Chapter 5 - The Dead Man
Rachel forgot the pain in her side.
Forgot Cole.
Forgot the agents waiting outside.
She saw only her father.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Scarred along one side of his face.
Alive.
"Rachel."
Her name sounded exactly as she remembered.
She couldn't speak.
Thomas struggled against the chair.
"James, don't."
Rachel looked between them.
"You're alive."
James lowered his eyes.
"Yes."
"You let me bury you."
"I know."
"You let Mom bury you."
"I know."
"For twenty-two years?"
Cole smiled faintly.
"Family reunions are always complicated."
Rachel turned toward him.
"Shut up."
Cole's smile disappeared.
James stepped forward.
"I didn't have a choice."
"There is always a choice."
"Not when the alternative is watching your wife and daughter die."
Rachel felt tears burning.
"You could have contacted us."
"I tried once."
Thomas interrupted.
"And I stopped him."
Rachel stared at Thomas.
"You knew?"
"Not at first."
James explained.
The crash had been staged after the network discovered his investigation.
He survived an attempt on his life and realized the people hunting him believed he was dead.
Mercer helped establish that illusion without knowing James would disappear permanently.
Thomas learned the truth two years later.
James made him promise.
Protect Linda.
Protect Rachel.
Never reveal he was alive.
Rachel looked at Cole.
"Why is he with you?"
James answered.
"Because I've spent twenty-two years inside his organization."
Rachel stared at him.
Cole's expression changed.
James wasn't his ally.
He was an infiltrator.
"I couldn't destroy the network from outside," James said. "So I disappeared inside it."
Cole raised his weapon.
"Touching."
Cross's voice came through Rachel's concealed earpiece.
Hold position.
Rachel looked at Thomas.
Blood marked his temple.
"You shot me because you knew Dad was alive?"
"No. I shot you because James warned me Cole had chosen you."
Cole laughed.
"And that worked beautifully. Every investigator in Virginia is now looking at precisely the evidence we wanted buried."
James turned toward him.
"You've lost."
"No."
Cole lifted a small remote.
"The warehouse is wired."
Rachel's heart stopped.
Cross's voice sounded urgently in her ear.
Get out.
Cole smiled.
"You brought federal agents. Predictable."
Rachel realized he had known.
"How?"
Cole tapped his ear.
Someone was feeding him information.
Someone inside the operation.
Cross's team.
Mercer's command.
The investigation had a leak.
Cole moved toward a rear exit.
James lunged.
A shot rang out.
Rachel ducked.
Thomas threw himself sideways with the chair.
James struck Cole's arm.
The remote flew across the concrete.
Rachel kicked it beneath a crate.
Outside, agents stormed the building.
Cole ran.
James followed.
Rachel rushed to Thomas and cut his restraints with a utility knife.
"You okay?"
Thomas stared at the blood on her uniform.
"Ask me after I apologize for the next twenty years."
Despite everything, Rachel laughed.
Then an explosion shook the far side of the warehouse.
Not the main charges.
A diversion.
Smoke filled the building.
Mercer shouted through Rachel's earpiece.
"Rachel, get out!"
"James went after Cole."
"Cross is pursuing them."
Rachel helped Thomas stand.
They reached the exit.
Linda was waiting behind the security perimeter.
Then she saw James.
He emerged from the smoke between two agents.
Linda stopped.
Twenty-two years disappeared from her face.
"James?"
He looked at her.
"Linda."
She crossed the distance and slapped him.
Hard.
Then she embraced him.
Rachel turned away.
Some reunions belonged to the people who had suffered them.
Cole escaped.
But his network was collapsing.
The files were released simultaneously to federal investigators, military prosecutors, and independent oversight offices.
Arrests began within hours.
Contractors.
Officers.
Financial intermediaries.
But Cole remained missing.
And so did the person feeding him information.
Cross gathered Rachel, Mercer, Thomas, James, and Linda in a secure conference room.
"We have a problem."
Rachel folded her arms.
"Only one?"
Cross placed a document on the table.
It was a list of every person who had accessed the operational plan for Pier 12.
Seven names.
Cross.
Mercer.
Four agents.
And Rachel.
Thomas frowned.
"One of them warned Cole."
Cross nodded.
James examined the list.
Then his face changed.
"What?"
James pointed at one name.
Special Agent Aaron Pike.
"I know him."
Cross looked surprised.
"How?"
"He worked for Cole fifteen years ago."
Cross immediately reached for his phone.
Too late.
The conference room lights went out.
A lock clicked.
Rachel reached for the door.
Sealed.
Then the wall monitor turned on by itself.
Vice Admiral Cole appeared on screen.
Behind him sat Captain Mercer.
Rachel spun around.
The chair where Mercer had been sitting seconds earlier was empty.
Cole smiled into the camera.
"You found your father, Commander."
May you like
He placed a gun against Mercer's head.
"Now let's see how much family you're willing to lose."
