Chapter 7 - Blood in the Snow
The sound of crunching gravel grew closer as the trucks halted near the clearing.
Four men stepped out, dressed in tactical gear with unmarked black vests. They weren’t police officers. There were no badges, no flashing lights. They carried zip-ties, tasers, and silenced handguns.
Contractors. The kind Julian used to silence whistleblowers.
I stood on the wide wooden porch of the cabin, an unlit cigarette between my lips, hands resting casually in my jacket pockets.
The lead contractor, a scarred man with a buzz cut, stepped forward. "Eleanor Vance?"
"You're trespassing on federal trust land," I said calmly. "Turn around, get back in your trucks, and maybe you won't spend the next twenty years in a federal penitentiary."
The man smiled, an ugly sneer. "Dr. Thorne wants his wife back. And he told us... you're non-essential cargo. Accidents happen in these woods all the time."
He reached for his hip.
Before his fingers touched the holster, a deafening crack shattered the silence.
The snow right between the man's boots exploded.
From the tree line fifty yards away, three heavily armed men in full tactical gear emerged, assault rifles raised and aimed directly at the contractors.
Marcus stepped out from the cabin doorway, holding a federal search warrant high above his head.
"Federal Bureau of Investigation! Drop your weapons and get on your knees!" Marcus bellowed.
The contractors froze. The lead man looked at me, stunned. "What is this?"
"Did you really think we ran here to hide?" I asked, pulling my hands from my pockets. "We ran here to draw Julian's private hit squad out of the hospital's jurisdiction. Every single text, wire transfer, and order Julian sent to your encrypted devices was mirrored to a federal server an hour ago."
The contractors slowly raised their hands, dropping their weapons into the snow as federal agents swept in, zip-tying their wrists and disarming them.
May you like
I walked up to the lead contractor, kneeling down until I was eye-to-eye with him. "Tell Julian that Eleanor says hello. And tell him... I'm coming to his hospital tomorrow morning."
***
