Chapter 7 - THE CRASH AND THE TRUTHThe sound of shattering glass and human screams filled the night.
Inside the SUV, Cooper’s sudden, weight-bearing tackle caught Agent Vance entirely off guard. Vance slammed his elbow into the steering column as the massive dog pinned him against the driver's side door, his teeth snapping inches from the corrupt agent's throat.
"Get this beast off me! Shoot him! Shoot him!" Vance shrieked, losing control of the wheel.
The SUV veered violently to the right, skidding across the wet asphalt, smashing through a wooden guardrail, and plunging down a steep, wooded embankment before slamming hard into a massive oak tree with a bone-crunching impact.
Daniel slammed on his brakes, spinning his truck around in a cloud of smoke and gravel, sliding to a halt near the edge of the drop-off.
"Stay here!" Daniel ordered Mia, grabbing his heavy iron flashlight and scrambling down the muddy embankment toward the smoldering wreckage of the SUV.
The front end of Vance’s vehicle was completely crumpled. Inside, the airbags had deployed, filling the cabin with white smoke. Vance was trapped, screaming in pain as his legs were pinned beneath the crushed dashboard. The driver and passenger were unconscious.
And standing proudly on the hood of the wrecked SUV, completely unfazed, was Cooper.
The old dog held the small metal flash drive firmly in his jaws. As Daniel approached, Cooper trotted down the hood, walked over, and gently dropped the drive right into Daniel's open palm.
Behind them, the wail of approaching state police sirens echoed up the canyon road. Within minutes, blue and red emergency lights illuminated the entire hillside. State troopers, led by Sheriff Miller in his cruiser, swarmed the crash site.
Sheriff Miller stepped out, looking down at Agent Vance groaning in the wreckage, then over at Cooper, who was standing tall beside Daniel, his tail giving a slow, triumphant wag.
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"Well I'll be," the sheriff whistled, picking up the small flash drive from Daniel's hand. "This little piece of plastic contains every single forged land deed, illegal bank transfer, and recorded confession of the corporate syndicate that orchestrated the Nashville tornadoes and the subsequent land thefts. Vance and his bosses are going away for the rest of their natural lives."
Sheriff Miller knelt down, scratching Cooper behind his one dark ear. "Good boy, Cooper. You kept the case file safe all the way home."
