Chapter 6 - The Burner Phone
The toxic green gas burned Norah's eyes instantly, forcing her to drop to her knees coughing.
"It is a neurotoxin," Dominic gasped, pulling his shirt up over his nose and mouth.
He grabbed Norah’s hand and dragged her toward the only window in the small cabin.
He picked up a heavy cast-iron fireplace poker and smashed it violently against the reinforced glass.
The glass spider-webbed but refused to shatter entirely.
"We have less than two minutes before our lungs shut down," Norah choked out, her vision blurring at the edges.
Dominic ignored the agonizing pain in his freshly sutured chest and swung the iron poker again with savage force.
The glass finally shattered, letting in a massive rush of freezing mountain air.
Dominic practically threw Norah through the broken window, following closely behind as they tumbled into the snow.
They laid on the freezing ground for several minutes, gasping desperately for clean oxygen.
"Simon sold us out to the Tarasovs," Dominic growled, pushing himself up to a kneeling position.
"He locked us in to die quietly so he wouldn't have to risk a gunfight."
Norah shivered violently in the cold, realizing how incredibly close she had just come to a terrifying death.
"We need to find a vehicle, we are miles away from civilization," she said, her teeth chattering.
Dominic scanned the dark tree line, his sharp eyes catching a faint reflection of moonlight on metal.
"Simon didn't walk out of these woods, he had a secondary vehicle waiting," Dominic noted.
They crept silently through the snow, finding Simon sitting in the driver's seat of an old pickup truck, waiting for the smoke to clear.
Dominic moved like a lethal shadow, ripping the driver's side door open before the traitor could react.
He pulled Simon out by his jacket and slammed him brutally into the side of the truck.
Simon reached for a weapon, but Dominic delivered a devastating blow to the man's throat, ending the fight instantly.
Dominic searched Simon's pockets, pulling out a cheap, plastic burner phone.
"Let's see who ordered our execution," Dominic said, pulling up the call history.
He dialed the most recent number on the screen and put the phone on speaker.
The line clicked open, and a familiar, exhausted voice spoke on the other end.
May you like
"Is it done, Simon?" Liam asked.
Norah covered her mouth to stifle a sob, her heart completely breaking as the truth was finally undeniable.
