Chapter 2 - The Photograph From Seven Years Ago
Gabriel raised his weapon before the door opened.
Cole entered.
"Easy, sir."
Gabriel lowered the pistol.
Cole noticed the phone.
"What happened?"
Gabriel showed him the photograph.
Cole stared.
"That's impossible."
"No."
Gabriel enlarged the image.
"It's very possible."
The man beside Gabriel's wife was Brigadier General Marcus Hale.
Gabriel's former commanding officer.
His mentor.
The man who had recommended Gabriel for promotion.
And Daniel's godfather.
Gabriel hadn't spoken to Hale in almost two years.
"Could be manipulated," Cole said.
"Check it."
Cole forwarded the photograph to military cyber intelligence.
Elena remained beside Daniel.
Gabriel looked at her.
"You recognized my wife."
Elena shook her head.
"I recognized the hospital entrance."
"That's not what I saw."
Elena said nothing.
Gabriel stepped closer.
"Six years ago, my wife died here."
Elena's eyes rose.
"Here?"
"Lenox Hill."
Elena swallowed.
"I didn't know."
Gabriel believed that part.
But not everything.
"Why did you react?"
Elena looked toward Daniel.
"Because I've seen that man."
"Hale?"
She nodded.
"Where?"
Elena hesitated.
"Here."
Gabriel's pulse changed.
"When?"
"Last week."
General Hale supposedly lived in Virginia.
"What was he doing?"
"I don't know. He was talking to Dr. Mercer."
"Who's Mercer?"
"Cardiology."
Daniel's cardiologist.
Gabriel turned toward Cole.
"Find Mercer."
Cole immediately radioed his team.
No response came from the cardiology department.
Mercer's office was empty.
His phone had been switched off.
Gabriel felt the shape of the conspiracy growing.
Daniel's collapse.
The false badges.
The attackers.
Hale.
Mercer.
And Elena's cloned card.
None of it was random.
Police tactical officers began securing the floor.
Hospital administrators arrived.
Gabriel refused to allow Daniel to be moved until his own people cleared the route.
Twenty minutes later, a pediatric cardiologist named Dr. Sarah Bennett examined him.
"His condition is stable."
"What caused the collapse?"
"We're running tests."
"Could someone have caused it deliberately?"
Dr. Bennett looked uncomfortable.
"Colonel—"
"Answer."
"Certain medications could trigger cardiac instability."
Gabriel stared at her.
"Was he given anything?"
"We don't know yet."
"Find out."
Elena sat silently nearby.
A nurse cleaned the cut above her eyebrow.
Gabriel noticed her wince.
"You need imaging."
"I'm fine."
"You were assaulted."
"So was your son."
Gabriel studied her.
"Why did you stay?"
Elena looked confused.
"You could have run."
"They were hurting a child."
"Most people run from guns."
"I wasn't thinking."
Gabriel almost smiled.
That sounded familiar.
Courage rarely felt like courage while it was happening.
Usually it felt like having no acceptable alternative.
Cole returned.
"Sir."
He handed Gabriel a report.
Daniel's bloodwork had detected traces of digoxin.
Gabriel knew enough medicine to understand.
Heart medication.
Dangerous in excessive doses.
"Daniel isn't prescribed this."
"No."
"Someone poisoned him."
Cole nodded.
Gabriel looked toward his sleeping son.
The hospital attack hadn't started tonight.
It had begun before Daniel arrived.
Someone had poisoned him first.
Then sent men to finish the job.
"Where was Daniel before he collapsed?"
"Home."
"Who was there?"
"Margaret."
Gabriel's stomach tightened.
Margaret had raised Daniel.
She had been with Gabriel's family for years.
"Bring her here."
Cole hesitated.
"She's gone."
"What?"
"Your security team reached the apartment fifteen minutes ago."
Gabriel stared.
"The front door was open."
"Blood?"
"No."
"Signs of struggle?"
"None."
"Phone?"
"Left on the kitchen counter."
Gabriel's thoughts accelerated.
Margaret had called him.
Then disappeared.
Was she taken?
Or had she run?
Elena spoke from behind him.
"Colonel."
Gabriel turned.
She held something small.
"What is that?"
"I found it beneath Daniel's bed."
A plastic medication cap.
The label had been torn away.
Gabriel took it.
Elena pointed toward a tiny handwritten mark.
M-17.
Cole photographed it.
"Could mean anything."
Gabriel remembered the photograph.
Marcus Hale.
M.H.
But M-17?
His phone rang.
Cyber intelligence.
The photograph was authentic.
Metadata dated it seven years earlier.
No manipulation.
Gabriel asked one question.
"Where was it taken?"
The analyst answered.
"Lenox Hill Hospital."
Gabriel looked toward Elena.
His wife had been photographed here with Hale one year before she died.
Why?
Dr. Bennett returned with another piece of information.
Daniel's medical records had been accessed remotely six times in the previous month.
"By whom?"
"Dr. Mercer's credentials."
"Location?"
"We're tracing it."
Gabriel's phone rang again.
This time the number was blocked.
He answered.
Silence.
Then a man's voice.
"You should have stayed at the base."
Gabriel motioned for Cole to trace it.
"Who are you?"
"You know what happens when soldiers ignore orders."
Gabriel's expression hardened.
"You tried to kill my son."
"Daniel was never supposed to become your problem."
Gabriel froze.
"My problem?"
A soft laugh.
"You still don't understand what your wife did."
Gabriel's hand tightened.
"What did she do?"
The caller disconnected.
Cole shook his head.
"Too short."
Gabriel looked at Daniel.
Then Elena.
Then the photograph.
Something about his wife's death had followed them for six years.
And now someone wanted Daniel dead because of it.
Elena suddenly spoke.
"M-17."
Gabriel turned.
"What?"
"I've seen it before."
"Where?"
"Basement storage."
Gabriel stared.
"What exactly?"
"Boxes."
"What boxes?"
"Old medical archives. They're marked M-17."
"Show me."
Cole immediately objected.
"Sir, the building isn't secure."
"Then secure the route."
Elena stood.
Gabriel told Dr. Bennett to remain with Daniel.
He placed two armed officers outside the room.
Then he, Elena, and Cole took the service elevator toward the basement.
The elevator descended.
Elena rubbed her bruised wrist.
Gabriel noticed.
"You don't have to do this."
"Yes, I do."
"Why?"
"Because someone used my badge."
The elevator reached B1.
The doors opened.
Darkness.
Half the basement lights were off.
Cole raised his weapon.
Gabriel did the same.
Elena led them through rows of storage cages.
Finally she stopped.
"There."
A steel door.
M-17.
The lock had been broken.
Gabriel pulled it open.
Inside were dozens of archive boxes.
Elena switched on her flashlight.
Gabriel examined the labels.
Patient numbers.
Dates.
Physician names.
Then Elena stopped moving.
"Colonel."
Gabriel followed her light.
One box sat alone on a metal shelf.
A name was printed across the front.
ISABEL MORETTI.
His wife.
Gabriel pulled it down.
The box should have contained medical files.
Instead, there was a photograph.
A flash drive.
And a sealed envelope.
The handwriting on the envelope belonged to Isabel.
Gabriel recognized it instantly.
Across the front she had written:
FOR GABRIEL—IF THEY EVER COME FOR DANIEL.
Gabriel reached for it.
Then a sound came from behind the storage-room wall.
May you like
Three slow knocks.
Someone was on the other side.
