Chapter 4 - The Man in the Helicopter
Daniel pulled Claire away from the window.
"Back exit."
She resisted.
"Vale is downstairs."
"Exactly."
"I've waited six years."
"Claire, he wants you angry."
"Good."
"That's how this started."
She looked at her brother.
"Then tell me how it started."
Daniel hesitated.
Outside, vehicle doors closed.
No time.
He spoke quickly.
"Vale created Black Lantern."
"I know."
"No. You know he supervised it. He created it because he suspected a corruption network had penetrated special operations."
"Then why betray us?"
"He didn't."
Claire stared.
"Mercer said the extraction change came from Vale."
"It did."
"That's betrayal."
"No. The original extraction location was compromised. Vale changed it to save us."
"But the new location was ambushed."
"Because someone inside Vale's own command read the change."
Claire understood.
The enemy had access deeper than Vale.
"Then why did Vale disappear from everything?"
"Because he became a suspect."
Footsteps entered the hallway.
Daniel opened the bathroom window.
"Move."
Claire grabbed his arm.
"Mercer brought Vale here."
"I saw."
"Then maybe Mercer isn't hunting us."
Daniel gave her a hard look.
"Or he delivered Vale."
A knock.
"Captain Maddox," Mercer called. "Open the door."
Daniel slipped through the window.
Claire followed.
They crossed a narrow service alley.
Behind them, Mercer entered the room and saw the open window.
"Claire!"
She kept moving.
Ten minutes later they reached Hangar Four.
It hadn't been used officially in years.
Daniel produced an access card.
"Why do you have that?"
"Long story."
"Those are becoming annoying."
Inside, darkness.
Then runway lights spilled through cracked doors.
A single aircraft sat beneath canvas.
Claire recognized its shape.
The same unmarked helicopter from the photograph.
Her heart pounded.
"This was the Black Lantern bird."
"Yes."
"I thought it was destroyed."
"That's what the report said."
Daniel led her toward the cargo bay.
Inside was an old communications console.
He opened a panel.
Empty.
"No."
"What?"
"There's supposed to be a drive here."
Claire heard movement behind them.
She turned.
Vale stood at the hangar entrance.
Mercer beside him.
Neither held weapons.
Vale was seventy now.
Silver hair.
Straight posture.
The same eyes Claire remembered from classified briefings.
"Captain Maddox," Vale said.
Claire stepped between him and Daniel.
"Stay there."
Vale looked at Daniel.
"Good to see you alive."
Daniel's expression held no warmth.
"You knew."
"Not until two years ago."
Claire glanced between them.
"You two haven't been working together?"
Daniel laughed bitterly.
"Not a chance."
Mercer raised his hands.
"We need to stop treating everyone like the enemy."
Claire said, "That's exactly what the enemy would say."
Vale almost smiled.
"Daniel told me you were difficult."
"Daniel told me you were involved."
"I was."
Claire's stare sharpened.
"In what?"
"Building Black Lantern."
"Destroying it?"
"No."
"Keeping my brother legally dead?"
Vale's silence told her enough.
Daniel stepped forward.
"You signed the death certificate."
"I did."
"Why?"
"Because if the people hunting you believed you survived, Claire would have been next."
Claire looked at her brother.
"You agreed to that?"
Daniel nodded reluctantly.
"For the first few months."
"Months became six years."
"I lost control."
Vale explained.
"Daniel was moved between safe sites. Then one site wasn't ours."
Claire understood.
"They took him."
"For four years," Daniel said.
Claire stared at him.
Four years.
Captivity.
Interrogation.
And she'd been living her ordinary career believing him buried.
"Who?"
Daniel looked toward Vale.
"Ask him about Lantern Seven."
Vale's expression changed.
"I never knew Seven's identity."
"You knew it existed."
"Yes."
Claire slammed the bus-terminal key onto a nearby table.
"Everyone knows everything except me."
Vale looked at the key.
Then at Daniel.
"You gave her 214."
Daniel said nothing.
Vale exhaled.
"Then we're out of time."
Claire stepped close.
