Chapter 2 - The Helicopter That Wasn't His
Commander Nathan Vale hit the pavement before the helicopter had fully settled.
Kalin stared at him through narrowing vision.
Nathan was supposed to be dead.
At least, that was what the official paperwork said.
She understood immediately.
Cover status.
Just like hers.
Two operators moved behind him carrying medical equipment.
"Keystone located!"
Nathan dropped beside her.
"Stay with me."
Kalin tried to speak.
"Julian—"
"We heard him."
"Clara—"
"We heard her too."
Those four words released something inside her.
Someone knew.
She hadn't imagined it.
She hadn't exaggerated it.
She didn't have to prove it while dying on concrete.
Nathan's team had the recording.
He examined her quickly.
"Get the dressing off."
A medic moved.
Kalin caught his wrist.
"Clara applied it."
"I know."
"Wrong configuration."
"We know that too."
Of course they did.
They had heard everything.
Nathan looked toward Julian.
Kalin followed his gaze.
Her husband was walking back.
Fast.
Clara remained several steps behind him.
"What the hell is this?" Julian demanded.
Nathan didn't answer.
"This is a Croft Corporation operation."
Still nothing.
"I asked you a question."
Nathan finally looked at him.
"Stay where you are."
Julian stopped.
Perhaps it was the tone.
Perhaps it was the operators stepping subtly between him and Kalin.
Julian's expression changed.
"Who are you?"
Nathan turned back to the medics.
"Move."
They lifted Kalin onto a stretcher.
Julian stepped forward.
"She's my wife."
Kalin opened her eyes.
"Was."
He froze.
Even Nathan glanced down at her.
Kalin didn't have enough breath to explain.
She didn't need to.
Julian recovered quickly.
"She has a chest injury. I need to accompany her."
"No," Nathan said.
"Excuse me?"
"You are not boarding this aircraft."
"On whose authority?"
Nathan looked directly at him.
"Mine."
Julian laughed once.
"You have no idea who you're talking to."
Nathan's expression didn't change.
"That's an interesting sentence coming from you."
Clara moved closer.
She had removed Kalin's trauma kit.
Too late.
One of Nathan's operators saw it.
"Sir."
Nathan looked.
The operator pointed.
"Equipment identifier matches."
Clara instinctively covered the pouch.
Julian noticed.
"What identifier?"
No one answered.
The medics loaded Kalin.
Nathan climbed aboard.
Before the door closed, Kalin looked outside.
Julian stood in the rotor wash.
For the first time since she had known him, he looked uncertain.
Then Clara said something to him.
Kalin couldn't hear it.
But she saw his reaction.
He turned sharply toward Clara.
The helicopter lifted.
The alley disappeared beneath them.
Kalin's body finally surrendered.
Darkness came.
When she woke, there was no gunfire.
Only a soft electronic rhythm.
Beep.
Pause.
Beep.
Her eyes opened.
White ceiling.
Hospital.
She tried moving.
Pain stopped her.
"Don't."
Nathan's voice.
She turned her head.
He sat beside the bed.
Older than she remembered.
More gray at the temples.
Still impossible to intimidate.
"You look terrible," Kalin whispered.
Nathan smiled.
"Good morning to you too."
"How long?"
"Thirty-six hours."
She closed her eyes.
"Surgery?"
"Successful."
"Damage?"
"Serious. Recoverable."
She breathed slowly.
"Julian?"
Nathan's smile disappeared.
"Alive."
"Clara?"
"Also alive."
"Free?"
"For now."
Kalin looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because this is bigger than an affair and an operational misconduct investigation."
She didn't respond.
Nathan leaned forward.
"Your route wasn't changed fifteen minutes before the operation."
Kalin frowned.
"It was changed thirty-six hours earlier."
"By Julian."
"Using Julian's credentials."
A chill moved through her.
"Meaning?"
"We're verifying."
Kalin remembered the west alley.
The shooter.
The timing.
"Someone knew where we'd be."
"Yes."
