Chapter 6 - The Last Shipment
Security surrounded the duffel bag.
It wasn't a bomb.
Inside was a secure communications unit wrapped around a blinking tracking beacon.
The same model missing from Northbridge.
Voss wanted us to follow.
Whitaker didn't intend to play his game.
Military investigators did.
The warehouse belonged to one of Dad's former subcontractors.
By dawn, a tactical team surrounded it.
I should have been in a hospital.
Instead I watched from a command vehicle.
Vanessa had finally gone with Mom.
Dad stayed.
Ryan stayed too.
The raid began at 5:42 a.m.
No gunfire.
No resistance.
The warehouse appeared abandoned.
Then investigators discovered a concealed lower level.
Inside were years of stolen military supplies.
More importantly, they found servers.
Every altered authorization.
Every false invoice.
Every payoff.
Every name.
Voss had built his fortune by stealing from the same soldiers he publicly praised.
But Voss wasn't there.
Then one investigator called Whitaker over.
A live video feed was running on one server.
Voss appeared.
Behind him was another location.
“Captain Hale,” he said.
He knew we were watching.
“You were always stubborn.”
I moved toward the screen.
“You lost.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“I adapted.”
Then another person appeared behind him.
My mother.
My heart stopped.
Dad shouted.
Vanessa had taken Mom home.
Or thought she had.
Voss had intercepted their car.
Only Mom was visible.
“Where's Vanessa?”
Voss smiled.
“Still obsessed with your sister.”
My hands shook.
He wanted me angry.
I forced them still.
“What do you want?”
“The original records your father gave the investigator.”
“We don't have them.”
“Yes, you do.”
Dad stepped forward.
“No.”
Voss's smile widened.
“You never told her?”
Dad looked at me.
Again.
Another secret.
“Tell me.”
Dad closed his eyes.
“The investigator gave me a backup.”
“Where?”
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
His answer surprised everyone.
“In your Bronze Star case.”
My medal.
The real one.
At my apartment.
Voss knew.
He demanded the drive.
Whitaker coordinated the exchange while investigators traced the signal.
This time I obeyed orders.
Mostly.
The drive was recovered.
Copied.
Prepared.
Voss selected an abandoned rail depot.
At noon, the exchange began.
Dad carried the drive.
Ryan accompanied the tactical team.
Whitaker commanded the operation.
I remained behind surveillance.
That lasted four minutes.
Then Voss changed the conditions.
He wanted me.
Of course he did.
I arrived wearing body armor over my wound.
Whitaker was furious.
“You stay behind me.”
“Yes, sir.”
“That's an order.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You're going to ignore it.”
“Probably.”
He almost smiled.
At the depot, Voss stood beside my mother.
Vanessa was there too.
Alive.
Her hands were bound.
She looked at me.
For the first time in my life, my sister didn't look competitive.
She looked terrified for me.
“Don't give him anything!” she shouted.
Voss pressed a weapon toward her.
“Quiet.”
I stepped forward.
“You wanted me.”
“I wanted the drive.”
“You can have it.”
Dad threw the case onto the concrete between us.
Voss ordered one of his remaining men to retrieve it.
The instant he bent down, the tactical team moved.
Everything happened quickly.
Shouting.
Movement.
Voss pulled Vanessa backward.
I moved without thinking.
Pain exploded through my side.
Ryan tackled Voss's accomplice.
Whitaker's team closed the distance.
Voss fired once into the ceiling.
Then I was close enough.
I knocked his weapon aside.
Vanessa dropped.
Whitaker's men took Voss down.
It ended in seconds.
No heroic speech.
No dramatic execution.
Just handcuffs clicking around the wrists of a man who had believed rank made him untouchable.
My knees gave out immediately afterward.
Vanessa caught me.
“Evelyn!”
Blood spread through my bandage again.
I looked at her.
She was crying.
“Still think I should leave the table?”
She laughed and sobbed simultaneously.
“No.”
Then everything went black.
I woke in a hospital room.
Vanessa sat beside me.
Mom slept in another chair.
Dad stood at the window.
Ryan was in the hallway.
General Whitaker entered carrying my real Bronze Star case.
He placed it beside me.
“Voss is in custody.”
I exhaled.
“Pike?”
“Recovering.”
“Ryan?”
“Cleared.”
“My father?”
Whitaker glanced toward Dad.
“Cooperating fully.”
Then his expression changed.
“There is one more thing.”
He opened the Bronze Star case.
The backup drive was gone.
In its place was a folded letter.
It had been written before Northbridge.
My name was on the front.
The handwriting belonged to the federal investigator who had disappeared.
Whitaker handed it to me.
I opened it.
The first sentence made my father sit down.
Evelyn, if you're reading this, someone inside your command helped Voss.
I looked at Whitaker.
He looked back at me.
Then someone knocked on the hospital door.
A nurse opened it.
A uniformed officer stood outside.
I recognized him immediately.
May you like
He had been with me during Northbridge.
And he was holding the original drive.
