Chapter 4 - The Fugitive
I stared at the glowing screen of my phone in absolute disbelief.
Captain Miller had been my mentor since my first day at the naval academy.
"Sir, you cannot possibly believe I committed treason," I pleaded.
"Vanguard Aerospace just filed a report claiming you stole classified weapon schematics," Miller said coldly.
"They provided video evidence of you assaulting their chief executive officer at a family dinner."
Chase had spun the narrative before I even made it out of the driveway.
He was using his massive defense contracts to manipulate the highest levels of the military.
"I have Evan's laptop, and it proves Vanguard sold defective turbines," I insisted.
"Turn yourself in, Lauren, and we will sort this out in a courtroom," Miller ordered.
I heard the faint clicking sound of a digital trace initiating on the phone line.
My own commanding officer was actively tracking my cellular signal.
"I will not surrender to a firing squad, sir," I whispered.
I crushed the phone beneath my boot and threw the broken pieces into the raging ocean below.
I was completely entirely on my own.
I tightened the straps of the laptop bag and began hiking through the dense Virginia woods.
I relied heavily on the survival and evasion tactics I had taught to young pilots for years.
I moved only under the cover of dense foliage and masked my footprints in the muddy streams.
By dawn, I reached a small, abandoned hunting cabin miles away from the crash site.
I broke a side window and climbed inside to find a safe place to open the laptop.
The battery was critically low, giving me only a few minutes to find the evidence I needed.
I bypassed Evan's weak password using a standard decryption protocol.
I opened the primary folder labeled with the Vanguard Aerospace logo.
Rows of shipping manifests and quality control reports filled the screen.
I found the exact document proving the turbines were manufactured with cheap, substandard alloys.
But the real shock came when I scrolled down to the authorization signatures.
Chase had not approved the final shipment of the defective parts alone.
The military liaison who signed off on the catastrophic safety inspection was Captain Miller.
My commanding officer was deeply involved in the corporate treason.
I quickly downloaded the files onto a small flash drive from my wallet just as the laptop died.
A sudden, sharp snapping sound echoed from the woods outside the cabin.
I peeked through the dirty window and saw a laser sight sweep across the wooden porch.
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The mercenaries had not believed that I died in the car crash.
They were systematically sweeping the forest, and they had just found my hiding spot.
