Chapter 76 - The Black Forest Perimeter
We crossed into Germany under cover of a dense alpine front that draped the dense pines of the Black Forest in sheets of freezing sleet. The vehicle was abandoned three miles from the outer geofence of the Croft stronghold—a sprawling nineteenth-century citadel constructed of jagged granite, perched atop a sheer cliff overlooking the Kinzig valley.
Marcus adjusted the night-vision optics on his suppressed rifle, peering through the tree line at the perimeter.
"Thermal sweeps every ninety seconds," Marcus muttered, lying prone in the wet pine needles beside me. "Patrol dogs on the northern fence. Microwave motion detectors across the entire clear-cut zone. This isn't an estate, Emily. It’s an apex redoubt. A single false step, and automated automated mini-guns will cut us in half before we hit the perimeter ditch."
"Look at the south courtyard," I said, pointing through my binoculars.
Through the rain, a motorcade of armored Mercedes limousines was idling under the portico. Men in dark overcoats and tactical plate carriers were loading heavy aluminum flight cases into the trunks.
"They're moving," Marcus observed, zooming his scope. "The system crash Vance initiated is forcing their hand. The financial world is tearing itself apart looking for the master keys. Julian Croft knows international authorities are closing in on his shadow accounts. He’s liquidating."
"And Eleanor?"
Marcus adjusted his focus to the upper parapet of the fortress, where an iron-barred window overlooked the courtyard. Inside the dimly lit chamber, a lone silhouette sat slumped in a wooden chair, bound by wrists and ankles.
Eleanor.
Even from three hundred yards away, through the crosshairs of a sniper scope, her posture was unmistakable. The cold, proud matriarch who had sat at the head of our Thanksgiving table, sneering as her husband ground my face into the floor, was now stripped of her designer knitwear, dressed in a faded gray smock, looking completely hollowed out.
"They haven't killed her yet," I murmured.
"Because she hasn't given up where she hid the decryption cipher," Marcus replied. "Julian knows Eleanor wouldn't have kept the cipher on her person. He knows she left it with you."
"She didn't leave it with me," I said, a bitter laugh escaping my throat. "She left me with nothing but medical bills, broken bones, and a mountain of Arthur's debt."
"No, Emily," Marcus said softly, turning to look at me in the shadows. "She left it *in* you. The retinal scan Madame Vaneau mentioned. You *are* the safe."
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A heavy siren suddenly cut through the mountain air, wailing with a deafening, mechanical roar. Across the courtyard, the guards scrambled, drawing sidearms as the high-voltage perimeter lights flooded the forest in searing white glare.
"They found the Volvo," Marcus cursed, chambering a round. "Movement on our six! We breach now, or we die in these trees!"
