Chapter 5 - Two Voices in the Dark
I turned.
A man stood in the rear doorway.
Gray hair.
Lean face.
Deep scar along the right side of his jaw.
Older than the father in my memories.
But not unrecognizable.
My knees nearly gave out.
“Dad?”
His eyes filled.
“Nattie.”
Behind me, the person outside knocked again.
Same voice.
My father's voice.
Daniel stepped between me and the front door.
Harper drew his weapon.
The real—or possibly real—James Reed raised both hands.
“That's a recording.”
Grandpa stared at him.
“James.”
James gave him a tired smile.
“Hello, William.”
Seventeen years disappeared and returned at once.
I wanted to hug him.
I wanted to hit him.
I wanted to know whether I was hallucinating.
Instead I asked, “What was my tenth birthday cake?”
He blinked.
“What?”
“Answer.”
“Chocolate.”
“Wrong.”
He smiled.
“You asked for chocolate. Your mother made lemon because she said you changed your mind too often.”
My throat tightened.
“What did you give me?”
“A red bicycle.”
I shook my head.
“Blue.”
“You wanted blue. I bought red. You refused to ride it until I painted it in the garage.”
My eyes burned.
It was him.
I crossed the room.
Stopped three feet away.
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“You're alive.”
His face folded.
“Yes.”
I slapped him.
The sound cracked through the building.
Nobody moved.
James closed his eyes.
“I deserved that.”
I slapped him again.
Daniel took one careful step toward me.
I held up a hand.
Then I hugged my father.
I hated myself for it.
I loved him for being alive.
Both things could exist.
He wrapped his arms around me and began crying.
My father had cried only twice that I remembered.
At his mother's funeral.
And when our dog died.
Now his shoulders shook against mine.
“I'm sorry,” he whispered.
I stepped away.
“Don't say that yet.”
He nodded.
Outside, the recorded voice called my nickname again.
Harper went to a side window.
A small speaker sat near the door connected to a timer.
No person.
A distraction.
“Who set it?” I asked.
James looked toward the darkness.
“The same person who wanted you here before I was ready.”
“Who?”
He didn't answer.
I laughed bitterly.
“Apparently silence runs in this generation.”
“Natalie.”
“No. Seventeen years. You owe me names before explanations.”
He studied me.
Then nodded.
“Marcus Dyer.”
The former Northstar chief engineer.
“Dyer sabotaged Northstar?”
“He carried it out.”
“On whose orders?”
James looked at Harper.
“Jonathan.”
Harper's weapon lowered slightly.
“Don't.”
I turned.
“What?”
Harper looked at James.
“You're not sure.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No. You suspected.”
James stepped toward him.
“I saw the transfer records.”
“You saw credentials.”
“Yours.”
“My credentials were stolen.”
“Twice?”
Harper's jaw tightened.
Grandpa moved between them.
“Enough.”
I looked at my father.
“Proof.”
James nodded.
“That is why I'm here.”
He opened a hidden compartment beneath the desk.
Inside was a ruggedized hard drive.
“I spent seventeen years building this.”
“Seventeen years?”
“Not continuously.”
“While Mom raised me alone.”
His face fell.
“Yes.”
“While she died believing you couldn't come home.”
“She knew why.”
“That doesn't make it better.”
“No.”
Again, he didn't defend himself.
That made anger harder.
He connected the drive to Carter's laptop, which Harper had brought.
Encrypted files appeared.
Financial transactions.
Communication logs.
Access records.
Photographs.
James opened a folder labeled NSTAR.
A sequence of authorization codes appeared.
Harper's.
Then something else.
A routing certificate.
Grandpa leaned closer.
“Rourke's office.”
“Yes,” James said.
I looked at him.
“Rourke ordered it?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
James opened another file.
A personnel photo appeared.
Commander Steven Vale.
My former commanding officer.
I stared.
“You told me Vale didn't order the bulkhead sealed.”
“He didn't.”
“Then why is he here?”
“Because Vale discovered Dyer's sabotage thirty minutes before the fire.”
That made no sense.
“He was incapacitated before the emergency.”
“Exactly.”
My chest tightened.
“He was attacked.”
“Yes.”
“By Dyer?”
“No.”
James opened an audio log.
A voice.
Calm.
Male.
Familiar.
“Commander Vale has become a liability. Remove him from operational control before 0200.”
Harper went pale.
Grandpa closed his eyes.
I recognized the voice.
But it took my brain several seconds to accept it.
Captain Edward Shaw.
My first commanding officer after commissioning.
My mentor.
The man who wrote my recommendation for advanced operations training.
The man who attended my mother's funeral.
The man who had called me every year on the anniversary of my father's supposed death.
I stared at James.
“No.”
He nodded slowly.
“Edward Shaw was working with Dyer.”
“Was?”
“He still is.”
I stood very still.
“Shaw retired.”
“Publicly.”
“Eight years ago.”
“He never stopped.”
“Why?”
“Money initially. Later, leverage.”
“What does he want now?”
James looked at me.
“You.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“No.”
James continued.
“Shaw believes you have something.”
“What?”
“A decryption key.”
“I don't.”
“He thinks your mother gave it to you.”
“My mother?”
James's face changed.
There was another secret.
Of course there was.
“What did Mom do?”
“She helped me.”
“With the investigation?”
“Yes.”
“She was civilian.”
“She was also a cryptographic mathematician.”
I stared at him.
My mother had taught high-school calculus.
At least that was what I thought.
James almost smiled.
“She preferred teaching.”
“You're telling me Mom worked intelligence?”
“For nine years.”
I sat down again.
Daniel whispered, “Your family has some communication issues.”
Despite everything, I laughed once.
It was either that or break something.
James opened another folder.
“Before she died, your mother created a key capable of decrypting Shaw's archived transactions.”
“Where is it?”
“We thought she destroyed it.”
“But Shaw thinks she gave it to me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because of a message she sent me six days before her death.”
He opened a scanned email.
ONE DAY NATALIE WILL UNDERSTAND WHY I KEPT THE COMPASS.
The compass.
I touched my chest instinctively.
I didn't wear it every day.
But I still owned it.
My father's brass Navy compass.
The one my mother gave me after his disappearance.
The one she had said was all they recovered from his car.
My blood went cold.
“It's at home.”
Daniel was already pulling out his phone.
No signal.
Harper checked his.
Nothing.
James swore.
“They're jamming us.”
Outside came the unmistakable sound of tires on gravel.
Several vehicles.
Headlights swept through the cracks in the building.
James shut the laptop.
“Back exit.”
Harper moved toward it.
Grandpa grabbed the hard drive.
Daniel stayed beside me.
Then a voice came over a loudspeaker outside.
“Natalie Reed.”
My entire body froze.
Edward Shaw.
Even after all these years, I recognized him.
“Bring me the compass.”
I looked through a narrow crack.
Three black vehicles blocked the road.
Men were stepping out.
May you like
And Shaw was standing in the middle.
Waiting.