"Julian sent us there."
"His credentials did."
"You're splitting hairs."
"I'm keeping you from reaching a conclusion before the evidence does."
That was Nathan.
Even now.
Especially now.
Kalin looked toward the window.
"My marriage is over."
"I assumed."
"He gave her my armor."
"I saw."
"He took my radio."
"I heard."
"He left me."
Nathan said nothing.
That silence was kinder than reassurance.
Kalin swallowed.
"Did you hear what Clara said?"
"Every word."
"Good."
Nathan's expression hardened.
"There's more."
He placed a tablet on the bedside table.
"The insignia captured a secondary transmission approximately forty seconds before you were hit."
"What transmission?"
"Encrypted burst communication."
"From where?"
"Inside your team's network."
Kalin stared at him.
"Someone was signaling the shooter."
Nathan nodded.
"And that's not the part that concerns me most."
"What does?"
"The encryption architecture."
He tapped the tablet.
A symbol appeared.
Kalin recognized it immediately.
Croft Corporation.
Not the public logo.
An internal security authentication mark.
She looked at Nathan.
"That's impossible."
"Apparently not."
"Julian?"
"We don't know."
Kalin thought about the company.
Julian's grandfather, Arthur Croft, had built it from a regional logistics company into a massive international enterprise.
Three years ago, Arthur had personally recruited Kalin.
Not Julian.
Arthur.
She remembered his words.
My company has grown too large for me to know who is loyal.
At the time, she thought he meant ordinary corporate corruption.
Maybe he hadn't.
"Where is Arthur?" Kalin asked.
Nathan hesitated.
That frightened her more than anything.
"Nathan."
"Arthur Croft disappeared six hours after your shooting."
Kalin stared at him.
"What?"
"His vehicle was found outside one of the company's private hangars."
"Blood?"
"No."
"Signs of struggle?"
"No."
"Security footage?"
"Deleted."
Kalin tried sitting up.
Pain forced her back.
Nathan put a hand near her shoulder without touching.
"Don't."
"Arthur knew something."
"That's our assumption."
"He recruited me."
"I know."
"No. You don't understand."
Nathan waited.
Kalin looked at the ceiling.
"Three years ago, Arthur told me Julian could never know my real status."
Nathan's face sharpened.
"Why?"
"He said Julian trusted the wrong people."
"Names?"
"He never gave me any."
Nathan stood.
"Then we need to find Arthur."
A knock sounded.
A nurse appeared.
"Ms. Croft?"
"Yes?"
"There's an attorney asking to see you."
Kalin frowned.
"Whose attorney?"
"He says Arthur Croft sent him."
Nathan and Kalin exchanged a look.
"Name?" Nathan asked.
"Samuel Reed."
Kalin knew the name.
Arthur's personal attorney.
"Let him in."
Samuel entered carrying a narrow black case.
He looked exhausted.
"Kalin."
"Where is Arthur?"
Samuel closed the door.
"I don't know."
"Then why are you here?"
"Because Arthur instructed me that if you were ever seriously injured during a Croft operation, I was to give you this."
He placed the case on her bed.
Nathan examined it.
"No electronics?"
"None."
Kalin opened it.
Inside was an old-fashioned brass key.
Nothing else.
She picked it up.
A number had been engraved into the metal.
Kalin looked at Samuel.
"What does this open?"
Samuel swallowed.
"I was told not to ask."
"Who else knows about it?"
"No one."
Nathan examined the number.
Kalin turned the key over.
There were four tiny words engraved on the opposite side.
TRUST NO CROFT EXECUTIVE.
Kalin's pulse quickened.
Then Nathan's phone vibrated.
He checked the screen.
His expression changed instantly.
"What?"
Nathan didn't answer.
"Nathan."
He turned the phone toward her.
A secure camera feed showed the hallway directly outside Kalin's hospital room.
A man was approaching the door.
Kalin recognized him.
Julian.
May you like
But he wasn't alone.
Walking beside him was Arthur Croft...
