Chapter 5 - Orders From a Dead Mission
Mara opened the basement door.
"Don't," Mercer warned.
Another knock came from below.
Three deliberate strikes.
Rourke switched on the light.
A man stood at the bottom of the stairs.
Tyler Kane.
Mara stared.
"We left you with security."
Tyler looked terrified.
"They weren't security."
Behind him sat Frank.
Alive.
Unharmed.
And beside Frank were boxes of documents.
Aaron Kane's archive.
Tyler's father had spent years collecting evidence after Mara rescued him.
He had suspected Hale.
He had also suspected Daniel Cross.
Frank had protected the files after Aaron's death.
Outside, engines stopped.
Mara looked through a narrow basement window.
Armed men surrounded the cabin.
Rourke handed her a radio.
"We've got maybe two minutes."
"For what?"
"To decide whether we run."
Mara looked at the boxes.
"No."
Mercer understood.
"We transmit."
Rourke nodded.
They began uploading everything.
Hale's network had survived because evidence remained fragmented.
Rourke had one piece.
Aaron another.
Raven Six another.
Together, they formed the complete record.
Upload: 12%.
Outside, a voice amplified through a speaker.
"Mara Vance."
Hale.
"Come outside."
She ignored him.
28%.
"Mara, the people inside that house are going to die because of you."
Tyler looked frightened.
Mara said, "That's what men like him say when they're losing control."
44%.
Gunfire struck the front windows.
Frank ducked.
Rourke returned fire only to suppress.
Mercer called federal authorities.
No signal.
Jammed.
62%.
Then the power died.
Upload stopped.
"No," Tyler whispered.
Mara looked toward Rourke.
"Backup?"
"Generator outside."
"I'll go."
Mercer grabbed her arm.
"Absolutely not."
Mara looked toward the ceiling.
The attackers expected desperate people hiding inside.
They didn't know Raven Six.
She moved through a rear crawlspace, emerged behind the property, and reached the generator.
Two men guarded it.
She avoided both.
Power returned.
Upload resumed.
78%.
Then she heard Hale behind her.
"You always were difficult to kill."
Mara turned.
Hale held a pistol.
She raised her hands slowly.
"You destroyed Rourke's life."
"I preserved thousands of others."
"You stole."
"I financed operations Congress would never approve."
"You murdered people."
"People died."
"That's not the same sentence."
Hale smiled.
"Still idealistic."
"No."
Mara glanced past him.
"Just tired."
"Tired of what?"
"Men thinking I'm alone."
Mercer struck Hale's weapon aside.
Mara moved simultaneously.
Seconds later Hale was on the ground.
But he laughed.
"You think I'm the problem?"
Rourke appeared from the cabin.
"Hale."
The two men stared at each other for the first time in seven years.
Hale's smile vanished.
Rourke said, "You should have made sure I was dead."
The upload completed.
100%.
Copies went simultaneously to federal investigators, military inspectors general, and multiple journalists.
Hale finally looked afraid.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression changed.
Not fear.
Shock.
He looked at Mara.
"You don't understand what you've done."
"Probably something overdue."
Hale lowered the phone.
"Daniel Cross is alive."
Rourke stepped forward.
"I know."
Hale shook his head.
"No."
For the first time, his voice trembled.
"He just activated Raven Six."
Mara looked toward the sky.
Far away, something thundered.
Her phone displayed an emergency tracking signal.
Raven Six was airborne.
May you like
No authorized pilot was inside.
And its destination was Washington.
