Chapter 5 - The Agent on Trial
By sunrise, Danielle Carter’s face was everywhere.
FEDERAL AGENT LINKED TO MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR CORRUPTION SCHEME.
The allegations were fabricated.
But they were sophisticated.
Bank transfers appeared to lead to Danielle.
Witness statements carried signatures.
Photographs placed her near secret meetings.
Even internal FBI reports appeared authentic.
Nathan Cole had spent years preparing insurance.
Danielle was suspended pending investigation.
Her firearm was surrendered.
Her credentials were temporarily taken.
The humiliation in the diner now seemed almost small.
Lily sat beside Danielle in Rachel’s apartment watching cartoons with the volume low.
“You’re not really in trouble, are you?”
Danielle sat beside her.
“Some people are saying things that aren’t true.”
“Because you’re FBI?”
“Because I found something they didn’t want found.”
Lily considered that.
“Then prove they’re lying.”
Danielle smiled.
“That’s the plan.”
Thomas Vale provided the first break.
The silver bird contained encrypted files.
But not merely financial records.
Audio.
Video.
Dates.
Cole meeting Mercer.
Cole paying officials.
Cole discussing Vale’s murder.
Enough to destroy careers.
Not enough to clear Danielle.
Because the fabricated records had been inserted into federal systems years earlier.
Someone besides Cole had helped.
Marcus visited that evening.
“We found the access logs.”
“And?”
“Your files were altered from headquarters.”
“Cole?”
“No.”
“Who?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Deputy Director Elaine Foster.”
Danielle stared.
The conspiracy reached higher than they imagined.
“Where is she?”
“Missing.”
Danielle laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Marcus placed a photograph on the table.
Security footage from an airport.
Foster boarding a private aircraft.
Beside her stood Nathan Cole.
Timestamp: ninety minutes ago.
“They’re leaving the country.”
“Where?”
“Flight plan says Montreal.”
“You believe that?”
“No.”
Neither did Danielle.
She studied the photograph.
Behind Foster was a luggage cart.
One suitcase had a sticker.
A blue mountain.
Danielle recognized it.
Black Ridge Lodge.
The same lodge from the photograph Melissa had found.
“They aren’t leaving.”
Marcus leaned closer.
Danielle pointed.
“They want us chasing an airplane.”
Black Ridge Lodge was seventy miles west.
Federal agents surrounded it before midnight.
Danielle was technically prohibited from participating.
Marcus technically did not notice her in the second vehicle.
Inside the lodge they found Elaine Foster.
Dead.
One gunshot.
Nathan Cole was gone again.
But Foster had left something.
A recorded confession.
She admitted helping Cole manipulate databases.
She admitted falsifying evidence against Danielle.
She admitted accepting money.
And she named seventeen officials.
Danielle was cleared by morning.
Her badge was returned.
But Cole remained missing.
Mercer, recovering in federal custody, requested to speak with her.
Danielle visited the hospital.
He looked smaller without the uniform.
“You hate me,” he said.
“I don’t have enough time to hate everyone who disappoints me.”
Mercer almost laughed.
“I deserved that.”
“You deserved charges.”
“I know.”
“Why humiliate me in front of Lily?”
Mercer looked toward the window.
“Cole ordered me to arrest you.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“He wanted you angry.”
“Why?”
“So you’d use your credentials.”
Danielle understood.
“The diner cameras.”
Mercer nodded.
“He needed public confirmation you were actively investigating.”
“Why?”
“To activate the insurance files against you.”
The fabricated evidence.
Her arrest had been bait.
Danielle stood.
“Where is Cole?”
“I don’t know.”
She started toward the door.
“Agent Carter.”
Danielle stopped.
Mercer looked frightened.
“He has one last file.”
“What file?”
“Something Vale never knew about.”
“What?”
Mercer swallowed.
“A list.”
“Of what?”
“Federal agents whose identities were sold to criminal organizations.”
Danielle stared.
“How many?”
“Hundreds.”
Her phone rang.
Marcus.
She answered.
“We found Cole.”
“Where?”
“Your house.”
Danielle’s blood turned cold.
“Why?”
Marcus paused.
“He’s inside Lily’s bedroom.”
Danielle was already running.
May you like
Then Marcus said the words that stopped her in the hallway.
“And he isn’t alone.”
