Chapter 9 - The Man Behind the Glass
Police lights flooded the warehouse windows.
The voice belonged to Samuel.
He emerged from the darkness with his hands raised.
Ethan stared.
“You followed us?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To stop Grant.”
Samuel had received the same message.
The envelope was genuine.
David had written it shortly before his death.
Ethan opened it.
His father explained everything.
Grant had become obsessed with David's research.
Eleanor's testimony made her dangerous to him.
David and Ethan's mother decided that keeping Ethan away from Eleanor would reduce Grant's interest in her.
It worked.
But David regretted the cost.
One line destroyed Ethan.
I suspect Eleanor cares for you, and I suspect you would care for her if you ever slowed down long enough to notice.
Ethan stopped reading.
Eleanor turned away.
Samuel quietly left them alone.
“Your father was apparently smarter than both of us,” Eleanor said.
Ethan folded the letter.
“He usually was.”
They walked outside.
Dawn was beginning.
Eleanor stood beside her car.
“Ethan, whatever this is between us, don't let twenty years make the decision.”
“What does that mean?”
“You don't owe me love because I loved you at sixteen.”
“I know.”
“You don't owe me a repaired ending.”
“I know.”
“Then what do you want?”
He couldn't answer.
Not yet.
That frightened him.
So Eleanor nodded.
“Figure it out.”
She drove away.
For the next week they kept distance.
Professionally, they were inseparable.
Personally, careful.
Horizon recovered.
Grant remained missing.
Federal investigators reopened the old theft case.
Vanessa agreed to testify.
Samuel provided records.
Then Hale Orbital announced Horizon's final demonstration.
Grant made his move.
A propulsion control module failed twelve minutes before ignition.
An engineer discovered deliberate tampering.
Eleanor evacuated the test area.
Ethan refused to leave until every technician was accounted for.
One was missing.
Daniel Cho.
Ethan found him unconscious in a maintenance corridor.
Beside him lay a Hale Orbital badge.
Grant Whitmore.
Grant was inside.
Security sealed the facility.
Ethan carried Daniel toward medical personnel.
Then saw Eleanor across the hangar.
Behind her, a man in a technician's uniform approached.
Grant.
“Eleanor!”
She turned.
Grant grabbed her.
He held a small blade.
Security froze.
Grant pulled Eleanor backward toward an exit.
“You destroyed everything,” he whispered.
Eleanor remained unnaturally calm.
“No. You did.”
Grant looked toward Ethan.
“Your father stole my future.”
“My father stopped you from stealing his.”
Grant's face twisted.
“You believe whatever dead men write.”
Eleanor suddenly drove her heel down onto Grant's foot and twisted away.
Security moved.
Grant ran.
Ethan reached Eleanor.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He touched her shoulders, checking anyway.
She looked at him.
His hands were shaking.
“I thought—”
He stopped.
“What?”
“I thought I lost you.”
Eleanor's expression softened.
“You didn't.”
Security cornered Grant near the launch control corridor.
Police arrived.
Grant was arrested.
For the first time in twenty years, the threat was over.
Or so they believed.
That evening federal agents searched Grant's possessions.
They found a key.
A bank deposit key.
The box belonged to Vanessa.
When investigators opened it, they found one document.
A contract signed six months earlier.
May you like
It authorized the sale of confidential Horizon technology.
At the bottom was Eleanor Rowan's signature.
