Chapter Four
The Woman In Blue
Under the veil of night, a young woman clad in a large blue overcoat, carrying a large leather bag on her back, manoeuvres through the dense shrubbery of a frigid Alaskan forest. Her breath mingles with the crisp air, and her long golden hair, secured in a braided ponytail draped across her shoulder. In the clouded night sky, her glimmering sapphire eyes pierce through the shadows. Her footsteps were silent, each one carefully placed to avoid snapping twigs or rustling leaves. Sarah, who had trained for years to become a shadow, blends in seamlessly with her surroundings. She was a phantom, an enigma, unbounded by conventional limits.
As Sarah ventured deeper into the forest, she came across bits and pieces of shrapnel. The forest branches whispered their secrets, the wind carrying the haunting melody that guided her to an open area within the woods. Before her laid mangled remains of an unknown aircraft, its metallic frame twisted and shattered, scattered across the land. The acrid scent of burning fuel hanging in the heavy air. With cautious steps, Sarah approached the wreckage, her hands, delicately tracing the jagged edges of the metal debris. Kneeling down besides the charred remains, Sarah came across writing, engraved in the metal. G-0038.
Sarah pulls out her phone and begins to walk around the aircraft, taking pictures of every possible angle, meticulously capturing every detail. The wreckage tells a story of a violent descent, But what Sarah was after was the cause. Sarah sits down, going through every photo she had taken, when something catches her sharp eyes. An inconspicuous seam in the aircraft’s fuselage, slightly ajar. Sarah lifts her head up and pinpoints the exact location she saw on her phone.
Instinctively, Sarah reaches into her leather bag, retrieving a compact tool kit. With practised precision, she works on the seam, gently prying it open. The metallic hiss reveals a hidden compartment within the wreckage. Inside, she finds a concealed storage unit, cleverly disguised to evade the keenest of eyes. If Sarah didn’t already know what she was looking for, even she doubted that she would have found this compartment on her own.
The compartment contains an array of electronic devices and a secure box. Sarah carefully examines each item, before turning her attention to the said box. With a skilled touch, Sarah unlocks its contents revealing a small, sleek solid-state drive (SSD). Sarah connects the SSD to her phone, encrypted files and blueprints flicker across the screen.
“bingo!” Sarah whispers to herself, disconnecting the drive and placing it in a small leather pouch she had strapped to her thigh. With the objective secured, she decides to go through the files on her phone.
The encrypted files detail an experimental project, led by her client and employer's main company. N.E.T. Solutions, otherwise known as ‘New Era Tech’. The corporate Tech giant was well renowned for their neural advancements in the technological field. Sarah smerks before putting her phone away and retrieving a variety of clay like blocks from the bag she had on her back.
As Dawn begins to break, Sarah begins lining the area around the aircraft in these clay-like blocks, when she then hears faint rustling from the forest up ahead. Sarah’s heart quickens as she crouches low behind the wreckage, her sapphire eyes, scanning the darkness ahead. She reaches within the inner left pocket of the blue overcoat she wore, her hand wrapped tightly around the handle of a golden pistol. Holding her breath, Sarah waits, her senses heightened, ready to defend herself if need be. The rustling grows louder, closer. She can make out the sound of heavy footsteps crunching on fallen leaves and twigs, the grip on her weapon tightening.
Suddenly, Out from the forest, emerges a tall imposing figure, clad in full black and grey tactical armour, wielding a large rifle. The man with slicked back blond hair, is fully armoured from head to toe, as if he were ready to enter a warzone. The man looked well seasoned beyond his years, as he moves with purpose, his every step calculated and precise. The tall burly man stood confidently, his head held up high and with his chest out, casually surveying the area around him without a care in the world. Sarah takes cover once again, assuring the man did not make her out as her mind goes into overdrive.
Sarah was highered by N.E.T. Solutions and thus knew exactly where to go and how to find this downed aircraft. However, she should have been the only one to know of its location. The sudden appearance of this man annoyed Sarah and told her that she would have to confront her client for more compensation. Either way, Sarah knew that she would have to ‘deal’ with this man as swiftly as possible. Sarah took her bag off, ensuring she had nothing heavy slowing her down, and unbuttoned her coat.
