Chapter 6 - The Last File
Danielle reached her house to find federal vehicles lining the street.
Marcus met her outside.
“Who’s with him?”
“Thomas Vale.”
Danielle stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Vale had been under protection.
Apparently not anymore.
“He left his safe location forty minutes ago.”
“Why?”
“We don’t know.”
Inside, Nathan Cole and Thomas Vale were in Lily’s bedroom.
No weapons were visible through the tactical camera.
But Cole had a dead-man switch.
If agents breached, data would be erased.
Danielle entered alone.
Cole sat on Lily’s bed.
Vale stood by the window.
“Close the door,” Cole said.
Danielle did.
“You’ve lost,” she said.
Cole smiled.
“People like me don’t lose. We negotiate.”
“Foster is dead.”
His smile faded.
“You killed her?”
“No.”
Vale spoke.
“He did.”
Danielle looked at him.
Cole stood.
“Careful.”
Vale continued.
“Elaine wanted to confess. Nathan followed her to the lodge.”
Cole reached inside his jacket.
Danielle tensed.
He produced a flash drive.
“The list.”
Danielle looked at it.
“You sell that list, people die.”
“People have already died.”
“Then give it to me.”
“I want immunity.”
“You kidnapped my daughter.”
“Negotiations involve compromise.”
“No prosecutor in America gives you immunity.”
“Then hundreds of undercover agents remain exposed.”
Danielle looked at Vale.
Why had he come?
Vale answered without being asked.
“I built the encryption.”
Danielle understood.
Cole needed Vale.
The drive was useless without him.
Vale stepped toward Cole.
“I’ll open it.”
Cole smiled.
“Finally.”
“But only after Lily Carter is permanently removed from every file your organization collected.”
Cole laughed.
Danielle watched Vale.
Something was wrong.
His right hand was closed.
He opened it.
A tiny transmitter rested in his palm.
Cole saw it.
His face changed.
“You—”
Agents heard everything.
The door exploded inward.
Cole reached for his gun.
Danielle hit his wrist.
Marcus drove him into the wall.
Within seconds Nathan Cole was on the floor.
Handcuffed.
For the first time in years, the conspiracy had nowhere left to run.
Or so they believed.
Technicians opened the drive.
The list contained 312 names.
Undercover agents.
Informants.
Witnesses.
Some were still active.
Emergency relocations began immediately.
Danielle spent the next eighteen hours coordinating protection.
By the following evening, every living person on the list had been contacted.
Almost every person.
One name remained.
Marcus entered Danielle’s office.
“We can’t locate number 312.”
“Who?”
He handed her the page.
Danielle read it.
Her hands went cold.
CARTER, MICHAEL J.
Her husband.
Lily’s father.
The man Danielle had been told died in a car accident five years earlier.
She looked at Marcus.
“This is wrong.”
“I checked.”
“He’s dead.”
Marcus said nothing.
“He died in Virginia.”
“I know what you were told.”
Danielle stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
Marcus placed an envelope on her desk.
It had arrived at headquarters twelve minutes earlier.
No return address.
Danielle opened it.
Inside was a recent photograph.
Michael Carter.
Older.
Bearded.
Alive.
Standing outside a cabin.
On the back were six words.
DANIELLE — PLEASE LET ME EXPLAIN EVERYTHING.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Danielle answered.
No one spoke.
Then she heard breathing.
A familiar voice whispered her name.
“Danielle.”
May you like
She stopped breathing.
It was Michael.
