Chapter 10 - The Name on the Black Ledger
Freya demanded answers.
Gabriel had none.
Elias did.
Freya’s mother had once worked as a financial analyst for Victor Mercer.
She discovered his network.
She escaped.
Freya’s father, Patrick Sullivan, helped her.
Victor had them watched.
Years later, both died in what Freya believed was a highway accident.
It had been murder.
Victor ordered it.
Gabriel learned the truth only after taking control of the organization.
He anonymously paid for the funeral and later tried to locate their daughter.
He failed.
“You knew my name?”
“Not Freya. Records listed an infant named Erin.”
Freya remembered.
Her mother had once told her Erin was the name she nearly received.
Victor was manipulating them.
But the ledger contained something worse.
Patrick Sullivan had not been Freya’s biological father.
Her biological father was Elias Ward.
Freya stared at him.
Elias looked destroyed.
“I didn’t know until years later.”
“You were my commanding officer.”
“Yes.”
“You knew while I served under you?”
“Not at first.”
“When?”
“Three months before the explosion.”
Freya walked away.
Every man around her had hidden pieces of her life.
Gabriel followed.
She turned.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Good.
He was learning.
Freya spent the night alone.
By morning, she made her decision.
Elias could explain when she was ready.
Gabriel could answer for his crimes.
Victor could answer in court.
She would no longer allow other people’s secrets to determine her choices.
Then the federal case collapsed.
A key witness was murdered.
Evidence disappeared.
Victor had one final asset inside the investigation.
Someone high enough to destroy everything.
Freya examined the access records.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Special Agent Malcolm Reed.
Elias’s oldest friend.
They arranged a trap.
Freya called Reed and claimed she possessed an uncopied ledger.
He agreed to meet.
At the abandoned train depot, Reed arrived alone.
Or appeared to.
Snipers surrounded the building.
Gabriel waited out of sight.
Freya placed an empty drive on the table.
Reed smiled.
“You were always clever.”
“You knew me?”
“I knew your mother.”
Freya’s blood chilled.
Reed admitted helping Victor murder her parents.
Then he reached for the drive.
Federal agents moved.
Gunfire erupted.
Reed escaped through a maintenance corridor.
Freya chased him.
At the end of the tunnel, she found a door.
Blood marked the handle.
She opened it.
Reed was gone.
Only a phone remained on the floor.
It rang.
Freya answered.
May you like
A woman whispered, “Victor Mercer has Gabriel.”
Then she heard Gabriel scream.
