Chapter 5 - Fire on the Frozen Lake“Fire! Open fire!” Arthur screamed, stumbling backward into his armored vehicle as snow and debris rained down on his men.
Mercenaries began shooting wildly into the thick wall of smoke, but Mara was already gone.
She sprinted around the back of the cabin, where Gabriel was waiting with Luca wrapped tightly against his chest.
“Go! To the lake!” Gabriel shouted over the roar of gunfire tearing through the cedar cabin behind them.
They ran toward the edge of Pine Lake. The surface was a five-mile expanse of thick blue ice covered in three inches of hard snow. Half a mile across the ice, perched on a high rocky bluff, stood the Forestry Guard satellite tower—their only chance to broadcast the drive to the federal authorities.
Behind them, the sound of snow-cat engines roared to life as Arthur’s mercenaries realized the trick and began pursuing them onto the ice.
“They’re coming!” Luca cried, looking over Gabriel’s shoulder.
Two heavy snow-cats and three snowmobiles burst onto the frozen lake, their mounted heavy machine guns spraying bullets across the snow, kicking up plumes of ice.
“Keep moving!” Mara yelled.
She stopped on a high ridge of pressure ice, turned around, and dropped to one knee.
She took careful aim with her shotgun, targeting a exposed fuel line on the lead snowmobile charging across the slick surface.
BOOM!
The slug struck the snowmobile’s engine block. The vehicle spun out of control on the slick ice, flipping violently into the path of the heavy snow-cat behind it.
The snow-cat slammed into the wreckage, its heavy steel treads crushing the snowmobile and causing a massive explosion that tore a massive hole through the five-inch ice sheet!
Water and shattered ice erupted fifty feet into the air. The heavy snow-cat plummeted into the freezing black depths of Pine Lake, dragging four mercenaries down with it!
“Keep going!” Gabriel urged, pulling Mara up as they sprinted the final two hundred yards toward the base of the Forestry Guard bluff.
They reached the steel access ladder leading up the rocky cliff. Gabriel lifted Luca onto the platform first, then helped Mara scramble up the ice-covered ladder as bullets whined off the granite rocks around them.
Inside the automated Forestry Guard station, Gabriel slammed the heavy steel door shut, sliding the emergency deadbolts into place.
While Mara kept watch at the narrow gunports, Gabriel rushed to the satellite control console. His hands flew across the glowing terminal keyboard, bypassing the station’s security codes using his master defense clearance.
He inserted the glowing blue hard drive into the main uplink port.
A red progress bar appeared on the large monitor:
UPLINK INITIATED: TRANSMITTING TO FEDERAL SPECIAL PROSECUTOR / FBI NATIONAL COMMAND / MEDIA CONGLOMERATE NETWORK
0% ... 15% ... 32% ...
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The heavy steel door of the station shuddered under the violent impact of a heavy breaching ram outside.
Through the reinforced viewing glass, Arthur Vance stood surrounded by his ten remaining elite bodyguards, his face twisted in psychotic fury.
“Breach the door!” Arthur roared. “Kill them all! Destroy the terminal!”
54% ... 71% ...
The steel door frame began to buckle inward. Mercenaries thrust submachine gun barrels through the gap, firing wildly into the room.
Mara stood in front of Gabriel and Luca, firing her final shotgun rounds through the doorway, holding the line with fierce, unstoppable courage.
“Gabriel! How much longer?!” she shouted over the deafening noise.
88% ... 95% ...
“Just five seconds!” Gabriel yelled back, shielding Luca with his body.
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100% — TRANSMISSION COMPLETE. FILE BROADCAST GLOBALLY.
At that exact second, the sky above Pine Lake exploded with a sound like tearing thunder.
