Chapter 6 - The Last Name on the Drive
Governor's security adviser Martin Keane.
Ethan had seen him on television.
Jack stared.
"That's impossible."
"No," Ethan said. "It's inconvenient."
The evidence showed Keane approving land purchases through shell companies.
Including Ethan's ranch.
Years before Ethan bought it, Keane's organization had attempted to acquire the property.
The previous owner refused.
Then died.
Official cause: vehicle accident.
Ethan felt sick.
The ranch had been contaminated by secrets long before he arrived.
Federal investigators moved quickly.
Vale was arrested.
Price surrendered.
Two of the poachers began cooperating.
Mara remained missing.
Rourke remained missing.
Keane publicly denied everything.
Then Ethan received a message.
NO CALLER ID.
COME TO THE NORTH MEADOW.
ALONE.
Jack told him not to go.
Ethan went anyway.
But not recklessly.
Federal agents positioned themselves beyond the ridge.
Ethan walked into the meadow.
Mara emerged from the trees.
No weapon visible.
"You came."
"You knew I would."
She handed him a phone.
"Rourke contacted me."
A recording played.
Rourke's voice.
He was furious.
He blamed Keane.
Claimed Keane had ordered the killing of Luke.
Claimed Keane had ordered Ethan removed from the ranch.
Most importantly, Rourke gave a location.
An abandoned freight depot.
"Why give me this?" Ethan asked.
Mara looked toward the dead elk's resting place.
"Because I watched those men laugh."
Ethan waited.
"I told myself I was just security," she said. "Then I watched them kill something helpless for fun, and I realized what kind of people I'd chosen to stand beside."
"That doesn't erase what you did."
"I know."
She raised her hands as federal agents approached.
"I'll testify."
That night, investigators surrounded the freight depot.
Rourke was inside.
So was Keane.
Each had apparently planned to betray the other.
Recorded arguments gave investigators what the drive couldn't.
Admissions.
Orders.
Names.
Rourke tried to flee.
He was arrested before reaching his vehicle.
Keane surrendered.
No dramatic final gunfight.
No revenge.
Ethan preferred it that way.
Prison lasted longer than a bullet.
By morning, the network was collapsing across several states.
Luke survived.
Wade stayed beside him at the hospital.
Jack was suspended briefly while investigators reviewed his unauthorized actions, then cleared.
Mara entered federal custody and agreed to cooperate.
The three original trespassers faced charges for poaching, weapons offenses, conspiracy, and their roles in the larger network.
For the first time in weeks, Ethan returned home believing the danger might actually be over.
He repaired Camera Seven.
Then he walked to the place where the elk had fallen.
Wildlife officers had removed the body earlier.
Only disturbed snow remained.
He stood there quietly.
One needless act of cruelty had exposed years of hidden crimes.
His phone rang.
Jack.
"They found something."
Ethan closed his eyes.
"What?"
"Another compartment inside Luke's drive."
"More evidence?"
"I don't know."
"Why?"
"Because it's addressed to you."
Ethan drove to the sheriff's office.
Jack waited beside a computer.
The encrypted file required a password.
Ethan tried his old call sign.
Failed.
His Navy service number.
Failed.
Then he remembered Rourke's words.
You were always difficult to surprise.
Ethan typed the date of his final deployment.
The file opened.
A letter appeared.
Not from Rourke.
From a man Ethan had believed dead for sixteen years.
Chief Petty Officer Daniel Cross.
Ethan's closest friend.
Killed during the operation Rourke had manipulated.
Except the letter had been written only four months earlier.
Ethan's hands went still.
Jack whispered, "Ethan?"
He couldn't answer.
At the bottom of the letter was an address.
Montana.
Less than eighty miles away.
And one sentence:
IF ROURKE HAS FALLEN, COME FIND ME.
Ethan stared at it.
Then someone knocked on the sheriff's office door.
Three times.
Jack looked toward the hallway.
The receptionist had gone home.
The building should have been locked.
Another knock.
Ethan stood.
A shadow appeared through the frosted glass.
May you like
Then a familiar voice said his name.
A voice Ethan had last heard sixteen years ago.
