Chapter 4
The argument between Maya and Julianne was cut dead in its tracks by a violent, metallic crunch from outside the cabin walls.
A split second later, a brilliant blue spark flashed outside the frosted windows, followed by a muffled explosion that shook the log foundation.
Instantly, the overhead lights flickered, hummed a low, dying note, and died.
The entire cabin was plunged into pitch-black darkness, save for the faint, orange glow of the dying logs in the fireplace.
The sudden absence of the electrical hum made the howling wind outside sound ten times louder.
"The generator,"
Maya gasped, her voice instantly rising in panic through the dark.
Before anyone could move, a sharp, electronic beep echoed from the corner of the room.
Luke spun around toward the floor-safe.
The digital interface screen had flipped from its standard blue color to a harsh, blinking crimson red.
The glowing red text cast a bloody light across the wooden floorboards, displaying a giant digital countdown: 02:00:00...
01:59:59... 01:59:58.
"The emergency lockdown has been triggered,"
Julianne said, her footsteps clicking rapidly across the floor as she rushed to the safe.
She dropped to her knees, her face illuminated by the red glare of the screen.
"The power loss tricked the safe’s security system into thinking it’s under attack.
We have exactly two hours before the internal hard drives permanently wipe themselves to protect the data."
"But the adapter is still at the research facility down the ridge,"
Luke said, stepping closer to the fire to keep his hands warm.
The cold was already beginning to seep through the cracks in the cabin walls now that the electric heaters were dead.
"Without that adapter, we can't extract the files before the clock hits zero."
"I’ll go look at the generator,"
Luke muttered, reaching into his pocket for his lighter.
He struck the flint, the tiny yellow flame illuminating the terrified look on Maya's face and the rigid, frozen posture of Julianne.
"Maybe a tree branch fell on the intake valve.
If I can restart the backup engine, we can buy ourselves more time."
"I'm coming with you,"
Julianne said, instantly standing up and pulling her hood over her dark hair.
Luke slid the heavy iron bolt back from the front door, pushing it open against a fierce wave of freezing air.
The blizzard was descending on the plateau in full force now, a wall of white blinding them the moment they stepped onto the wooden porch.
They waded through the knee-deep snow around the side of the cabin, where the large, metal generator box sat housed under a small wooden lean-to.
The metal casing of the generator was cracked open, smoke curling out of the vents.
Luke leaned over, holding his lighter close to the main power lines that connected the machine to the cabin's interior breaker.
He expected to see a branch.
He expected to see ice buildup.
Instead, his breath caught in his throat.
The thick, copper power lines hadn't been snapped or crushed.
They had been cleanly, precisely sliced through with a heavy serrated blade.
The plastic coating around the wire was neatly cut, and a small puddle of leaked fuel was sizzling on the frozen ground beneath the engine block.
This wasn't an accident caused by the winter storm.
This was sabotage.
Luke stood up slowly, the lighter flame flickering out in the wind, leaving him standing in the dark next to Julianne.
The implication of what he was looking at was terrifying.
"Julianne,"
Luke said, his voice dropping to a low whisper that was instantly swallowed by the storm.
"Look at the wires."
Julianne leaned in, squinting through the dark.
When she pulled back, her eyes were wide, her jaw clenched tight.
"A blade.
Someone did this on purpose."
"But that doesn't make any sense,"
Luke said, his heart hammering against his ribs.
"Nobody knows we're up here.
The avalanche blocked the only trail into the mountains.
Unless...
unless someone was already up here before we arrived."
Julianne turned her head back toward the cabin door, the warm orange light of the fireplace spilling out through the frosted glass of the window.
"Maya has been up here alone for three days, Luke.
She’s the only one who had access to this generator.
She told us she wanted to save the files, but what if she’s playing a double game? What if the corporate company threatened her family so badly that she agreed to destroy the evidence herself?"
Luke looked at the cut wires, then back at the cabin.
The idea of Maya betraying them felt like a knife to the chest, but after a year of lies and disappearances, he couldn't be sure of anything anymore.
Yet, as he looked at Julianne standing next to him in the freezing dark, he realized something even more terrifying: he didn't fully know Julianne either.
"We can't trust anyone right now,"
Luke said sharply, his voice locking into that fierce determination that was keeping his bones moving.
"Not until that safe is open.
Let's get back inside before we freeze."
They burst back through the front door, slamming it shut and sliding the bolt into place.
