Chapter 7 - The Frozen Chase Through the Pine Forest
The sub-zero wind whipped stinging ice crystals directly into my face, blinding me instantly as I charged into the dense thicket of pine trees behind the cabin.
Ten yards ahead of me, the dark silhouette of Vance’s fleeing enforcer thrashed through knee-deep snowdrifts, clutching the black metal hard drive box tightly against his tactical vest.
"Stop right there!" I roared, my voice swallowed instantly by the roaring gale.
The man didn't look back; he scrambled over a fallen oak log and tumbled heavily into a frozen ravine, sliding down the icy slope before scrambling back to his feet with desperate energy.
I leaped over the log, my boots losing traction on the slick ice, sending me crashing hard into a snowbank.
The impact knocked the wind out of my lungs, a sharp spike of pain shooting up my right shoulder where an old street-fighting injury from my youth flared up instantly.
Get up, I told myself, tasting copper in my mouth as the freezing air burned my throat. Get up or you lose everything.
I hauled myself out of the snowbank, raising the Glock with both hands as I reached the edge of the ravine.
Down below, the enforcer was struggling to cross a partially frozen creek, the thin sheet of surface ice cracking ominously beneath his heavy boots with every step.
"Drop the box!" I shouted, aiming my weapon directly at the ice beneath his feet.
The man turned around, a frantic, desperate grin twisting his frostbitten face as he raised his own pistol toward my chest.
"If I go down, Carter, your whole damn empire goes down with me!" he screamed over the wind.
He didn't fire.
Instead, he raised his boot and stomped down hard on the brittle center of the frozen creek.
The ice shattered with a loud, hollow crack, and the freezing water swallowed him waist-deep in a violent splash, the heavy hard-drive case slipping from his numb fingers and sinking instantly beneath the dark, churning current.
"Damn it!" I cursed aloud, sliding down the snowy embankment to the edge of the creek.
I reached out with a sturdy tree branch, grabbing the collar of his tactical vest just as the freezing current threatened to pull him under the shelf of thick ice.
With a grunt of pure adrenaline-fueled effort, I hauled the shivering, half-frozen man out of the water and slammed him against the frozen tree trunk, pressing the barrel of my gun firmly under his chin.
"Where are the physical backups?" I demanded, water freezing instantly on my jacket sleeves.
"There... there aren't any others," the man gasped, his teeth chattering uncontrollably as hypothermia set in. "Vance... Vance kept everything on the cloud server synced to an encrypted terminal in downtown Chicago."
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I lowered the gun slightly, realizing with a grim sense of irony that the physical drives were now resting at the bottom of a Wisconsin creek, meaning Marcus Vance no longer held the smoking gun he needed to destroy my corporate infrastructure.
"Michael!" I yelled toward the ridge above, knowing my security chief was within earshot. "Bring the SUV down the logging trail! We have a passenger who needs a very cold ride back to Chicago!"
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