Chapter 20 - The Unseen Horizon
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Before Genevieve could react, I slammed my thumb down on the red button.
A high-pitched acoustic screech blasted from the drive, short-circuiting the night-vision goggles and tactical headsets worn by Genevieve’s guards. The white-suited men dropped their weapons, clutching their ears in agony as the painful frequency echoed through the enclosed space.
In that split second of chaos, Sal swept the leg of the guard standing over him, grabbed his dropped sidearm, and fired three rapid shots, taking down two of the disoriented operatives.
"Run, Victoria!" Sal screamed.
I turned and yanked the emergency hatch open, diving into the dark escape tunnel just as Genevieve fired her silver pistol. The round pinged loudly off the iron hatch frame inches from my head.
I slammed the hatch shut from the inside, locking the manual bolt, and sprinted down the narrow underground corridor as distant alarms blared behind me.
Ten minutes later, I burst out through a hidden hillside grate into the blinding white snow of the Vermont forest, panted heavily, my boots sinking into the deep drift.
The storm was raging now, howling through the pines, covering my tracks instantly.
I pulled the hourglass drive from my pocket. It was still intact, its blue light pulsing steadily in the snowstorm.
Suddenly, my burner phone in my coat pocket vibrated.
I pulled it out with trembling, freezing fingers. A new text message had just arrived from an encrypted satellite connection:
May you like
WE SEE YOU, VICTORIA. THE GAME HAS JUST BEGUN.
I stood alone on the snow-covered mountain, surrounded by the swirling white abyss, looking down at the drive that held the fate of the world in my hands. I was no longer the broken woman lying on the concrete floor of a Greenwich basement. I was Victoria Vance—and the hunter had officially become the prey.
