Chapter 6 - Crossing the Line
The drive to the Canadian border was a white-knuckle nightmare. Every police cruiser, every dark SUV felt like a target painted on our backs. I had altered my appearance—shaved my head, grew a thick stubble, and gave Leo a baseball cap and dark sunglasses.
We crossed the border at a remote checkpoint in Vermont. The guard barely glanced at the passports I had purchased from a shadowy contact of Marcus’s. We were in.
The weather turned hostile as we pushed into Quebec, a brutal snowstorm blowing in from the north. The whiteout conditions were terrifying, but they were also the perfect cover.
“Dad, who are we running from?” Leo asked quietly, staring out at the driving snow.
“A very bad woman,” I said, keeping my eyes on the icy road. I couldn't tell him it was his mother. It would break his mind. “But we’re going to stop her.”
According to the blueprints on the USB, Elena’s compound was located deep in the Laurentian Mountains, disguised as a private corporate retreat. It was fifty miles from civilization.
We rented a cabin ten miles from the target zone. I bought winter gear, climbing ropes, and a high-powered hunting rifle from a local outfitter. I wasn’t a killer, but I was a father protecting his cub.
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That night, as the wind howled outside, I reviewed the compound's security grid. It was state-of-the-art, but Elena had a fatal flaw: arrogance. She had kept the master override codes in the very encrypted folder she had hidden in our house. She never thought I would find it. She never thought I was smart enough.
Tomorrow, I would show my dead wife just how much I had learned.
