Chapter 6 - The Enemy Inside
They got into Aaron’s vehicle.
Not because they trusted him.
Because bullets made philosophical disagreements less important.
Aaron drove like a man accustomed to being chased.
Daniel Mercer sat beside him.
Neither brother spoke.
Jake, Ethan, and Hale remained in back.
Finally Daniel said, “Six years.”
Aaron kept watching the road.
“I know.”
“You let Mom bury you.”
Aaron’s jaw tightened.
“I know.”
“You watched us grieve?”
“No.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I said I know.”
Daniel hit him.
One punch.
Hard.
Aaron kept the SUV on the road.
“Feel better?”
“No.”
“Hit me again later.”
Jake almost respected the answer.
Ethan leaned forward.
“You said Cross’s command center was compromised.”
Aaron nodded.
“Rourke isn’t the top.”
“Who is?”
“If I knew, I’d have ended this already.”
Hale looked skeptical.
“You’ve been working for them for years.”
“I’ve been pretending.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
Aaron ignored him.
“Northbridge is a front. Rourke handles recruitment. Someone higher protects it.”
“How high?” Jake asked.
Aaron glanced at him in the mirror.
“High enough to redirect federal investigations.”
Jake leaned back.
“Great.”
Aaron looked at him again.
“You’re Reynolds?”
“Unfortunately.”
The corner of Aaron’s mouth twitched.
“You really bought Cross dinner?”
“Everybody keeps asking me that.”
“Because it’s insane.”
“It was eggs.”
“It was a four-star general.”
“He wasn’t wearing stars.”
Aaron shook his head.
“This whole operation may collapse because you paid for pancakes.”
“Eggs.”
“Whatever.”
They reached an abandoned farmhouse Aaron used as a safe location.
Inside were weapons, radios, maps, and years of records.
Daniel stared.
“You lived like this?”
“Sometimes.”
“What happened to your life?”
Aaron looked at him.
“This became it.”
Ethan connected the diner device to Aaron’s secured system.
More files decrypted.
Names appeared.
Dozens.
Some guilty.
Some targets.
Some dead.
Jake saw his own name.
Added thirteen days earlier.
Classification:
INCIDENTAL CONTACT — MONITOR.
Then updated after the attack:
POTENTIAL LEVERAGE AGAINST CROSS.
Jake’s anger rose.
“I’m leverage?”
Aaron nodded.
“They thought your interaction embarrassed Cross.”
“It didn’t.”
“They don’t understand people well.”
“Apparently.”
Another file showed General Cross’s schedule.
Every movement.
Including his current secure location.
Ethan stood.
“They know where he is.”
Aaron checked the timestamp.
“Updated twenty minutes ago.”
Hale reached for his phone.
Aaron grabbed his wrist.
“No calls.”
“How do we warn him?”
“We don’t.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
“We find who is leaking the location first.”
Jake looked at the list of people inside Cross’s command center.
Colonel Hale.
Captain Ellison.
Major Mercer.
Three federal agents.
Two aides.
And General Cross’s executive officer.
Major General Samuel Price.
Ethan went still.
“What?”
Aaron pointed to Price’s name.
“He was there the night you disappeared.”
Ethan stared.
“He helped my father search for me.”
“Exactly.”
Aaron opened another file.
Payments.
Shell corporation.
Recipient code: SP-1.
Daniel whispered, “Samuel Price.”
Hale shook his head.
“He’s been Cross’s closest friend for thirty years.”
Ethan looked sick.
“That’s why he could do it.”
Jake remembered something.
“The voice.”
Everyone looked at him.
“The recording from the bunker. Rourke was talking to someone. I said the second voice sounded familiar.”
Aaron played it.
Jake listened.
This time he knew.
Price.
They needed proof.
Not suspicion.
Ethan found it in an archived video.
General Price meeting Rourke at Northbridge headquarters.
Three years earlier.
He handed Rourke a file.
Aaron paused the video.
The label was visible.
CROSS, NATHANIEL — CONTINGENCY.
Daniel breathed out.
“We call him.”
Aaron nodded.
“But carefully.”
They used an old emergency frequency Ethan knew his father monitored.
General Cross answered.
Aaron spoke first.
“General, this is Aaron Mercer.”
Silence.
“You’re supposed to be dead.”
“I get that a lot.”
They told him about Price.
Cross refused to believe it at first.
Then Ethan came on.
“Dad, listen to me.”
Cross did.
Ethan described the video.
The payments.
The schedule leak.
General Cross became silent.
Then asked one question.
“Where is Price now?”
Aaron said, “With you.”
A faint sound came through the radio.
A door closing.
General Cross whispered, “Yes.”
Jake’s chest tightened.
Cross continued normally.
“Understood. I’ll review it.”
They realized someone else had entered the room.
Price.
Cross could not speak freely.
Aaron wrote something on paper.
KEEP HIM TALKING.
Jake leaned toward the radio.
“General?”
“Corporal Reynolds.”
Jake thought fast.
“Sir, about the diner.”
Cross paused.
“Yes?”
“You still owe me twelve dollars.”
Everyone stared at Jake.
General Cross understood.
If he answered casually, Price might believe the call harmless.
Cross said, “I believe it was fourteen with coffee.”
Jake smiled.
“Twelve eighty-six.”
“Send me an invoice.”
Behind Cross, Price’s voice became audible.
“Nathaniel, everything okay?”
Cross answered.
“Corporal Reynolds is apparently collecting debts.”
Price laughed.
Then Cross said something strange.
“Tell the waitress I prefer Booth Seven.”
Aaron frowned.
Ethan suddenly understood.
“Code.”
“What?”
“Dad and I used to meet at Harbor Light. Booth Seven meant emergency extraction.”
Aaron grabbed keys.
“He’s telling us to come get him.”
They moved.
General Cross was located at an old operations annex north of the base.
Aaron knew a maintenance entrance.
They reached it in twenty-seven minutes.
Too late.
The command center was empty.
No Cross.
No Price.
Blood on the floor.
Jake found General Cross’s four-star cap beneath a chair.
Ethan stared at it.
Daniel found a security recording.
They played it.
Price entered.
Talked with Cross.
Then two armed men appeared.
Cross fought.
At sixty-six years old, the general knocked one man down.
Then Price struck him from behind.
They dragged Cross away.
The recording ended.
Ethan stood frozen.
Jake placed the cap in his hands.
“We’ll find him.”
Ethan looked at Jake.
“You can’t promise that.”
“No.”
Jake’s phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
Video call.
Aaron said, “Don’t answer.”
Jake did.
General Price appeared on-screen.
Behind him sat Nathaniel Cross, restrained but conscious.
Price smiled.
“Corporal Reynolds.”
Jake’s stomach turned.
“What do you want?”
“The device.”
Ethan moved closer.
Price saw him.
For the first time, his smile vanished.
“Well.”
Cross looked up.
His eyes found his son.
Price recovered.
“Bring the storage device to Northbridge headquarters by midnight.”
“And then?”
“I release General Cross.”
“No, you won’t.”
Price smiled.
“You’re learning.”
Jake clenched his jaw.
Price leaned toward the camera.
“There’s another reason I called you.”
“What?”
“You still think your involvement began when you paid his dinner bill.”
Jake said nothing.
Price’s smile widened.
“It didn’t.”
He raised a folder.
May you like
Jake saw his own childhood photograph clipped to the front.
“You were on our list long before that rainy night.”
