Purgatory, West Virginia
April 5
Finn stood in the bedroom of the Gingerbread House and prepared. He was Charlotte’s only hope, their child’s only hope. Whatever the cost, he was going to save her. After grabbing the bare essentials from his go-bag—multitool, canteen, protein bars, and weapons, he holstered the Sig at his side and the smaller Glock in his boot. The K-Bar knife went in the sheath at his waist.
With a handle on the doorknob, Finn turned back to the room. He looked at the headboard. The maiden was tangled in vines; creatures hid among the foliage peering out, fearful. The knight, sword in hand, attacked the dragon. Stepping closer, Finn squinted, noticing for the first time a demon hiding in the trees. With small horns on his head and an evil face, the creature held a bow and arrow in clawed hands, aiming for the knight. Finn returned his gaze to the maiden, her flowing hair and tattered gown winding around her body as she fought her way forward.
I’m coming, Charlotte.
With a final check of his supplies and the tracker on his phone engaged, Finn walked out the door.
Finn followed the signal on the locator through the woods, mindful of any traps that might be hidden. The last thing he wanted was to need a rescue himself when Charlotte was in the clutches of a psychopath. He reminded himself to slow his pace. As much as Finn wanted to move at a flat-out run, he needed to exercise restraint. Exhausting himself wouldn’t help his girl.
Two hours and twenty kilometers later, the beacon on his phone hovered over the spot where a car was hidden in the trees. Cautiously, he moved around the area. A dirt road turned into a little-used hiking trail. This was no decoy. Charlotte had somehow managed to leave this breadcrumb.
Finn continued on, following the closest thing to a trail he could see. Twenty minutes later, he came to a stop. Two distinct paths split off from where he stood. One, untraveled and overgrown, went down into a sheltered valley; the other climbed into the foothills. He started up the trail.
The path of least resistance isn’t always the right path. Sometimes a rough road gets you to the right place.
May’s advice echoed in Finn’s ears, and he hesitated. His skin prickled, and Finn scanned his surroundings. The high ground would be faster. There was no visible threat. It wasn’t like Samir Vogel had sharpshooters waiting to pick him off in the forest.
He took the descending trail.
Charlotte awoke on a tattered couch, turned her head to the side, and threw up on the floor.
“Disgusting.”
“Samir,” Charlotte croaked. She stood and realized she was shackled to a long chain attached to a plate in the floor at the center of the room.
“Ah, you remember. I go by Milo Graves now. New life, new name.”
Charlotte looked around. They were in a small hunting cabin, rundown but not untidy. The front room was an undivided space with a seating area, kitchenette, and a small dining table that currently held a state-of-the-art laptop. Through the window, she could see a raised porch with steps leading down to a field.
A kitchen towel hit her in the face. “Clean that up.”
Ignoring Samir’s command, she stood. “What are you doing?”
“I am establishing once and for all that I am the superior intellect—and punishing you for your deception. I’m going to give you a taste of what I endured, Charlotte Devlin.”
“What deception?” she cried.
“Your boyfriend was with Naval Intelligence before he became a SEAL. He had first-hand knowledge of my new security software. You brought the fucking answer key to the test!” he shouted.
“He didn’t help me. He never shared inside information. I figured it out on my own,” Charlotte defended.
“Bullshit. And now the two of you, well,” he tipped his head to her middle, “the three of you are going to suffer. Death will come with the unshakable knowledge that you were beaten by the smarter man.
Twitch covered her mouth with both hands in horror.
“Please do not vomit again,” Samir barked.
Twitch choked on her tears.
“Do you remember the premise of my security system from the hacking competition?”
“Of course, I do. The virtual minefield. Hackers would penetrate one level of security, then hit a trap, and the system would lock.”
“No! Not lock, you idiot. That was the genius of it. The firewall would deconstruct and rebuild. Expelling the hacker and eliminating whatever path had been used to breach the system. If the programmer stepped on a virtual mine, they got blown up.”