Chapter 7 - The File With Jake’s Name
Jake stared at the childhood photograph.
He had been twelve.
Little League uniform.
Missing front tooth.
The picture had been taken outside his parents’ house.
“How do you have that?”
Price smiled through the phone.
“Ask your father.”
The call ended.
Jake stood still.
Daniel Mercer said, “Your father?”
Jake shook his head.
“My dad was a mechanic.”
“Was?”
“Died three years ago.”
Aaron muttered, “Apparently death around here requires verification.”
Jake almost snapped at him.
Then realized Aaron was right.
He called his mother.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Jake?”
“Mom, I need to ask about Dad.”
A pause.
“What happened?”
“Did he ever work for the military?”
“No.”
Too fast.
Jake closed his eyes.
“Mom.”
Silence.
“Please.”
She began crying.
That frightened him more than any answer.
“Your father made me promise.”
“Promise what?”
“He wasn’t always a mechanic.”
Jake sat down.
His father, Michael Reynolds, had served in military intelligence before Jake was born.
Not publicly.
Not for long.
He left after an internal operation went wrong.
“What operation?”
His mother whispered, “Something called Northbridge.”
Jake stopped breathing.
Everyone in the room heard it.
“How?”
“I don’t know details. He said he discovered people selling information. He reported them. Nothing happened.”
“Did he know General Cross?”
“I don’t know.”
Jake remembered his father teaching him strange things as a child.
Always notice exits.
Never leave identification unattended.
If someone asks an unnecessary question, ask yourself why.
Jake thought those were quirks.
Now they looked like training.
“How did Dad die?”
His mother cried harder.
“Car accident.”
“Did you see the body?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
At least one death appeared real.
Jake asked, “Did he leave anything?”
“A locked box.”
“Where?”
“Garage.”
“Mom, don’t open it.”
“Why?”
“Just don’t.”
Aaron already had someone he trusted near Oklahoma retrieve it.
Inside were notebooks.
Old credentials.
A photograph of Michael Reynolds standing beside a much younger Nathaniel Cross.
And Samuel Price.
Jake felt betrayed by the dead.
His father had known them all.
A letter addressed to Jake explained part of it.
Michael Reynolds had helped establish an early security audit unit that later evolved into Northbridge’s classified contracting network.
When corruption appeared, he tried to expose it.
Samuel Price buried the investigation.
Nathaniel Cross supported reopening it but lacked proof.
Michael left the service to protect his family.
Jake looked at Ethan.
“My father and yours were investigating the same people twenty years apart.”
Ethan nodded.
“And neither finished it.”
Jake closed the notebook.
“Then we do.”
The plan was reckless.
Which meant Aaron liked it.
Price wanted the diner device.
They would give him a copy.
Meanwhile federal investigators loyal to Cross would prepare arrests—but only after they identified the complete network.
Northbridge headquarters occupied an ordinary office building outside the city.
Jake would go in alone.
Ethan hated the idea.
“So does General Cross,” Jake said.
“That isn’t a recommendation.”
Price expected Jake because he considered him the least dangerous person involved.
A corporal.
Bruised.
Confused.
Accidental.
Jake intended to remain exactly that in Price’s mind.
He entered Northbridge at 11:48 p.m.
Price waited in a conference room.
Rourke stood beside him.
General Cross sat restrained.
Jake placed the storage device on the table.
“Let him go.”
Price laughed.
“You truly are straightforward.”
“Usually.”
Rourke took the device.
Inserted it into a laptop.
The copied files appeared authentic.
Price nodded.
“Impressive.”
Cross stared at Jake.
A warning in his eyes.
Jake ignored it.
Price walked around him.
“Your father was troublesome too.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
Jake believed him.
“Who did?”
“Bad roads.”
Jake clenched his hands.
Price smiled.
“You wanted a villain. Life rarely cooperates.”
“Why keep a file on me?”
“Insurance.”
“Against a dead mechanic?”
“Against what he might have told you.”
“He told me nothing.”
“We know.”
“Then why attack me?”
Price’s expression changed.
“We didn’t.”
Jake blinked.
“Voss worked for you.”
“Sometimes.”
“Who paid him?”
Rourke said, “Not us.”
Price gave him an annoyed look.
Too late.
Jake had learned something.
There was another faction.
Aaron had suspected it.
Jake asked, “Then who?”
Price leaned close.
“You really don’t know.”
“No.”
For the first time, Price seemed uncertain.
A phone rang.
Rourke answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
Price turned.
“What is it?”
Rourke listened.
Then looked directly at Jake.
“The device is fake.”
Everything exploded into motion.
Price grabbed Cross.
Rourke reached for Jake.
The lights died.
Aaron’s team breached the building.
Jake tackled Rourke.
Cross drove his shoulder into Price.
Gunfire erupted in the hallway.
Within ninety seconds, federal tactical agents controlled the floor.
Rourke was arrested.
Price disappeared.
A hidden elevator had taken him to the parking garage.
Jake freed Cross.
The general looked at him.
“You disobey orders aggressively.”
“I learned from officers.”
Cross almost smiled.
Then Ethan entered.
Father and son saw each other in person for the first time in four years.
Nobody spoke.
Ethan crossed the room.
Cross grabbed him.
The four-star general held his son like he was trying to prove he was real.
Jake looked away.
Some moments did not belong to witnesses.
Then Aaron entered.
“We have a problem.”
Daniel said, “Price?”
“Gone.”
“Bigger.”
Aaron held up Rourke’s phone.
A message had arrived seconds before the raid.
ABORT NORTHBRIDGE. CLEAN ALL SECONDARY ASSETS.
Cross read it.
“From whom?”
Aaron showed him.
The sender was saved under one word.
ARCHITECT.
Jake looked at Price’s abandoned briefcase.
Inside they found a single envelope.
Addressed to Jake Reynolds.
He opened it.
There was a photograph of his father taken two weeks before his death.
Michael Reynolds stood outside Harbor Light Diner.
Beside him was the same waitress.
And another man.
General Cross.
On the back, Michael had written:
IF JAKE EVER MEETS NATHANIEL, THE CLOCK HAS STARTED.
Jake looked up.
Cross had gone pale.
“You knew my father was alive three years ago?”
Cross shook his head.
“No.”
Jake held up the picture.
“Then explain this.”
Cross stared at the date.
May you like
His voice became quiet.
“Because that man beside your father isn’t me.”