Sarah carefully observes the man's movements, noting his positioning and the way he grips his rifle. From what She could gather, he is highly trained, likely with a military background. His armour suggested a level of professionalism and experience that could pose a significant threat. With the man wielding a large rifle and being heavily armoured, Sarah knew that her little pea shooter would cause no threat to the man and that getting in close would be her best chance in completing her mission. Although the man was easily two to three times her size, his overconfident demeanour coupled with his lack of awareness of her presence, suggested to Sarah that she could outmanoeuvre him and use her speed and stealth to her advantage.
As the man continued his oblivious survey of the area, Sarah took a deep breath, her mind focusing. She knew she only had one opportunity to make a move and insure her survival. With practised grace, she silently manoeuvres herself around the aircraft , her body low to the ground and out of sight. Swiftly and silently, she closes the distance and positions herself behind the armoured man. Sarah remains low and poised, taking a deep breath, steadying her nerves as she prepares to strike.
With lightning speed, Sarah lunges forward, sweeping the man's leg as he falls flat on the ground. Surprised and caught off guard, the man fumbles for his weapon, but to no avail. With no wasted motion, Sarah spins around stomping on the man's hands and disarming her opponent. She takes hold of his weapon, unloads the rifle, and throws the ammunition and rifle aside as she aims her own weapon at the goon on the floor. However, just as she thought she had the situation under control, she notices the man smirk and she catches a gleam in the side of her eye. Sarah’s mind kicks into overdrive, as the world around her slew down from her perspective. Sarah's eyes widen and she immediately knows she made a potentially fatal mistake.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Sarah’s mind races faster than it has ever had before and her instincts kicks in. She dives straight to the ground as she hears the sound of bullets whizzing just above her. It was a set up, the man must have already known of Sarah’s presence and played himself a fool to lure her out. Now Sarah was left scrambling for cover, crawling as fast as she could back to the aircraft to use it for cover. Sarah’s mind raced, her heart nearly pounding out of her chest, and her eyez frenzied, as if she was physically trying to follow the thoughts in her head. Sarah slammed her knees and hands on every leaf, branch, and pebble in her way, unknowingly chipping away at herself as she scrambled for cover.
Sarah leaps behind the mangled remains of the aircraft she was meant to destroy, when she notices the sound of gun fire stop after they ricochet a few times off the aircraft. The sudden commotion causes her hair to become undone as she breathes in some of her feathered hair, as she is left gasping for air.
“STOP!” Sarah hears a man call out as the entourage of hell fire comes to a stop. Sarah leans back on what remains of the aircraft, her hands and knees bruised and cold, her breath heavy. She hears a man's low raspy voice laughing out in the distance and Sarah clicks her tongue in agitation.
She should’ve known better than to believe this man was on his own. His calculated steps and carefree attitude should have been a red flag that something did not match, and now she was pinned down by someone that not only knew the whereabouts of a secret aircraft, but also knew that she would be here as well. Sarah bites the tip of her thumb as her mind scrambled for answers, was this small platoon sent by her employer? Did He want Sarah taken out because she knew too much already? Sarah quickly disregarded this notion, after all, her client wanted this plane destroyed, obliterated, gone without a trace. The fact that her unknown assailants stopped their fire as soon as she got behind said aircraft signified to her that they wanted to recover whatever may have been left for themselves.
Could they be affiliated with a government organisation? The CIA or FBI perhaps? Sarah shook her head again. She made sure that she covered her tracks and that she was not followed. Not only that, but if N.E.T. solutions really were under investigation, Sarah was certain that if any government organisation got this far already, they would have arrested her well before she made it out to the middle of nowhere. Sarah takes a moment to collect herself, her mind racing with every possible scenario.
Sarah takes in a deep breath, calming her nerves and she peeks out from behind the wreckage, trying to catch a glimpse of her assailants, through the mangled metal, Sarah spots several figures, clad in black tactical gear, their weapons trained on the craft.
