Chapter 4 - The General's Bargain
Evelyn stared into the darkness beyond the warehouse.
"Put him on."
Hale didn't answer immediately.
"General."
A new voice came through the phone.
Smooth.
Older.
Almost friendly.
"Major Hart."
Thomas Gray.
Evelyn had heard him speak at intelligence conferences years ago.
Never personally.
Never like this.
"You've caused an extraordinary amount of trouble," Gray said.
"I've had a busy day."
He chuckled.
"I understand why Daniel always liked you."
Daniel's face tightened when Evelyn glanced toward him.
"Where is Rebecca Sloan?"
"Alive."
"That's not what I asked."
"No. But it's what you needed to know."
Cole scanned the warehouse perimeter while Daniel watched Evelyn.
Gray continued.
"Your General Hale is very conflicted."
"About what?"
"You."
Hale said something in the background.
Gray ignored him.
"He has spent three years trying to compensate for a decision he was too weak to oppose."
Evelyn's jaw tightened.
"What do you want?"
"You."
"Why?"
"Because Rebecca trusts you."
Evelyn frowned.
"She's never met me."
"Oh, she knows exactly who you are."
The phone clicked.
A video arrived.
Evelyn opened it.
Rebecca Sloan sat in a metal chair in an unknown room.
Older than the woman in the archive footage.
Exhausted.
But alive.
She looked into the camera.
"Evelyn Hart."
Evelyn's chest tightened.
Rebecca continued.
"If you're watching this, don't make the trade."
Gray's hand entered frame and shut off the recording.
Evelyn returned to the call.
"Let her go."
"Come get her."
"Where?"
"General Hale knows."
Hale's voice erupted:
"Evelyn, don't—"
The call disconnected.
Daniel swore.
Cole looked at Evelyn.
"You're considering it."
"Of course."
"That's insane."
"Rebecca has been imprisoned for at least three years because our system abandoned her."
"And handing yourself over fixes that?"
"No."
Evelyn looked at Daniel.
"But getting inside might."
Daniel smiled faintly.
"There's the Evelyn I remember."
Cole shook his head.
"You two are both insane."
"Probably," Daniel said.
They drove back toward the base but stopped two miles away at a shuttered roadside diner Daniel had been using as a temporary safe site.
Inside, laptops and communications equipment covered three tables.
Evelyn stared.
"You've been running an intelligence cell out of a diner?"
"The coffee machine still works."
Cole looked at the dusty machine.
"No, it doesn't."
"Emotionally, it works."
Evelyn almost smiled.
Almost.
Daniel pulled up a map.
"Hale's office phone pinged through a relay twenty minutes ago. Gray wasn't actually inside the base."
Evelyn frowned.
"Then where?"
"A government-owned logistics site forty miles north."
Cole recognized it.
"Black Ridge Depot."
Daniel nodded.
"Officially mothballed."
"Unofficially?"
"Very active."
Evelyn looked at satellite photographs.
Multiple vehicles.
Temporary power.
Security perimeter.
"Rebecca?"
"Probably."
Cole pointed to an access road.
"One entrance."
"Visible entrance," Evelyn corrected.
Daniel smiled.
"Exactly."
He pulled up old construction plans.
An underground utility tunnel connected the depot to a drainage structure outside the perimeter.
Cole stared.
"How did you get these?"
Daniel looked offended.
"I've been dead for three years. I needed hobbies."
They planned quickly.
No official units.
No radio traffic through military networks.
If Gray had people inside command, alerting authorities might guarantee Rebecca's death.
Evelyn hated operating without authorization again.
But she hated leaving someone behind more.
At 1:20 a.m., they reached the drainage entrance.
Cole crawled through first.
Daniel followed.
Evelyn entered last.
The tunnel smelled of rust and standing water.
After two hundred yards, they reached a maintenance ladder.
Daniel checked the hatch.
"Clear."
They emerged inside Black Ridge Depot.
The facility appeared abandoned from outside.
Inside, it was anything but.
Computer equipment lined one room.
Armed security personnel patrolled corridors.
Cole whispered:
"These aren't military."
"Contractors," Daniel said.
Evelyn studied their movement.
"Rebecca will be below ground."
"Why?"
"Fewer exterior walls. Easier to control."
Daniel nodded.
They descended.
On the lower level they found three locked rooms.
First empty.
Second filled with documents.
Third—
Rebecca Sloan.
She sat behind reinforced glass.
Evelyn approached.
Rebecca raised her head.
For a second she looked confused.
Then she smiled.
"You came."
Evelyn found the control panel.
"Can you walk?"
