After covering what she could with makeup, she’d visited an internet shop, using Bitcoin and the Dark Web to purchase two different sets of fake ID, then arranged delivery to Denver and Seattle. The IDs probably wouldn’t pass a close inspection, but they’d be good enough.

She hoped.

Then she’d visited her bank to cash out almost all of her savings. When the teller voiced concern, Audrey’d said, “My boyfriend is abusive, and I have to get away. Please hurry.” It’d worked. The sympathetic female teller sped through the withdrawal process.

She’d considered flying to the opposite side of the country, but airport security was too tight. Her credit card and ID would be scrutinized; she’d be on camera. It’d be too easy for Spyros’s bribed FBI agents to trace her.

So, after leaving her car in long-term storage, she bused to South Side Chicago and used her credit card to buy a nondescript, used car. If her pursuers could access her credit card usage, this would make it look as if she was headed south. Hopefully.

She drove west.

Even now, she winced at the memory of those long painful days of driving. Twice, in scary slum areas, she abandoned her current vehicle, leaving it running with keys in the ignition. Each time, before buying another car, she altered her hair and skin color. Various glasses and hats covered her eyes and ears. Lipstick changed the shape of her mouth. Facial recognition systems were scarily accurate.

After picking up her ID in Seattle, she bused to Bellingham, Washington and boarded the ferry to Alaska.

As one of the boat crew passed with a nod, she smiled. Men had been friendly to this persona. She was wearing a dark red, short-and-perky wig, hooker-heavy makeup, and a padded bra that made her a couple of sizes larger.

She’d used the men’s interest to get them to talk about Alaska’s small towns. Because she needed somewhere to disappear. She wanted a town small enough to have no traffic cameras. It’d be even better if it lacked any law enforcement yet was big enough to have a way for her to earn a living, no matter how pitiful. She also needed to be close enough to Anchorage to have a way to fly out.

Homer was too big and too far from the city. Girdwood, Cooper Landing, and Moose Pass were all about the right size.

Or there was Rescue, a town not too far from Cooper Landing. It had a small lake on one side and the Kenai River on the other. The boat crew wasn’t impressed with the place. Said it was rather dead.

Rescue had possibilities.