Chapter 18 - Unholy Alliances
"She’s declaring me dead?" Hannah’s voice cracked in pure disbelief. "She’s telling the world her own daughter was murdered by her other daughter?"
"It’s the ultimate cover story," I growled, pressing my foot harder against the accelerator. The truck surged forward, tires biting into the slick mountain curves. "If you're declared dead and I'm classified as an armed, dangerous fugitive who slaughtered her own family, any federal agency will shoot on sight. No trial. No testimony. No questions about the ridge."
The sinister elegance of my mother’s final gambit was chilling. Evelyn Sinclair-Vance was a monster wrapped in cashmere and pearl necklaces. She had spent decades cultivating the image of the grieving, long-suffering matriarch whose eldest daughter was a disgraced criminal. Now, to permanently bury the Aegis Ridge scandal, she was willing to burn down the entire family tree.
Thirty minutes later, the towering silhouette of the decommissioned Blackwood Peak radar station loomed against the stormy sky. A chain-link perimeter topped with razor wire guarded the entrance, but the main gate hung wide open, its heavy padlock severed with hydraulic shears.
I killed the engine and coasted into the shadows beneath the massive concrete radar dish.
"Stay low, weapon ready," I instructed Hannah, handing her a spare 9mm pistol and checking the magazine myself. "If anyone comes within five yards of this truck who isn't wearing a CID badge, you pull the trigger."
"Understood," she nodded, her knuckles white around the grip.
I stepped out into the swirling mist, weapon drawn, sweeping the damp tarmac.
From the shadows of the old command bunker, three figures emerged. The lead man stepped into the faint moonlight, raising both hands empty.
"Sergeant Vance," Captain Alvarez called out, his deep voice cutting through the wind. Beside him stood a tall woman in a dark windbreaker emblazoned with bright yellow letters: *U.S. MARSHALS.*
"Alvarez," I said, lowering my weapon slightly but keeping my stance braced. "You're late."
"We had to scrape through three layers of local police roadblocks," the female Marshal said, stepping forward. Her badge glinted under the moon: *Senior Inspector Diane Cross.* "The county sheriff put a citywide dragnet on you. Every corrupt deputy on Evelyn Vance’s payroll is hunting your vehicle."
"We have the full data core," I said, pulling the encrypted drive from my pocket. "Aegis Ridge, thirty years of EPA violations, six hundred metric tons of neurotoxic chemical waste, and the wire transfers proving my mother manufactured the fraudulent court records that erased my identity."
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Inspector Cross took the drive, her jaw clenching as she glanced at Alvarez. "This isn't just local corruption, Vance. This goes straight to the state supreme court and the regional director of the EPA. Your mother has judges, congressmen, and federal regulators in her pocket."
"Then we don't hand it to the courts," I said coldly. "We broadcast it to every living human on this continent."