A strong hand grabbed her hair, sending powerful ripples of pain into her skull. The more she fought to loosen his grip on her locks, the more unbearable the agony was that tore into her scalp. Ignoring the suffering from her injured arm, she tried grabbing something to fight him off, cutting her hands on the shards of shattered glass in the process.
"Stop fighting it, you cow!" the man shouted, followed by a word used to describe a female dog along with several other unsavories she hadn't heard in a very long time.
Her cut fingers settled onto a large piece of the windscreen and she didn't hesitate to wrap her fingers around it, numbing herself against the pain as the sharp edges sliced into her flesh. With the sharpest end pointing outward, she thrust her hand back and over her head, jamming the piece of glass into her attacker's arm, enduring the pain as the force of it simultaneously sliced into her hand. He yelled, then let go of her hair and cursed her in the process. Desperate to get away from him she turned onto her back and drove her feet hard against his chest, flinging him onto his back and away from her and the car.
Once again, her hand reached for her satchel, this time gripping on with all her might. She flung one of the straps over her head and left the bag hanging around her neck like a necklace. Climbing over to the rear of the car was her only option for escape, something which proved harder than she’d expected since the car stood vertically, tail end up, against the high wall formed by the boulders. She had underestimated its height earlier from where she was wedged in the tree halfway down the hill and she slid back down toward the front of the car. The second attacker's hands clawed at her feet as he now reached in through one of the side windows. But she was quicker, slamming her heel down on one of his hands when he came too close.
Once more, she crawled toward the rear of the car; her knees and feet fighting hard not to slip on the glass and cause her to slide back down again. She caught hold of one of the safety belts, twirled it around her hand and wrist, then used it to pull herself up toward the rear windshield. Her sprained arm ached under the strain of being forced to use it to punch through the shattered window to create a hole big enough for her to climb through. When one last blow against the pane rendered it broken and released a shower of glass atop her head, she heaved herself out of the back window and over the trunk of the car. Still dangling from the seatbelt, her feet searched for a stable footing. Only once her feet found a safe gap between the boulders did she let go of the safety belt and climb down to the soft green grass below.
Turning briefly she glanced back to assess her enemy's position, thankful that neither of the men were in sight. There wasn't a moment to waste and she ran toward the airport as fast as her legs were able to carry her. It had started to rain and the cold, wet moisture against her skin proved to be more soothing than hindering. Without stopping, she pushed her now drenched hair out of her eyes, sweeping it back over her head. Blood-soaked rainwater ran into her eyes, blurring her vision so she could hardly see her way.
But she kept running. Faster, harder, pushing with every ounce of energy she had left in her through the knee-high grassland toward her freedom.
She allowed herself to look back only once, just to be certain she had escaped them and relieved to learn they hadn't followed her. But as she well knew, these men were not the type to give up that easily. They were most likely already making their way to the other end of the stretch of land. So she kept running, pushing her body to its maximum to get to the airport first. Once again, it was a race against time, and time was not on her side.
But as with all things in life, time soon passed and delivered her to the edge of the land where she was greeted by a high fence. On the other side of the fence, were several aircraft hangars—most of them shut apart from one that she could see.
Her body ached in more places than she cared to remember so she took a minute to catch her breath and rest. Using the rain to wash away the multitude of cuts on her face and hands she soon felt revived enough to continue.
The fence towered above her. She could try to climb it, she thought, albeit without full mobility. It seemed her only option and worth the effort. Eager to get to the safety of the airport she reached to take hold of the fence then snatched her hand back when it came mere inches away from the fence. She had instantly felt the static emanate from it, amplified by the rain. The fence was electrified.
Relieved to have stopped in time, she told herself that she’d come too close for comfort and had best be more careful in future. Searching for another way into the airport, she let her eyes trail up and down the fence in all directions, hoping to find any openings, gates, anything. But there were none. She could short the fence but that would most likely trigger an alarm and have airport security there within a few minutes. While she pondered her options, she concluded that shorting the fence might be her only option and that a few minutes were all she needed. Searching her bag for something that would suit to break the current, her hands found something else instead. Something that would not require her to blow the charger and allow her to proceed undetected.
With newfound enthusiasm as an idea took shape in her head, she retrieved a sturdy, red, zip pouch no bigger than her hand. She had forgotten that she had reasoned it might come in handy and had tossed it into her satchel just before she left home. From it, she took out an insulator cable and carefully attached it to the fence, creating a parallel bridging connection around a section of the fence. When she had finished, her hand disappeared inside her satchel once again to find a multitool, which she quickly used to sever the fence. Thrilled that one of her most tried and trusted methods of circumventing an alarm had worked, it took no time at all for her to clamber through the fence and make her way toward the hangars.
If she were to avoid suspicion and have any chance of boarding the airplane without any trouble, she would have to somehow clean up and make herself presentable. With any luck, there might be at least a tee shirt in one of the hangars.
As she neared the hangars, she proceeded with caution. Everything was quiet apart from one which had its doors open wide. She spotted activity coming from inside and backed into the shadows behind a small stationary food delivery truck. The vehicle had no driver and from her viewpoint, she could see into the hangar. A light shone brightly out onto the tarmac in front of the hangar and soon she heard several voices talking inside. Moving two steps closer, she could now see four flight crew members step inside the small private aircraft. At the rear of the plane, there was a woman with a computer tablet, checking off boxes as a man in a gray overall loaded them into the aircraft. Either one of them would spot her running by to the next hangar, a chance she wasn't prepared to take. Glancing at her surroundings, she moved around the back of the food truck, hoping to be able to sneak around the back of the hangar where she would hopefully be able to get to the next one that appeared dark and unoccupied. With her body snug against the aircraft building's outer walls, she quickly made her way around the back where she found the rear entrance door closed. It had worked and her mission proved successful.
When she reached the second hangar's rear door, she noticed a single surveillance camera in the crook of the canopy above the door. It was a hard-wired camera and moved horizontally every few seconds, seemingly automatically. She would have to be quick to disable it, even quicker once she was inside. There was no doubt in her mind that she'd have eight minutes at the most to find what she was looking for and to get out before the response team arrived.
Nerves settled inside her throat. She hadn't done this in two decades and the possibility of her messing up was huge. But she had no other option. She had to finish what she’d started and not let Züber, Sokolov, or anyone else get away with what they’d done to Myles and now Ewan.