Chapter 3 - What Was Buried in Sector 317
The door swung inward.
Ethan raised his flashlight.
A man stood behind it.
Deputy Jack Mercer.
Blood covered his sleeve.
Wade stared.
"You."
Jack lifted his empty hand.
"Not now."
Ethan looked behind him.
The tunnel continued into darkness.
"Where are the prisoners?"
"Gone."
"Who took them?"
"Vale."
Wade stepped toward Jack.
"You knew about this place."
"I learned about it eleven nights ago."
"My brother?"
Jack looked at him.
"I found Luke alive."
Wade froze.
"Where?"
"Further inside."
They followed Jack.
The tunnel opened into an underground storage chamber.
Crates lined the walls.
Ethan opened one.
Antlers.
Dozens.
Another contained hides.
Another contained weapons with serial numbers removed.
This wasn't casual poaching.
It was organized trafficking.
Jack pointed toward a folding table.
Documents.
Maps.
Payment records.
Photographs.
"This operation's been running for years."
"Vale?" Ethan asked.
"I think he's protecting it."
"Think?"
"I couldn't prove it."
Wade slammed his fist against a crate.
"Luke found proof."
"Yes."
"And that's why they took him."
Jack didn't answer.
They moved deeper.
A smaller chamber contained a chair.
Rope.
Blood.
Wade stopped breathing for a moment.
Then he saw the watch.
It lay on the floor.
His father's watch.
He picked it up with trembling fingers.
"Luke."
Jack crouched beside him.
"I didn't find a body."
Wade looked up.
"Then he's alive."
"Possibly."
Ethan examined the room.
A ventilation opening.
Fresh mud.
Boot marks.
Someone had been moved recently.
He found a piece of torn fabric.
Blue denim.
Wade recognized it.
"Luke's jacket."
Ethan followed the tracks.
They led to another passage.
Then stopped beside a loading platform.
Vehicle tracks continued through a second tunnel.
"They moved him," Ethan said.
"When?" Wade asked.
"Recently."
Jack's radio suddenly activated.
A voice filled the chamber.
"Deputy Mercer."
Captain Vale.
Jack stared at it.
"You're difficult to kill."
Ethan signaled for silence.
Vale continued.
"You've got something I need."
Jack looked at Ethan.
"What?"
"The drive."
Ethan understood.
They knew he'd copied the recordings.
Vale said, "Bring Ethan Cole and the drive to the old ranger station by six."
"And if I don't?"
A second voice came through.
Weak.
"Wade?"
Wade lunged toward the radio.
"Luke!"
The transmission ended.
Wade looked at Ethan.
"He's alive."
"Yes."
"We're going."
Jack shook his head.
"That's what Vale wants."
Ethan looked at the evidence surrounding them.
"No. He wants us afraid."
He photographed every document.
Every crate.
Every weapon.
Then he found something strange.
A personnel file.
His name was on it.
ETHAN COLE.
Inside were photographs of him.
Military records.
Property records.
Daily routines.
Someone had been watching him before he ever installed the cameras.
Jack read over his shoulder.
"Why would they have this?"
Ethan turned the page.
A photograph showed Ethan signing the ranch purchase contract three years earlier.
Behind him stood the real-estate agent.
And Captain Richard Vale.
Ethan had never noticed him.
On the back someone had written:
PROPERTY ACQUISITION FAILED.
SUBJECT REMAINS ON SITE.
Wade whispered, "They wanted this land."
Ethan understood.
The ranch wasn't simply being used because it was isolated.
Someone had expected to own it.
He had interrupted that plan.
The poachers hadn't accidentally chosen his property.
He had accidentally purchased theirs.
Jack opened another folder.
Inside was a geological survey.
The old mine extended beneath federal wilderness land.
Perfect for moving contraband unseen.
Wade looked toward the tunnel.
"Then Luke discovered everything."
"And they couldn't let him leave," Jack said.
Ethan's phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph arrived.
Luke sat tied to a chair.
Alive.
Behind him stood Mara Voss.
The woman from the road.
Underneath was a message:
6:00 P.M.
COME ALONE.
Ethan enlarged the image.
Something on the wall behind Luke caught his attention.
A clock.
And beneath it, a window.
Jack frowned.
"The ranger station doesn't have windows."
Exactly.
The photograph was a lie.
Luke wasn't at the meeting location.
Ethan studied the reflection in the glass.
A building.
White roof.
Radio tower.
He knew it.
The old wildlife research station twelve miles east.
"They're splitting us," Ethan said.
Jack understood immediately.
"Vale expects us at the ranger station while Mara keeps Luke somewhere else."
Wade grabbed his coat.
"Then we go get Luke."
Ethan stopped him.
"Not yet."
"He's my brother."
"And you'll get him killed if you run in blind."
Wade's fists tightened.
Ethan pointed at the photograph.
"Look."
Luke's right hand was partially visible.
Two fingers extended.
Then three.
Then, in the next image sent seconds later, one.
Seven.
317 again.
Not a location this time.
A signal.
Luke knew about the sector.
Maybe he knew more.
Ethan checked the timestamp metadata.
The photograph had been taken seventeen minutes earlier.
They still had time.
Then Jack noticed another detail.
A reflection in the window.
A fifth person.
Not Mara.
Not Vale.
Someone wearing a sheriff's uniform.
Jack zoomed in.
His face went pale.
Ethan looked at him.
"Who is it?"
Jack didn't answer.
"Jack."
May you like
He finally whispered the name.
And Wade stepped backward as if he'd been struck.
