Chapter 22 - The Winter Sanctuary
Two days later, they reached the sanctuary. It was a massive, isolated log cabin nestled deep within the snow-drenched pine forests of British Columbia. Daniel’s father, a paranoid billionaire, had built it as a doomsday retreat, but Daniel had quietly transferred the deed to a shell company years ago.
The cabin was entirely off the grid. It ran on geothermal power, possessed a satellite uplink heavily masked by VPNs, and had a subterranean pantry stocked with two years' worth of freeze-dried food and medical supplies.
Valeria collapsed onto the plush leather sofa in the center of the living room, watching the snow fall heavily outside the reinforced, bulletproof glass windows.
"We made it," she whispered, the sheer adrenaline of the past week finally leaving her body, replaced by a bone-deep exhaustion.
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Daniel walked over, draping a thick woolen blanket over her shoulders. "We made it. Vanguard doesn't know this place exists. The shell company is registered to a dead man in Cyprus."
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Valeria closed her eyes and slept without fear.