“One, two, three… four….” Sarah spots three men behind the big burly man she attempted to take out earlier, all of them wielding large automatic rifles. Sarah gripped the handle of her golden pistol tightly, knowing full and well it was inadequate against the overwhelming firepower her adversaries wielded. She glances back over, as she lets out a sudden gasp of relief. In Between her and the approaching men, were the clay blocks she had lined around the area earlier. The blocks she laid out were plastic explosives (C4) meant to obliterate the remains of the aircraft. On their own, they wouldn’t be of much use now, but if Sarah could find the detonator…
Sarah scrambles around, looking for the bag she laid down before she was rudely interrupted, but her heart then sinks, realising she left it on the other side of the plane, directly in the line of sight of the approaching men. Sarah knocks the back of her head against the cold metal frame she hid behind, beating herself up in pure agitation. How could she have been so careless? Every second felt like hours as she heard the cold hard crunch of footsteps grow louder and louder, echoing through the silence of the deserted clearing. She scoured her surroundings for any possible way to escape when her eyes fell upon a narrow path leading into the dense forest but again, it was on the opposite side of the craft.
Sarah bites the tip of her thumb in order to focus. She goes through every bit of information she has gathered thus far, Sarah knows she needs to think fast or she would die here and now. As every second ticked, her eyes rapidly move in every direction, trying to follow the thoughts she had brewing in her head, and then Sarah's deep blue eyes light up. The Idea was borderline idiotic, and relied on her attackers to be so as well, but it seemed to be her only shot in order to make it out of this alive.
“I Wouldn't get any closer if I were you!” Sarah cried out, her voice shaken and out of breath as she heard the muffled laughs of the approaching men. “I’ve littered the area around me in C4 charges! Get any closer and I won't hesitate in letting us all find out if hell is real or not!” The rustling stops as Sarah hears the men stop dead in their tracks and A large smerk forms on her face.
“Bullshit.” Sarah heard the low raspy voice she had heard earlier and immediately picked up on the man's slavic accent.
Sarah’s smirk grew wider as she was filled with a sense of relief. The man was obviously calling out Sarah’s bluff. But Sarah could hear the men standing dead in their tracks. The fact that they hesitated to approach told Sarah that they believed there was some semblance of truth in her words. Sarah glances over to the men's direction again and sees the one burly man at the front kneeled down holding a wire in his hand. The man pulled out a knife, cutting a wire that linked all the C4 explosives together. The man then gestures to his men, as they all spread out, taking out knives of their own, following the man's lead.
Sarah knew this was her chance as she yelled out. “That won't save you! My bag over there has over thirty pounds of C4 in it. It would only take one shot for it to send us all to kingdom come!” Sarah could hear the men murmuring amongst themselves, and At this point Sarah knew they had fallen for the bait.
“You do not want to kill yourself. You would have done so already instead of talking.” The Slavic man spoke out.
“You’re right, I don’t. But I am as good as dead anyway so might as well go out in a blaze of glory! Sending us all to Hell! Along with any remaining scraps you were hoping to muster.” Sarah’s voice trembles slightly, still out of breath from her encounter, but the uncertainty in her tone was all intentional.
“Then do it!” The man yelled out. Seemingly calling her bluff out again.
Sarah peeks over once again, seeing the men scrambling to cut off the links between the C4 blocks. Sarah knew it was now or never. Sarah tightly gripped her pistol and sprung out from under her cover. “If you say so!” Sarah springs forward, aiming directly at her bag as the men all dive to the floor for cover. Sarah shoots, seeing all the men cover their heads in what they thought would have been a cataclysmic explosion. Sarah couldn't help but laugh as the bullet hit her bag, and… nothing.
Sarah scrambles to her feet, laughing her head off as she dashes towards the clearing she spotted earlier. The dense forest envelopes Sarah as she sprints through the narrow path, her heart thundering in her chest.
“GET THAT BITCH!” Sarah can hear the distant shouts and curses of the men she left behind, their voices fading into the background as she pushes deeper into the vast wilderness.