Chapter 5 - Asset One
I stared at Daniel.
"What does he mean?"
Daniel didn't answer.
Police officers flooded the parking lot.
Mercer raised his hands.
Brock placed his weapon on the pavement.
Daniel grabbed my wrist.
"We need to go."
"No."
"Maya."
"Tell me."
"Not here."
For once, I agreed.
The next hours became chaos.
Statements.
Federal calls.
Military investigators.
The shooter escaped.
Mercer was detained temporarily.
Brock surrendered the falsified K9 records.
Daniel disappeared before police could identify him.
Of course he did.
But this time he left me an address.
At dawn, I drove there with Rook.
An abandoned training facility outside town.
Daniel waited inside.
"So," I said, "Asset One."
He looked exhausted.
"You were never an operative."
"I gathered that."
"Orpheus originally protected families."
"Families of compromised personnel?"
"Yes."
He explained that when covert operators became targets, Orpheus could relocate spouses, children, siblings.
New records.
New addresses.
Protection.
My name had entered the system after Daniel discovered Black Harbor.
"Why Asset One?"
"Because someone elevated your file."
"Who?"
"Vale."
I laughed bitterly.
"The man who told me you were dead?"
"Yes."
Daniel believed Vale had protected me.
Brock arrived thirty minutes later.
I wasn't happy.
Rook was.
That surprised me.
The dog greeted Brock calmly.
Daniel noticed.
"So Rook trusts him."
"Apparently more than I do."
"Smart dog."
Brock gave Daniel the flash drive.
"I decrypted Orpheus."
Folders filled Daniel's laptop.
Hundreds of names.
Many marked deceased.
Others relocated.
Then we found mine.
CALDER, MAYA.
Status:
PROTECTED CIVILIAN.
Authorization:
VALE, N.
But beneath it was another entry.
TRANSFER REQUEST DENIED.
Requesting officer:
MERCER, A.
I looked at Daniel.
"Mercer tried to transfer me?"
"Maybe he tried to move you."
"Or take me."
Brock opened another log.
Someone had accessed my file repeatedly for four years.
Not Vale.
Not Mercer.
User identification:
D.CALDER.
I looked at my brother.
"You?"
Daniel stared.
"No."
"That's your account."
"My credentials were terminated when I died."
Brock leaned forward.
"Someone kept them active."
The last access had happened yesterday.
From Pine Ridge Animal Hospital.
My workplace.
I felt sick.
"Someone inside the clinic?"
Daniel looked at me.
"Who hired you?"
"Dr. Price."
"When?"
"Three years ago."
"How did you find the job?"
I tried to remember.
An online listing.
Except...
"No."
"What?"
"I didn't apply."
Daniel frowned.
I remembered.
Dr. Price had approached me after I brought an injured stray dog to Pine Ridge.
She had offered me temporary work.
Temporary became permanent.
Daniel stood.
"Call her."
Dr. Price answered immediately.
"Maya? Are you okay?"
"Who told you to hire me?"
Silence.
"Helen."
Another silence.
Then:
"Your brother."
Daniel froze.
"What?"
Dr. Price began crying.
"Not Daniel."
"Then who?"
"A man came three years ago. He said he had served with Daniel. He paid the clinic's debt. He asked me to give you a job and never tell you."
"Name."
"He called himself David."
Daniel and Brock exchanged looks.
"Description?"
Dr. Price described him.
Mid-forties.
Brown hair.
Scar near his jaw.
Daniel went pale.
"You know him."
He opened an old team photograph.
Six operators.
Daniel pointed at one.
"David Shaw."
"Who is he?"
"My team leader."
"Black Harbor?"
"Yes."
"Did he die?"
Daniel's answer was barely audible.
"He was the only body we recovered."
I stared at the photograph.
Of course.
Another dead man.
Brock searched the files.
David Shaw.
Killed in action.
But his credentials had accessed Orpheus six times after death.
Then I remembered Rook.
The dog had found evidence hidden in Pine Ridge.
Maybe Daniel hadn't hidden it.
Maybe Shaw had.
"Why protect me?"
Daniel looked at the photo.
"I don't know."
A vehicle approached outside.
We froze.
Brock checked the window.
Mercer.
"How did he find us?"
Daniel raised his weapon.
Mercer entered alone.
"I came to save time."
Daniel laughed.
"You have a strange definition of help."
Mercer placed a folder on the table.
"David Shaw is alive."
Nobody spoke.
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Then what do you know?"
Mercer opened the folder.
Shaw had founded Helix Strategic Systems through shell companies.
Not publicly.
Secretly.
Daniel stared.
"David created Helix?"
"Part of it."
"Why?"
"Money at first. Then leverage."
Mercer looked at me.
"And Maya."
I stepped back.
"Why me?"
"Because Daniel gave you something before Black Harbor."
I shook my head.
"No."
"Think."
I did.
Daniel had visited me two days before deployment.
Dinner.
Coffee.
He repaired my kitchen sink.
Then gave me a necklace that belonged to our mother.
I touched my neck.
I hadn't worn it in years.
It sat in a box at my apartment.
Daniel saw my expression.
"The necklace?"
"I gave it to you because Mom wanted you to have it."
Mercer shook his head.
"Shaw thought otherwise."
We drove to my apartment.
The door was open.
Nothing looked disturbed.
My jewelry box sat where I left it.
The necklace was inside.
Daniel examined it.
Ordinary silver pendant.
Brock noticed a seam.
He twisted it.
The pendant opened.
Inside was a tiny storage chip.
Daniel stared at me.
"I didn't know."
We connected it to an offline laptop.
One encrypted file.
The password was my mother's name.
ELENA.
The screen filled with banking records.
Orpheus transactions.
Helix payments.
Names.
Dates.
Proof.
Daniel whispered, "This could destroy them."
Then another file appeared.
VIDEO—SHAW.
We opened it.
David Shaw appeared.
Alive.
Older.
He looked into the camera.
"Maya Calder. If you've opened this, Daniel finally found the necklace."
Daniel moved closer.
Shaw smiled.
"Daniel, you always were slow."
My brother swore.
Shaw continued.
"The evidence you're looking at is real. But it won't tell you why Black Harbor happened."
He leaned toward the camera.
"Black Harbor happened because one person refused to sell Maya Calder."
My stomach turned.
"Sell me?"
Shaw continued.
"Your sister accidentally became the key to Orpheus when her civilian identity was used to authorize transfers nobody was supposed to trace."
Daniel stared.
Shaw's smile disappeared.
"I tried to remove her from the system. Vale tried to protect her. Mercer tried to move her. You tried to disappear."
He paused.
"But one person kept bringing her back."
A new document opened automatically.
My employment record.
Pine Ridge Animal Hospital.
At the bottom was an authorization signature.
DR. HELEN PRICE.
I stared.
"No."
Then another document appeared.
A photograph.
Helen stood beside David Shaw.
Taken two weeks earlier.
Brock whispered, "She's working with him."
My phone rang.
Dr. Price.
I answered slowly.
Her voice shook.
"Maya, don't come back to the clinic."
"Helen—"
"I'm sorry."
"Helen, where are you?"
A man's voice spoke behind her.
Then Dr. Price whispered:
"He knows you found the necklace."
The call cut off.
A text arrived immediately.
A photograph of Dr. Price tied to a chair inside Pine Ridge.
Behind her stood David Shaw.
Alive.
May you like
His message contained one sentence.
BRING ROOK HOME, AND I'LL TELL YOU WHY YOUR BROTHER REALLY HAD TO DIE.
