a computer that isn’t connected to this town.”
Mia pointed toward the south highway.
“My uncle has a repair shop two miles out. Old machines. No internet.”
We reached the shop at 2:06 a.m.
Sarah inserted the card into a dusty desktop.
Folders appeared.
Mission logs.
Cargo manifests.
Names.
Then one video file.
Eli’s name.
I clicked it.
The screen showed Eli sitting in a concrete room eight years ago.
Alive.
He looked into the camera.
“If Jack sees this,” he said, “Colonel Mercer already knows the cover story failed.”
Then he leaned forward.
“Jack, you need to understand something. I wasn’t the man they were trying to kill that night.”
He swallowed.
“You were.”
May you like
--- If you enjoyed the story, bookmark my site: https://vibe.treeiq.biz New stories are posted daily, so check back for updates.
Related Stories
