Chapter 7 - The Chairman
I did not go alone.
I simply made sure Rourke believed I did.
Nathan hated the plan.
Tessa hated it more.
Daniel looked like he expected to die.
The abandoned airfield sat forty miles outside Washington.
One hangar remained operational.
I drove through the gate with Daniel in the passenger seat.
Federal tactical teams stayed nearly a mile behind us.
No visible support.
No helicopters.
No lights.
My father was somewhere inside.
“You okay?” Daniel asked.
“No.”
“Fair.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
For once, we agreed completely.
I parked.
The hangar doors opened.
Richard Rourke stood beneath a row of industrial lights.
Seventy years old.
Silver hair.
Perfect dark suit.
He looked exactly as he did on television.
Calm.
Respectable.
Untouchable.
My father sat behind him.
Alive.
Hands tied.
Marcus Lawson's fear suddenly made sense.
Rourke smiled.
“Major General Reynolds.”
“Richard.”
“Your mother had your courage.”
“Don't talk about her.”
“She was remarkable.”
“You destroyed her career.”
“I preserved her life.”
My father shouted, “Don't listen to him.”
A man behind Dad struck the chair.
I stepped forward.
“Touch him again and this ends badly.”
Rourke smiled.
“Still commanding.”
Daniel whispered, “Where's the ledger?”
Rourke looked at him.
“Your father asked me the same question shortly before he died.”
Daniel froze.
“You killed him.”
“No.”
“You ordered it.”
Rourke didn't answer.
That was enough.
“Release my father,” I said.
“Give me Daniel.”
“No.”
Daniel looked at me.
Rourke laughed softly.
“You still protect him?”
“I'm protecting the evidence he carries.”
“Very good.”
His smile disappeared.
“Your mother never understood that people are evidence too.”
I kept him talking.
Nathan needed time.
“You forged my authorization.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To compromise you.”
“Why me?”
“Because you were becoming inconvenient.”
“Before I knew anything?”
“You knew more than you realized.”
My father shouted, “Maya, the key!”
Rourke turned.
That mistake cost him.
I moved.
Daniel moved too.
The next five seconds exploded.
My father kicked the chair sideways.
Daniel tackled the nearest guard.
I struck Rourke's wrist as he reached inside his jacket.
A gun hit the concrete.
Federal agents stormed through both entrances.
“FBI! HANDS!”
Rourke froze.
Nathan appeared behind him.
“Richard Rourke, don't move.”
For the first time, the Chairman looked surprised.
Daniel lay on the floor with blood running from his lip.
My father was shouting something.
Tessa cut his restraints.
Nathan handcuffed Rourke.
It should have been over.
It wasn't.
“The key,” Dad said again.
Daniel pulled the brass key from Rourke's pocket.
“Where's the ledger?”
Dad looked at me.
“Your mother hid it.”
“What?”
“She found it before she died.”
My breath stopped.
“Where?”
“Arlington.”
My mother's grave.
We went after sunrise.
Federal agents surrounded the cemetery discreetly.
Dad stood beside me.
Daniel remained under guard several yards away.
Mom's headstone looked exactly as it always had.
Rebecca Anne Reynolds.
Beloved Wife.
Beloved Mother.
Soldier.
Dad knelt.
“There.”
Behind the stone was a small brass plate I had never noticed.
The key fit.
A compartment opened.
Inside was a sealed metal tube.
Nathan removed it carefully.
The ledger inside was handwritten.
Hundreds of entries.
Payments.
Names.
Dates.
Accounts.
Rourke.
Lawson.
Vance.
Whitmore.
Dozens more.
Enough evidence to dismantle the network.
But on the final page, my mother had written something.
James pointed.
I read aloud.
“If this ledger is ever opened, one person inside the network tried to help me. Do not mistake guilt for innocence, but do not mistake guilt for evil either.”
Underneath was a name.
Thomas Whitmore.
Daniel's father.
Daniel stepped closer.
“My father helped her?”
Dad nodded.
“He became an informant.”
Daniel stared at the grave.
“Then why didn't he leave?”
“Because Rourke threatened you and Evelyn.”
Daniel's eyes filled.
For the first time, I understood part of what had happened to his family.
Not forgiveness.
Understanding.
There was a difference.
Nathan turned several pages.
“This is enough.”
“To convict Rourke?”
“And probably twenty others.”
My phone rang.
Evelyn.
I answered.
“Maya.”
Her voice shook.
“Daniel is with me.”
She exhaled.
“Thank God.”
“What is it?”
“I remembered something.”
“What?”
“The night Thomas died, he told me there were two ledgers.”
Nathan heard her.
His expression changed.
“Two?”
“One recorded the money. The other recorded what the money purchased.”
“Where is it?”
“I don't know.”
Then someone spoke behind Evelyn.
A man's voice.
She gasped.
The phone fell.
“Evelyn?”
A struggle.
Then silence.
Daniel grabbed my arm.
“Mom!”
I called again.
No answer.
Nathan's agents moved.
Then a photograph arrived from Evelyn's number.
She was sitting inside her kitchen.
Someone stood behind her.
Only his hand was visible.
On his finger was a military academy ring.
My father stared at it.
“No.”
“What?”
He recognized the ring.
Nathan zoomed in.
Inside the gold crest were engraved initials.
M.L.
May you like
Marcus Lawson.
But Lawson was supposed to be in federal custody.
