Chapter 5 - The Man from Ethan's Past
Admiral Thomas Rourke entered without a weapon in his hands.
Age had changed him.
His hair was white.
His shoulders slightly narrower.
But the eyes were identical.
"Been a long time," Rourke said.
Ethan didn't move.
"Not long enough."
Rourke glanced at Luke.
"So you found him."
Wade stepped forward.
"Stay away from my brother."
Rourke barely acknowledged him.
His attention remained on Ethan.
"You were always difficult to surprise."
"You weren't surprised. You knew I owned this ranch."
"I knew eventually."
"Your file says otherwise."
That changed Rourke's expression.
Only slightly.
But Ethan saw it.
"You found the mine."
"Yes."
Rourke sighed.
"Then Vale has become even more incompetent than I thought."
Mara stood near the wall.
"You promised nobody would get hurt."
Rourke looked at her.
"And nobody needed to."
"The elk?"
"An animal."
Mara flinched.
Ethan understood something then.
Mara wasn't innocent.
But she wasn't comfortable with what this operation had become.
Rourke had recruited people by degrees.
A favor.
A shipment.
A lie.
Then one day they discovered they were standing inside something too large to leave.
"What are you moving through the tunnels?" Ethan asked.
Rourke smiled faintly.
"Evidence."
"Of what?"
"Everything powerful people prefer forgotten."
Luke spoke from the chair.
"Wildlife trafficking is just money on the side."
Rourke looked at him.
"You should have stayed curious about smaller things."
Luke continued.
"They move stolen weapons. Documents. Cash. Anything that can't cross normal checkpoints."
Ethan stared at Rourke.
"You built a private smuggling route."
"I inherited opportunities."
"Using federal land."
"Using geography."
Sirens sounded faintly outside.
Rourke's smile disappeared.
Jack had succeeded.
Federal teams were coming.
Rourke stepped toward the door.
Mara raised her handgun.
Not at Ethan.
At Rourke.
"Stop."
Rourke turned.
"You won't shoot me."
"No."
Her hands trembled.
"But I'm done helping you."
Rourke smiled sadly.
"You were done the moment those idiots killed that elk."
He moved.
Mara fired.
The bullet struck the wall.
Chaos erupted.
Ethan pulled Luke and Wade behind cover.
Rourke escaped through a side door.
Mara ran after him.
Federal vehicles surrounded the station minutes later.
Jack arrived with wildlife agents.
Luke was carried outside.
Alive.
Wade refused to leave his side.
Mara disappeared.
Rourke disappeared.
But the station was theirs.
So was the evidence.
Or so Ethan thought.
An agent emerged carrying a laptop.
"It's wiped."
Another investigator came from the storage room.
"Files too."
Luke shook his head.
"There's another copy."
Everyone turned.
"Where?" Ethan asked.
Luke looked at him.
"Your ranch."
Ethan's expression hardened.
Luke explained.
Months earlier, he'd discovered Rourke's people entering the old mine.
He copied part of their database onto a portable drive.
When they discovered him, he hid it before being captured.
"Where?"
"The elk meadow."
Ethan stared.
Luke nodded.
"Under Camera Seven."
The camera the poachers had destroyed.
Ethan understood why they had been near the elk.
They hadn't originally come to hunt.
They were searching for Luke's drive.
The elk had walked into the clearing.
One idiot had fired.
That single shot had triggered Ethan's security system.
Their entire operation had begun collapsing because someone couldn't resist pulling a trigger.
They returned immediately.
The destroyed camera lay in the snow.
Ethan dug beneath the mounting post.
Metal box.
Inside was a waterproof drive.
Jack exhaled.
"We have them."
Ethan looked at the mountains.
"Not until Rourke is found."
The drive contained years of transactions.
Names.
Accounts.
Routes.
Officials.
Vale appeared repeatedly.
Price too.
But Rourke's name was absent.
Careful.
Always insulated.
Then Ethan found an encrypted folder.
EAGLE THREE.
His old call sign.
He opened it.
Photographs from his military service appeared.
Mission reports.
Personnel files.
Then a document dated seventeen years earlier.
Ethan read it twice.
Rourke had used Ethan's sniper unit unknowingly to secure territory connected to an illegal weapons transfer overseas.
Men in Ethan's unit had died.
Rourke had buried the truth.
Ethan stared at the screen.
This wasn't simply about the ranch.
Rourke's criminal network had begun before Ethan retired.
Maybe before Ethan had ever met him.
Jack stood beside him.
"You okay?"
"No."
"What are you going to do?"
"Make sure this gets somewhere he can't erase it."
They uploaded copies simultaneously to federal investigators, an attorney, and multiple secure servers.
Then Ethan noticed the final file.
A video.
Recorded eleven nights earlier.
Luke had made it.
He was breathing hard, apparently hiding inside the mine.
"If you're watching this," Luke whispered, "I found the person actually controlling the Montana route."
He looked behind him.
"They think it's Rourke."
Ethan leaned closer.
Luke continued.
"It isn't."
The video ended.
A second file appeared beneath it.
One photograph.
May you like
Ethan opened it.
And recognized the person standing beside Rourke.