"Try stopping me."
Daniel bypassed the lock.
The door opened.
Rebecca stood shakily.
Then saw Daniel.
Her expression changed.
"You."
Daniel nodded.
"Good to see you too."
Rebecca slapped him.
Cole whispered:
"Apparently that's a tradition."
Evelyn almost laughed.
Rebecca turned toward Evelyn.
"They told you twelve."
"Yes."
"There were thirteen."
"I know."
"No."
Rebecca shook her head.
"You don't."
Alarm lights suddenly flashed.
Daniel cursed.
"We've been detected."
They moved toward the tunnel.
Rebecca stopped.
"We need the drive."
Evelyn turned.
"What drive?"
"The evidence."
"Where?"
Rebecca pointed upstairs.
"Gray's office."
Daniel stared at her.
"Rebecca, we came here to rescue you."
"If we leave without it, he'll destroy everything."
Gunfire echoed above.
Cole checked the corridor.
"We have maybe four minutes."
Evelyn looked at Rebecca.
"Show me."
They climbed.
Gray's office was surprisingly ordinary.
Desk.
Computer.
Locked wall safe.
Rebecca entered a code.
Nothing.
"Changed."
Daniel examined the electronic lock.
"Give me sixty seconds."
"You have thirty."
Shots echoed closer.
Cole guarded the doorway.
Daniel connected a bypass device.
The safe clicked.
Rebecca opened it.
Inside sat a small silver storage drive.
She grabbed it.
Then froze.
"What?"
Rebecca stared into the safe.
"It's gone."
"The drive?"
"This isn't the original."
Evelyn took it.
"How do you know?"
Rebecca turned it over.
"The original had a scratch across the casing."
Cole yelled:
"Movement!"
They ran.
Security contractors appeared at the far end of the corridor.
Evelyn fired toward the ceiling pipe above them.
Steam exploded into the hallway.
They retreated.
Daniel led the group through a maintenance passage.
Rebecca struggled to keep pace.
Evelyn supported her.
They reached the utility hatch.
Then Cole stopped.
"Someone's coming through the tunnel."
A flashlight appeared below.
Evelyn raised her weapon.
"Identify yourself!"
A voice answered.
"Put it down, Major."
General Hale emerged from the tunnel.
Alone.
Evelyn didn't lower her weapon.
"What are you doing here?"
"Getting you out."
Daniel aimed at him.
"Convenient."
Hale ignored him.
"Gray's bringing reinforcements. We have less than five minutes."
Rebecca stared at Hale.
"You."
His expression filled with shame.
"Dr. Sloan."
"You signed the order."
"Yes."
"You left me there."
"Yes."
Rebecca walked up to him.
Then slapped him too.
Cole muttered:
"Definitely a tradition."
Hale didn't react.
"I deserve worse."
"Much worse."
"We can settle that outside."
They descended into the tunnel.
Halfway through, an explosion shook the passage.
Dust fell.
They ran.
At the drainage exit, two vehicles waited.
Hale had arranged them.
They drove to the diner.
Rebecca collapsed into a chair.
Evelyn placed the silver drive on the table.
"If this isn't the evidence, where is it?"
Rebecca looked at Daniel.
He looked confused.
"Why are you looking at me?"
"Because you had the original."
Silence.
Daniel's face changed.
"No."
Rebecca nodded.
"Three years ago."
Evelyn turned.
"Daniel?"
He stepped back.
"That's not possible."
"I gave it to you before the compound evacuation."
Daniel stared at her.
"I never saw you."
"You did."
"No."
Rebecca's expression slowly shifted from certainty to fear.
Then she whispered:
"Oh."
Evelyn felt danger before she understood it.
"What?"
Rebecca looked at Daniel.
"The man I gave it to looked like you."
Daniel went pale.
Cole stared between them.
"A double?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"No. Not a double."
She turned toward Evelyn.
"Daniel had an identical twin."
Evelyn stared at him.
Daniel said nothing.
"Tell me she's wrong."
He looked away.
"Daniel."
Finally:
"My brother's name is Gabriel."
"Where is he?"
"I haven't seen him in nine years."
Rebecca's face became horrified.
"I gave Gabriel the drive."
A sound came from the diner kitchen.
Everyone turned.
The back door was open.
It had been closed seconds earlier.
On the counter sat the scratched silver drive Rebecca had described.
And beside it was a fresh photograph of Evelyn sleeping in her apartment.
Daniel whispered:
"Gabriel is here."
Then a man's voice came from the dark kitchen.
"No, brother."
May you like
A silhouette stepped forward.
"He was here before you arrived..."
