Chapter 5 - The Man Inside Black Wing
Nathan stopped.
Keller raised his hands.
"That message wasn't from me."
Nathan stared at him.
"Your photograph."
"Taken ten years ago."
"Your signature."
"Forged."
"Convenient."
Keller stepped inside.
"Then arrest me."
Nobody moved.
Keller placed his phone on the desk.
"Check everything."
Daniel did.
The message had been spoofed.
The photograph was old.
Keller had known Laura was alive once, but not where she was now.
Nathan felt betrayal layered over betrayal.
"Who sold Black Wing?"
Keller looked toward Rebecca.
"That's why I'm here."
He opened an envelope.
Inside was a personnel photograph.
Colonel Adrian Cross.
Black Wing's intelligence liaison.
Officially killed during an operation thirteen years earlier.
Nathan stared.
"Cross is dead."
Keller answered:
"No."
Another ghost.
Cross had sold information to Sloane.
Laura discovered the payments.
That discovery caused her disappearance.
Nathan's team had spent years hunting Cross without telling him.
"Enough secrets," Nathan said.
Rebecca nodded.
"Agreed."
Daniel traced the spoofed message.
Cross wanted Nathan at a rural property.
They notified federal agents.
Then Nathan went.
Not alone.
But appearing alone.
The property was an old farmhouse.
Laura sat inside.
Alive.
Nathan saw her through a window.
Eleven years collapsed.
He entered.
Adrian Cross stood behind her.
Gray-haired now.
Older.
Still recognizable.
"Nathan."
"Let her go."
Laura looked at her husband.
Tears filled her eyes.
"Nate."
He almost broke.
Cross smiled.
"Beautiful reunion."
Nathan ignored him.
"Laura, are you hurt?"
"No."
"Emily's alive."
Laura closed her eyes.
Relief.
Cross's smile disappeared.
"Your daughter created an enormous problem."
"You mean she survived."
"I mean she connected everything."
Cross wanted Maya's drive.
Nathan had anticipated that.
He carried a copy.
"Release Laura."
"Drive first."
Nathan placed it on the floor.
Cross stepped forward.
That was his mistake.
Federal agents entered from three directions.
Cross reached for a weapon.
Nathan shouted:
"Don't."
Cross hesitated.
Laura moved.
Rebecca entered.
Marcus covered the opposite doorway.
Cross realized Black Wing surrounded him.
Not assassins.
Witnesses.
He slowly lowered his hand.
"After everything we did together," Cross said.
Nathan looked at him.
"That's why you're walking out alive."
Cross was arrested.
Laura crossed the room.
Nathan couldn't move.
Neither could she.
Then Emily appeared behind Rebecca.
Laura made a sound somewhere between a sob and her daughter's name.
Emily ran.
Mother and daughter collided in the middle of the room.
Nathan watched them hold each other.
Eleven stolen years.
He finally approached.
Laura touched his face.
"I'm sorry."
Nathan covered her hand with his.
"We'll have time."
For the first time, he believed that.
But the case wasn't finished.
Cross talked.
Not because he regretted anything.
Because he wanted a deal.
He implicated Sloane.
Halston.
Mercer.
Vale.
He provided accounts.
Names.
Payments.
Police officials.
Hospital administrators.
Prosecutors.
Everything.
Except Sloane was still missing.
Then Daniel discovered something inside the Black Wing ledger.
One final payment.
Made three days after Emily's attack.
Recipient:
A. MORRIS.
Nathan stared.
Angela.
The nurse who claimed she'd been blackmailed.
Rebecca looked at him.
"She lied."
Nathan remembered the USB.
Maya's evidence.
Angela had brought it directly to them.
Why?
Daniel answered.
"Because the drive had tracking malware."
The entire investigation had been exposed from inside the moment they connected it.
Angela hadn't escaped Sloane.
She worked for him.
Nathan called the secure hospital.
Emily and Laura were there.
Safe.
Then the lights in the operations room flickered.
Daniel looked at his screen.
"Someone just accessed the hospital system."
Nathan grabbed his phone.
No answer from Emily.
Rebecca was already moving.
Nathan called again.
Nothing.
Then a message appeared.
One photograph.
Angela standing inside Laura's hospital room.
Emily behind her.
Sloane beside the door.
Nathan stared.
A second message arrived.
ROOM 17.
COME FINISH WHAT YOUR WIFE STARTED.
Nathan ran.
When he reached the medical wing, Room 17 stood at the end of the corridor.
The door was closed.
May you like
He heard Laura scream his name from inside.
Then the lock clicked.
