Chương 7
“Someone found the road.”
Elias looked at the damaged door.
Then at Mara.
“You need to decide something.”
Mara almost laughed.
“Another decision I don’t get to make?”
“This one is yours.”
The words stopped her.
Elias continued.
“If you stay here, you wait for people who already know where you are.”
“And if I leave?”
“You become the person everyone is looking for.”
Mara looked down at the badge in her hand.
Evan Calder.
A dead man’s name.
A dead man’s evidence.
A trail that had somehow led three strangers into the same forest.
Outside, headlights moved through the trees.
Not one vehicle.
Two.
Grant picked up his backpack.
“Mara.”
She looked at him.
“Where?”
He nodded toward the back exit.
“Somewhere Daniel won’t find you.”
The answer bothered her.
Because it meant Grant still believed Daniel was a threat.
And after everything that happened, she was no longer sure he was wrong.
Mara took the badge.
Then she looked once more at the radio.
The last thing Daniel had tried to tell her remained unfinished.
Don’t trust—
She still did not know who he meant.
But now she had a reason to find out.
But now she had a reason to find out.
The back door of the ranger station opened into a narrow path covered with wet leaves and old pine needles.
Grant moved first.
Not quickly.
Carefully.
Mara followed several steps behind him, one hand pressed against her injured shoulder.
Elias came last.
She noticed that.
She noticed everything.
Not because she wanted to.
Because every person around her had become a question she could not answer.
Grant had saved her life, but he had hidden information.
Elias knew about Daniel, Calder, and the list, but he appeared whenever the truth became too dangerous.
Daniel had lied to her for weeks and then pushed her from a helicopter.
Or maybe he had not.
That was the part she hated.
The uncertainty.
If Daniel had simply betrayed her, she could have survived the pain.
What she could not handle was the possibility that she still did not understand him.
They moved through the trees as the headlights approached the station.
Mara looked back once.
The small building disappeared behind the rain.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Grant did not stop walking.
“There’s an old service road.”
“That’s not a destination.”
“It’s a way out.”
“From what?”
Grant glanced over his shoulder.
“Everyone.”
Mara almost said something sarcastic.
Almost.
Instead, she kept moving.
The forest floor shifted beneath her boots.
Her body was beginning to remind her that adrenaline had limits.
Every step sent pain through her shoulder.
She ignored it.
Ignoring pain was not the same as defeating it.
She knew that better than anyone.
After the bridge collapse, doctors told her recovery would depend on patience.
She hated that word.
Patience sounded passive.
Like waiting.
But recovery had taught her something she never learned from investigations.
Sometimes survival was not about forcing yourself forward.
Sometimes it was about knowing when to slow down.
A branch moved ahead.
Grant stopped.
Elias raised a hand.
Mara froze.
For several seconds, there was only rain.
Then a flashlight beam crossed between the trees.
Someone was searching.
Not rushing.
Not panicking.
Organized.
Grant lowered his voice.
“They’re not looking for the station.”
Mara looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Because they already know we left.”
That answer bothered her.
“How?”
Elias spoke quietly.
“The radio.”
Mara looked back toward the station.
“The transmission.”
“Yes.”
“Who sent it?”
Neither man answered.
She stopped walking.
“No.”
Grant turned.
“Mara.”
“No more.”
Her voice was sharper than she intended.
But she was tired of being moved through other people’s plans.
“No more half answers.”
The men looked at her.
She continued.
“I fell out of a helicopter because people kept deciding what I could handle.”
Her eyes moved between them.
“I’m not walking into another situation where everyone knows the rules except me.”
Rain ran down her face.
She did not wipe it away.
“Tell me what’s happening.”
Grant looked at Elias.
A silent argument passed between them.
Finally, Elias spoke.
“Daniel was investigating Northline before you were.”
Mara frowned.
“What?”
“He was not just consulting for them.”
Grant looked away.
“He was watching them.”
“Why?”
“Because he realized the accident reports were connected.”
“To what?”
Elias hesitated.
That hesitation almost made her leave.
Then he said, “To each other.”
Mara waited.
“That’s not enough.”
Elias nodded.
“No, it isn’t.”
He looked toward the distant lights.
“But it’s where we start.”
They moved again.
This time faster.
The service road appeared after several minutes.
An old dirt trail cut through the forest.
A vehicle sat hidden beneath a tarp.
Mara stopped.
“You have a car.”
Grant removed the tarp.
“I have access to one.”
“That’s a very careful way to say that.”
“It’s accurate.”
The vehicle was old.
A dark green utility truck with scratches along the doors.
Nothing about it looked suspicious.
That almost made it more suspicious.
Mara looked at Elias.
“Whose is it?”
“Mine.”
“Do you own anything that doesn’t come with an explanation?”
Elias gave a tired smile.
“Not anymore.”
Grant opened the passenger door.
“Mara.”
She did not move.
“What happened to Daniel?”
The question changed his expression.
Grant looked down.
“I don’t know.”
“You were following him.”
“Yes.”
“You were near the crash.”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t know?”
“No.”
Mara studied him.
There was frustration there.
Real frustration.
Not the controlled kind Daniel used when he wanted her to stop asking questions.
Grant looked like a man who had lost something he was not prepared to lose.
“The helicopter did not go down where it should have.”
Mara felt a chill.
“What does that mean?”
“It means the failure happened after someone altered the route.”
“Daniel altered it?”
Grant shook his head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
He looked toward the forest.
“The person who knew we would be there.”
May you like
The sentence sat with her.
Someone knew.
