Chapter 10 - the first stolen code
Ruth Vale sat in the back of an ambulance wrapped in a gray blanket.
She was the quietest of Claire’s sisters. As children, Vanessa had led, Simone had followed, and Ruth had observed. She became an accountant because numbers offered rules that people did not.
That night, numbers had finally frightened her more than her family did.
Captain Mercer closed the ambulance doors, leaving Ruth inside with Elias and a recording officer.
“You asked for protection,” Mercer said. “Start talking.”
Ruth looked at Elias.
“I’m sorry about Lily.”
“Tell me where Claire is.”
“I don’t know.”
“Then tell me who took her.”
“Rusk.”
“Where would he go?”
“He has several locations.”
“Names and addresses.”
“I only handled accounts.”
Elias leaned forward.
“My daughter spent hours outside while you sat in my house.”
Ruth’s eyes filled with tears.
“I told them to bring her in.”
“But you did nothing.”
“No.”
“Then this is the moment when you begin doing something.”
Ruth wiped her face.
“The gray sedan was registered to North Coast Emergency Logistics. They have a warehouse near the river.”
Mercer sent the information to the officers outside.
“Why was Claire taken?” Elias asked.
“Because she had the original letter.”
“I found a note saying the letter was missing from my safe.”
“Claire removed it three months ago.”
“Why?”
“She learned Rusk was looking for it.”
“What was inside?”
“I never saw the letter, but Vanessa said it contained coordinates and a list of names.”
“Names of whom?”
“People connected to Raven Six.”
Elias sat back.
“Who gave Marlene my authorization code?”
Ruth’s face changed.
That was the question she had hoped to avoid.
“Ruth.”
She looked toward the ambulance doors.
“Your brother.”
Elias did not react at first.
“My brother has been dead for eight years.”
“Marlene said Adrian gave her the first code.”
“When?”
“Two years after Raven Six.”
“That is impossible.”
“I saw the record.”
“What record?”
“A deposit log from the foundation. Marlene kept handwritten notes beside every major transaction. Six years ago, she wrote, ‘Code received from A.G.’”
“A.G. could mean anything.”
“There was also a transfer of $400,000 to an account in Prague under the name Adrian Grant.”
Elias felt the air leave his lungs.
“Why would my brother send my code to Marlene?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was the code used then?”
“No. Not until last year.”
“Why wait?”
“Because they needed your physical recovery card too. Claire copied it from your safe.”
Mercer shifted beside the door.
“Why did the transfers begin last year?”
“Rusk said a window had opened.”
“What window?”
“The Raven Six archive was being relocated from Fort Garrison to a federal facility. The equipment transfers created enough traffic to hide one additional shipment.”
Elias understood.
The radios and command terminals were not the primary objective.
They were camouflage.
“What was the additional shipment?”
Ruth shook her head.
“Vanessa never told me.”
Mercer opened the ambulance door and spoke to an officer outside. The warehouse address was being checked.
Elias kept watching Ruth.
“Did Claire know about the hidden shipment?”
“She discovered it three weeks ago. That’s when she tried to stop everything.”
“By locking my daughter outside?”
“No. That was Marlene. Claire wanted Lily sent to your neighbor’s house before the drivers came.”
“She still helped remove her from the house.”
“She was terrified of Rusk.”
“So was Lily.”
Ruth lowered her gaze.
Elias took Claire’s note from his pocket and unfolded it.
“Why did Claire tell me not to trust Major Sloan?”
Ruth stared at the handwriting.
“Because Sloan approved your overseas assignment.”
“That was not secret.”
“She also approved the investigation timeline.”
“What does that mean?”
“Claire found an email from Sloan to Rusk. It said the operation had to remain active until the archive transfer was complete.”
Mercer looked at Elias.
“Do you have the email?”
“Claire saved it on a flash drive.”
“Where?”
Ruth hesitated.
“Inside Lily’s wooden compass.”
Elias remembered the security question.
What did Dad put inside my red lunchbox?
A wooden compass.
Lily had kept it for years.
“Where is the compass now?”
“Claire hid it in Lily’s room.”
Mercer radioed the house team.
The response came quickly.
The room had already been searched.
No compass was found.
Ruth’s face went pale.
“Then Vanessa took it.”
“Why would Vanessa know?”
“She saw Claire hide it.”
The ambulance doors opened again.
An officer stood outside, breathing hard.
“We located the North Coast warehouse.”
“Is the sedan there?” Mercer asked.
“No. But there’s a body inside.”
Elias rose.
The officer quickly clarified.
“Alive. Unconscious. Male, gray raincoat.”
“Owen Rusk?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“And Claire?”
“No sign of her.”
The officer held up a photograph transmitted from the warehouse team.
A man lay beside an overturned chair.
His face was visible.
It was not Rusk.
It was the security contractor who had installed Elias’s workshop tunnel system.
A message had been written across the concrete floor beside him.
May you like
Rusk is not a name.
It is a position.
