Chapter 6 - The Brother Who Had Been Dead for Twenty-Three Years
Adrian Vale walked into the hospital room like he owned it.
Perhaps, Claire thought, technically he once had.
He was older than Gabriel by seven years.
Same gray eyes.
Same broad forehead.
Same controlled way of entering a room and waiting for everyone else to adjust.
Gabriel stared.
“You’re dead.”
Adrian smiled.
“I found it convenient.”
Marcus drew his weapon.
Adrian raised both hands.
“Really? After all these years?”
Gabriel’s voice sounded different.
Younger.
Almost wounded.
“I buried you.”
“You buried an empty coffin.”
“Our father said—”
“Our father lied.”
Claire watched Gabriel absorb it.
Another parent.
Another lie.
Another life built on missing information.
She understood the expression.
Adrian looked at Claire.
“So you’re Daniel’s daughter.”
Gabriel’s hands tightened on the wheelchair.
“Don’t speak to her.”
Adrian smiled.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“Possession.”
Claire interrupted.
“I’m standing here. You can speak about me like a person.”
Adrian looked amused.
“I see why he likes you.”
Gabriel’s voice sharpened.
“What do you want?”
“To finish a conversation Father interrupted twenty-three years ago.”
“You sabotaged my vehicle.”
“No.”
“Mercer named you.”
“Mercer named your other brother. Perhaps he meant somebody else.”
“You’re my only other brother.”
“Then perhaps he was confused.”
Claire studied Adrian.
Too calm.
Too prepared.
“You used humanitarian supply routes in Afghanistan.”
Adrian’s eyes shifted toward her.
“That is an accusation.”
“My father recorded it.”
“Daniel recorded many things.”
“You knew him.”
“Very well.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
“Did you kill him?”
For the first time, Adrian’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
Gabriel watched him.
“Did you order it?”
Silence.
That was enough.
Claire’s chest tightened.
Adrian looked at her.
“Your father became sentimental.”
“He discovered what you were doing.”
“He discovered a structure bigger than any one man.”
Gabriel’s voice became cold.
“Answer her.”
Adrian ignored him.
“Daniel had been useful for years. Then Afghanistan changed him.”
Claire remembered her father after she returned.
More protective.
More distant.
Checking windows twice.
Changing phone numbers.
“He wanted out,” Adrian said.
“He wanted the shipments stopped.”
“Yes.”
“What were you moving?”
Adrian looked almost bored.
“Influence. Money. Information. Sometimes equipment.”
“Weapons?”
He said nothing.
Claire felt disgust.
“You used medical shipments.”
“I used routes nobody inspected.”
Gabriel’s hand slammed the wheelchair armrest.
“People died.”
“People always die around governments, brother.”
Claire saw something change in Gabriel.
Not rage.
Decision.
Adrian noticed too.
“You cannot kill me in a hospital.”
Gabriel’s gaze remained steady.
“I’m not going to.”
Adrian looked surprised.
Gabriel continued.
“I spent half my life solving problems the way Father taught us.”
“And?”
“And I’m tired.”
Adrian laughed.
“This woman softened you.”
Gabriel looked at Claire.
“No.”
He turned back.
“She reminded me I had choices.”
Claire’s throat tightened.
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“You think legality will save you?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Evidence.”
Marcus stepped forward.
Adrian looked around.
Gabriel smiled faintly.
“Everything you’ve said since entering this room has been transmitted to federal investigators.”
Adrian’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
“You’re bluffing.”
Gabriel nodded toward the ceiling.
“Hospital security was upgraded after someone tried to poison me.”
Adrian reached toward his coat.
Marcus raised his weapon.
“Don’t.”
Adrian stopped.
Claire expected police to enter.
Nobody did.
Gabriel’s phone vibrated.
Marcus checked his own.
His expression darkened.
“What?”
“Transmission failed.”
Adrian smiled.
Gabriel looked toward him.
“You jammed it.”
“I learned a few things while dead.”
Adrian backed toward the elevator.
Marcus moved.
Two hospital security officers appeared behind Adrian.
They pointed weapons at Marcus.
Claire’s stomach dropped.
Adrian had people inside.
Gabriel whispered, “Claire. Behind me.”
This time she moved.
Not because Gabriel commanded it.
Because she understood the danger.
Adrian stepped into the elevator.
“Come home when you’re ready to stop pretending you’re different from us.”
The doors closed.
Nobody fired.
Thirty seconds later, the security officers disappeared down the stairwell.
Police arrived too late.
Again.
Gabriel was furious.
Claire was worse.
“You knew this hospital was compromised and still stayed.”
“I needed surgery.”
“You could have gone anywhere.”
“I trusted you.”
That stopped her.
Gabriel looked almost surprised he had said it aloud.
Claire sat beside him.
“You cannot build an entire security strategy around one nurse.”
“I’ve built worse strategies.”
She shook her head.
“Adrian will try again.”
“Yes.”
“Then we need the recording recovered.”
Marcus had already sent Daniel’s device to a forensic laboratory.
At 8:15 that evening, the call came.
They recovered fourteen seconds of deleted audio.
Claire, Gabriel, Marcus and Julian gathered inside the locked suite.
Julian had been cleared after flight records, security footage and independent investigators confirmed he had been in Paris during Gabriel’s crash.
The recovered recording began.
Daniel’s voice crackled through the speaker.
“The person behind the network is Adrian Vale.”
Claire closed her eyes.
No surprise.
Then Daniel continued.
“But Adrian is not the person who ordered my death.”
Gabriel looked up sharply.
Static.
“The order came from someone inside the federal task force. Someone who protected Adrian for years.”
Another burst of distortion.
Then a name.
“Thomas Rourke.”
Claire stared.
Rourke had visited the hospital.
He had delivered the photograph.
He had pointed suspicion toward Julian.
Gabriel whispered, “He’s been playing both sides.”
Marcus nodded.
“Looks that way.”
Claire remembered Helmand.
Rourke had known her.
He had known Gabriel.
He had known Daniel.
“Where is he?”
Marcus checked his tablet.
“Gone.”
Julian cursed.
Then Gabriel’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Rourke’s voice came through.
“You found Daniel’s recording.”
Gabriel motioned for Marcus to trace.
“Yes.”
“Then you understand.”
“You murdered him.”
“I followed orders.”
“Adrian’s?”
“No.”
Gabriel frowned.
Rourke continued.
“Adrian believes he controls this. He doesn’t.”
“Who does?”
“I’ll tell you in person.”
“Where?”
“The old naval warehouse in Brooklyn.”
Gabriel looked at Marcus.
Marcus shook his head.
Trap.
Rourke continued.
“Come alone.”
“No.”
“Then Claire dies.”
Gabriel stood.
Everyone froze.
Not fully.
Not steadily.
But for the first time since the accident, Gabriel Vale pushed himself out of the wheelchair.
His legs trembled violently.
Claire rushed toward him.
He grabbed the bed rail.
“Gabriel!”
He remained standing.
Pain covered his face.
But he remained upright.
Rourke’s voice came through the phone.
“You have one hour.”
The call ended.
Gabriel slowly looked toward Claire.
“I’m not going alone.”
She understood immediately.
“Good.”
His expression hardened.
“Because you’re not coming.”
Claire folded her arms.
“We’re really doing this argument again?”
Then Marcus’s phone sounded.
A message.
He read it.
His face drained of color.
Gabriel noticed.
“What?”
Marcus turned the screen toward them.
It contained a photograph taken only seconds earlier.
Claire standing beside Gabriel.
May you like
Inside the supposedly secure hospital room.
Someone had taken it from behind them.