"No more riddles."
Vale nodded.
"Lantern Seven wasn't an operator."
Claire frowned.
"What?"
"It was a protocol."
Daniel looked away.
Vale continued.
"If Black Lantern was compromised, one surviving operator would become Seven."
Claire's stomach tightened.
"Which operator?"
"The one least suspected by the network."
She already knew.
Vale said it anyway.
"You."
Claire stared.
"No."
"Daniel's job after Al-Qaim was to ensure you never knew."
"Why?"
"Because Seven only worked if you lived naturally."
Claire laughed once.
"You're telling me my life was an undercover operation I didn't know I was running?"
"In a sense."
"That's insane."
"Your assignments, contacts, promotions, travel—every interaction allowed us to map people who still showed interest in Black Lantern."
Claire looked at Daniel.
"You monitored me."
He couldn't meet her gaze.
"You used me as bait."
"Claire—"
"You used me as bait for six years."
Vale intervened.
"To keep you alive."
"Stop saying that like it excuses everything."
Mercer moved slightly.
Claire noticed.
"What?"
He looked toward the rafters.
"We're not alone."
Daniel reached for Claire.
A red laser appeared on Vale's chest.
"Down!"
Claire slammed Vale sideways.
A suppressed shot struck the aircraft.
Mercer dragged Daniel behind equipment.
More shots.
Claire located the shooter above.
She moved.
Fast.
Not toward the exit.
Toward a maintenance ladder.
"Claire!" Daniel shouted.
She climbed.
The shooter shifted position.
Claire anticipated it.
She reached the catwalk as he rounded a beam.
Masked.
Compact rifle.
He fired.
She ducked, closed distance, trapped the weapon, and slammed the barrel into the railing.
The rifle fell.
The attacker drew a knife.
Claire caught his wrist.
He was strong.
Professional.
They struggled silently.
Then she saw his forearm.
Tattoo.
A black lantern flame.
Her grip loosened in shock.
He took advantage.
Kicked her backward.
Then ran.
Claire followed.
He jumped from the catwalk onto stacked equipment, then toward a side door.
Daniel intercepted him.
They collided.
The mask tore free.
Everyone froze.
The attacker was Caleb Rhodes.
Claire stared.
"No."
Caleb's face was emotionless.
Daniel held him against the wall.
Mercer approached.
"Caleb?"
Caleb looked at Claire.
"I'm sorry."
"You're Seven?"
He laughed softly.
"No."
Then he bit down.
Daniel reacted.
Too late.
A hidden capsule.
Poison.
Claire grabbed Caleb's jaw, but he was already convulsing.
"Who sent you?"
Caleb gasped.
His eyes found Claire.
"They know."
"Who?"
"Everyone."
"Who sent you?"
Caleb whispered one word.
"Director."
Then he went still.
Silence consumed the hangar.
Mercer stared at the dead soldier.
"He saved our lives tonight."
Daniel shook his head.
"He was activated."
Vale looked older suddenly.
"This network still owns people."
Claire searched Caleb.
Inside his pocket she found a keycard.
Meridian Strategic Systems.
And a handwritten number:
Same as Daniel's key.
Claire looked toward her brother.
"The bus terminal."
Vale said, "Don't go."
"I'm done being told where not to go."
At dawn, the four of them entered Columbus bus terminal separately.
Locker 214 stood at the end of a dim corridor.
Claire inserted the key.
Inside was a small hard case.
Daniel looked confused.
"I didn't put that there."
Claire opened it.
A laptop.
One file already displayed.
LIVE FEED.
She clicked.
Video appeared.
Her mother's old house in Ohio.
A woman entered frame.
Claire stopped breathing.
Impossible.
Her mother had died three years ago.
Yet the woman on screen had the same gray hair.
Same posture.
Same face.
The woman looked directly into the camera.
Then she said:
"Claire, if you're watching this, Daniel lied to you."
Daniel stepped backward.
Claire slowly turned toward him.
May you like
The video continued.
"And the person who ordered Black Lantern destroyed is standing beside you right now."