The temperature inside the cabin was dropping rapidly now, their breath forming faint white plumes in the center of the living room.
The crimson timer on the safe continued its relentless countdown: 01:42:11... 01:42:10.
Maya was standing by the fireplace, rubbing her arms to stay warm.
She looked up at them expectantly.
"Can you fix it? Is the engine broken?"
"The engine isn't broken, Maya,"
Julianne said, her voice dripping with ice as she stepped into the room, her hand resting instinctively near her coat pocket.
"The power lines were cut with a knife.
Cleanly.
Someone sabotaged the backup system to trigger the emergency wipe."
Maya’s face went completely blank, the blood draining from her cheeks.
"What? No...
that’s impossible.
Nobody else is up here."
"Then who did it, Maya?"
Julianne snapped, taking a predatory step forward.
"You’ve been here for three days.
You knew the safe had an electronic lock.
Did you cut the wires because you got scared? Did the company offer you a deal to make this whole thing go away?"
"No! I swear, I didn't do it!"
Maya cried out, backing away until her spine hit the stone mantle of the fireplace.
She looked at Luke, her eyes wide with a desperate, pleading terror.
"Luke, you have to believe me! I risked everything to take these files from the research facility.
Why would I destroy them now?"
Luke stood between the two girls, the heavy silence of the cabin weighing down on his shoulders.
The crimson light of the countdown safe cast long, distorted shadows across all three of their faces, amplifying the intense love triangle dynamic that had trapped him since he walked through the door.
He looked at Maya, the girl he had loved for years, who looked completely fragile and broken.
Then he looked at Julianne, the fierce, protective stranger who had just saved his life on the thin ice, standing with her shoulders squared, ready for a fight.
"Stop it, both of you,"
Luke ordered, his voice echoing with an absolute authority that made both girls fall silent.
"Turning on each other is exactly what the people who cut those wires want.
If we stay here arguing, the timer hits zero, the files are deleted, and whoever did this wins anyway."
He walked over to the table and picked up the heavy black hunting rifle Maya had been holding earlier.
He checked the chamber, ensuring it was loaded, before slinging the strap over his shoulder.
"The countdown has less than an hour and forty minutes left,"
Luke said, his eyes locking onto the blinking red screen.
"The adapter is at the research facility down the ridge.
I'm going out into the storm to get it."
"You can't go out there alone, Luke!"
Maya argued, stepping forward to grab his sleeve.
"The second blizzard just started.
You’ll lose the trail and freeze to death!"
"He won't be alone,"
Julianne said, stepping up to Luke's side.
Her shoulder brushed against his, a silent reminder of the warmth they had shared in the ranger station.
"I know the layout of the research facility better than anyone.
I'm going with him."
Maya looked at Julianne's hand resting near Luke’s arm, and a flash of bitter, painful jealousy crossed her features, cutting through her terror.
She realized in that moment that the year she spent in hiding had cost her more than just time; it had cost her the exclusive hold she used to have on Luke’s heart.
"Someone has to stay here,"
Luke said gently, looking down at Maya.
Despite the suspicion in his mind, he couldn't bear to see her look so defeated.
"If the generator can be bypassed from the inside breaker, we need someone here to watch the safe interface.
Stay by the fire, keep the rifle close, and don't open that door for anyone but us."
Maya swallowed hard, slowly letting go of his sleeve.
She gave a small, reluctant nod.
"Okay.
Just...
Please come back, Luke.
Don't leave me again."
"I'll be back,"
Luke promised.
Julianne grabbed a heavy crowbar from the hearth tools, tucking it under her arm, while Luke checked the flashlight he had borrowed from the cabin’s kitchen counter.
The batteries were low, the beam casting a weak, flickering yellow light against the floorboards, but it was all they had.
They moved to the front door.
Luke threw the bolt, and the winter storm immediately screamed into the cabin, blowing a flurry of icy white snow across the rug.
They stepped out into the freezing void, leaving Maya alone in the rapidly cooling darkness of the cabin, the crimson eye of the safe blinking behind her.
The trek back down the ridge was pure torture.
The second storm was far worse than the first, a true whiteout where the sky and the ground blended into a single, terrifying mass of roaring white chaos.
The wind was a physical wall, forcing Luke and Julianne to lean forward at a sharp forty-five-degree angle just to keep from being knocked flat into the snowdrifts.
Luke couldn't feel his nose or his chin anymore.