Chapter 6 - The Safehouse in the Gorge
By sunrise, my apartment looked like a crime scene. Crime scene investigators dusted the splintered door frames for fingerprints, while a carpenter hired by the state police slapped a temporary plywood barricade over my front entrance.
Agent Hayes didn't give us a choice. He packed us into an unmarked federal SUV, threw our few hastily grabbed duffel bags into the trunk, and drove us two hours east out of Portland, deep into the misty, towering canyons of the Columbia River Gorge.
The safehouse was an isolated, stone-and-timber cabin tucked away off a winding logging road near Hood River. Surrounded by towering Douglas firs and thick morning fog, it looked like something straight out of a spy thriller.
"You'll be secure here," Hayes said as he unlocked the heavy oak front door of the cabin, ushering us inside. "Cell phone signals are jammed by federal relay units, meaning no incoming external tracking pings can lock onto your devices. There's a secure landline for direct contact with my office. Food is stocked in the pantry."
Oliver walked over to the large stone fireplace, staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the dense, gray forest outside. "Are we hiding?" he asked quietly.
"We're regrouping," Hayes corrected gently. He turned his attention to me, pulling a manila folder from his briefcase and setting it on the wooden kitchen table. "While my team sweeps the city for the men who broke into your apartment, I had cyber-forensics analyze the contents of the backpack Oliver brought with him from the hospital."
I stepped closer to the table. "Did you find anything about Rachel?"
"We found something better," Hayes said, opening the folder to reveal several printed screenshots of encrypted digital files. "Oliver's backpack had a lining sewn into the back panel. Inside wasn't paper documents—it was a micro-SD card."
Oliver turned around from the window, his eyes widening. "Mom told me never to take my backpack off. She said whatever was inside was the only way she could ever come back home safely."
Hayes nodded. "Our tech division cracked the encryption this morning. It’s not just offshore bank routing numbers for Arthur Miller’s shell companies. It’s a complete digital ledger containing names, signatures, and wire transfer logs implicating a high-level corporate syndicate operating inside Apex Global Tech—the multi-billion-dollar conglomerate where Arthur worked."
I stared at the papers. "So Arthur wasn't working alone. He was the fall guy."
"Exactly," Hayes confirmed. "Apex Global Tech used Arthur to funnel illegal kickbacks and tax evasion funds. When Arthur tried to skim a portion for himself, the syndicate threatened his family. Rachel discovered what her husband was mixed up in, copied the master ledger onto that micro-SD card, and tried to run to protect her son. That’s why these men are hunting her—and why they tracked you down so fast. They think you have the card."
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"But I gave it to you," I pointed out.
"Which means," Hayes said grimly, "those men don't know we have it yet. And as long as they think you have it, you and Oliver remain their primary targets."
