Chapter 9
Technicians disconnected the terminal before the transmission reached ten percent.
But part of the file was gone.
Nobody knew whether the first section contained usable information or meaningless encryption.
Kane was taken into federal custody.
He asked for an attorney and stopped speaking.
Emma was examined at the base clinic.
Her feet required stitches.
She also had a sedative in her bloodstream, though she had apparently escaped before receiving a full dose.
She refused to let go of my hand.
“I knew you would come,” she whispered.
“I will always come.”
The words left my mouth before I considered their weight.
My career required travel.
Duty required absence.
I could not promise never to leave.
But I could promise never to stop fighting my way back.
Colonel Hayes entered after Emma fell asleep.
“We found Kane’s internal source.”
“Who?”
“Captain Morris.”
I knew him.
Morris supervised systems security.
He had restored my temporary credentials.
“He activated my emergency authority for Kane.”
“Yes.”
“Is he in custody?”
“He’s dead.”
Morris had been found in his office with a gunshot wound.
The weapon was in his hand.
Investigators initially considered suicide.
Then they found two cups of coffee and another person’s partial fingerprint.
The print belonged to Ryan.
“That’s impossible,” I said. “Ryan was in the hospital.”
“He disappeared twenty minutes before Morris was found.”
I stared at Hayes.
“Ryan had surgery.”
“He also had help.”
Security footage showed an orderly pushing Ryan through a private exit.
The orderly wore a mask.
The wheelchair was later found near a staff parking lot.
Ryan’s blood marked the seat.
He could not have gone far without medical assistance.
“Vanessa,” I said.
“She was under guard.”
“Was?”
Hayes looked grim.
The officer guarding Vanessa was found unconscious in a supply room.
Vanessa had vanished.
Ryan and Vanessa were together again.
Or one had taken the other.
Ortiz arrived with another discovery.
The audio from Morris’s office had been partially captured by a voice-controlled assistant.
Most of it was unclear.
But Ryan’s voice could be heard.
“You promised Emma wouldn’t be hurt.”
Morris answered, “Kane stopped caring about promises.”
Then Ryan said, “Give me the code and I can end this.”
A loud impact followed.
The recording stopped.
“Ryan may have gone there to help,” Ortiz said.
“Or to destroy evidence,” I replied.
Both could be true.
Ryan had built his life on half-decisions.
Half-loyalty.
Half-truths.
He might save Emma one hour and betray me the next.
My phone displayed an incoming video call.
Ryan.
Ortiz signaled technicians to trace it.
I answered.
Vanessa appeared on the screen.
She was driving.
Ryan sat in the passenger seat, pale and sweating through his hospital gown.
A pistol rested in his lap.
“Where are you?” I asked.
Ryan leaned toward the camera.
“Emily, listen carefully.”
Vanessa struck him across the injured shoulder.
He cried out.
“He doesn’t get to speak,” she said.
“What do you want?”
“Kane’s files.”
“He is in custody.”
“His files are not.”
“What files?”
“The drive from the dollhouse had a hidden partition. Your people copied it before they discovered the manifest.”
I looked at Ortiz.
She nodded once.
A hidden partition had been found.
Vanessa knew.
“I don’t have the drive.”
“But you can access the copy.”
“What is on it?”
“Insurance.”
“For whom?”
“Everyone.”
Ryan spoke through clenched teeth.
“Don’t give it to her.”
Vanessa pressed the pistol against his wound.
He screamed.
Emma woke in the next room.
I lowered the phone volume.
“If you kill him, you lose your leverage.”
Vanessa laughed.
“Ryan stopped being useful years ago.”
He looked at her.
The pain in his face was not physical.
Astonishingly, some part of him still believed she loved him.
“Where do you want the exchange?” I asked.
“The house.”
“My house is a crime scene.”
“It’s where this started.”
The call ended.
Technicians traced the signal toward our neighborhood.
Ortiz wanted to control the meeting.
Federal agents wanted Vanessa captured alive because she could connect Kane to foreign buyers.
I wanted Emma protected.
Denise, now released from the hospital, agreed to remain with her at a secure location.
Emma heard us planning.
“You’re going back.”
“Yes.”
“To save Dad?”
I considered lying.
She deserved better.
“I’m going to stop Vanessa.”
“Will you save him?”
“If I can.”
Emma nodded slowly.
“He didn’t save me.”
“I know.”
“But you’ll still try?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want you to spend your life wondering if I could have.”
The house looked nearly normal from the street.
Only the burned garage revealed the truth.
Agents surrounded the area in concealed positions.
I entered alone with a copy of the hidden files on an encrypted drive.
The living room had been cleared of evidence markers.
The wooden post remained.
Cut rope lay on the floor beneath it.
“Vanessa?”
A light turned on upstairs.
“Come up.”
Her voice came from my bedroom.
I climbed slowly.
Ryan sat on the floor beside the bed.
His hands were bound.
Blood had soaked through his bandages.
Vanessa stood behind him.
“Place the drive on the dresser.”
I did.
She held a pistol against Ryan’s neck.
“Now unlock it.”
“I need a computer.”
She pointed toward my laptop on the bed.
It had disappeared during the original police search.
Mark must have taken it before burning the garage.
I inserted the drive.
A password prompt appeared.
“What are these files?” I asked.
“Records of every operation Kane ran.”
“And your involvement?”
“My involvement was small.”
“You targeted my family for years.”
“That was business.”
“You tied a ten-year-old child to a post.”
Her expression tightened.
“She ruined everything.”
“No. She exposed you.”
“Unlock the files.”
“I want Ryan released first.”
Ryan looked at me.
“Don’t.”
Vanessa kicked him.
“Stop pretending to be brave.”
I entered the first part of the password.
Then stopped.
“The rest after he reaches the hallway.”
Vanessa cut the rope around his ankles but kept his hands tied.
“Stand.”
Ryan tried.
His legs collapsed.
Vanessa pulled him by the injured shoulder.
He shouted.
I moved forward.
She aimed at me.
“Stay back.”
Ryan forced himself upright.
He staggered toward the hallway.
When he passed me, he whispered, “The post.”
I did not look.
Vanessa pushed him downstairs.
Then she returned and locked the bedroom door.
“Finish.”
I entered the remaining characters.
The files opened.
Vanessa grabbed the laptop.
She smiled when she saw the list of names.
Then her smile disappeared.
“What is this?”
The files were corrupted.
Not by accident.
Ryan had damaged them.
“The post,” he had said.
I remembered the camera hidden above it.
But perhaps the camera had not been the only thing.
Vanessa ran downstairs.
I followed.
Ryan had reached the living room.
He drove his shoulder into the wooden post.
A concealed panel broke open.
A small device fell to the floor.
He crushed it beneath his heel.
The lights went out.
Vanessa fired.
Glass shattered.
Agents stormed the doors.
In the darkness, someone grabbed me.
I fought until Ryan’s voice reached me.
“It’s me.”
Another shot sounded.
May you like
Ryan jerked against me.
Then he fell.
