Chapter 8 - The Woman Behind the General
General Ward moved in front of Emma.
“You have no authority to enter this archive.”
Colonel Voss descended the stairs.
“Your authorization was suspended twenty minutes ago.”
“By whom?”
Voss glanced at the terminal.
“Director Seventeen.”
Captain Monroe approached Ward.
“I am sorry, General.”
Ward struck Monroe’s weapon aside before the captain could take hold of her. Noah moved at the same moment, pulling Claire and Emma behind a storage cabinet.
No shots were fired. Voss needed Emma alive, and everyone knew it.
Kessler slammed the emergency release on the archive’s fire system. Metal barriers began descending between the storage rows.
“Move!” Noah shouted.
Claire carried Emma through a narrowing gap. Captain Snow was trapped between the child and her chest.
Ward and Kessler followed.
The barrier closed before Voss’s officers could pass.
They ran deeper into the archive.
“How do we get out?” Claire asked.
Ward pointed ahead.
“Service lift.”
The lift required an authorization code.
Director Seventeen.
Emma looked at the bear.
“Daddy said seventeen.”
Claire pressed the miniature medals in the order they appeared on Daniel’s portrait.
The bear projected a numerical sequence.
Ward entered it.
The lift doors opened.
They reached the memorial’s upper maintenance floor and escaped through a loading entrance into the rain.
Noah had arranged a vehicle nearby, but Captain Monroe had anticipated them. Military police blocked the street.
General Ward stepped into the open.
“Lower your weapons.”
The officers hesitated.
Voss emerged from the memorial behind them.
“Evelyn Ward has unlawfully accessed restricted archives and assisted the theft of classified information.”
Ward raised her voice so every officer could hear.
“Colonel Voss diverted money from the families of fallen soldiers and falsified military transport records. Anyone who follows his order may become part of that crime.”
Voss smiled.
“Where is your evidence?”
Claire held the bear.
Voss looked at it.
“The device belongs to the government.”
“No,” Emma said. “Captain Snow belongs to me.”
Several officers lowered their eyes.
Then a convoy of black vehicles entered the street.
Federal investigators stepped out.
At their center was a tall woman wearing a dark coat.
Claire recognized her from photographs.
Margaret Shaw.
The civilian auditor whose name had been removed from Daniel’s passenger list.
Voss’s confidence disappeared.
Shaw approached him.
“Colonel Victor Voss, you are ordered to surrender your credentials and weapons pending investigation.”
Voss recovered quickly.
“Under whose authority?”
“Mine, supported by the Inspector General and the federal court.”
Voss looked toward Captain Monroe.
Monroe slowly stepped away from him.
“You told me Shaw was dead,” she whispered.
“She should have been.”
The words escaped before Voss could stop them.
Noah smiled grimly.
“Thank you for that.”
Shaw’s investigators had recorded everything.
Voss was placed in temporary custody, but he remained strangely calm.
As he was escorted away, he looked directly at Claire.
“You believe this ends because you found me.”
Claire said nothing.
“You have no idea who Daniel challenged.”
Margaret Shaw watched him leave.
“He is right about one thing,” she said.
General Ward faced her.
“You know Director Seventeen.”
Shaw nodded.
“Daniel and I spent a year trying to identify that person.”
“Why did you disappear?”
“Because someone inside the government approved an order for my removal.”
Emma held Captain Snow toward her.
“Did you know my daddy?”
Shaw knelt.
“He saved my life.”
“Did you save his?”
Shaw hesitated.
Claire noticed.
“You know what happened at Winter Shelter 6.”
“I know part of it.”
“Was Daniel alive after the crash?”
“Yes.”
Claire’s knees nearly failed.
Shaw continued before hope could overwhelm her.
“But the shelter was destroyed two days later. No one was found inside.”
“Was Voss responsible?”
“He gave the order.”
Noah looked toward the vehicles taking Voss away.
“Then charge him.”
“We can charge him with fraud, obstruction, and the attempted removal of witnesses. Proving he caused Daniel’s death requires the original evidence.”
Claire lifted the bear.
“It is here.”
Shaw shook her head.
“What you opened in the memorial was only Daniel’s index. The complete archive was transmitted somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“No one knows.”
Captain Snow’s nameplate flashed.
The bear spoke with Daniel’s voice.
“Margaret, if you survived, tell Claire why you were really on my aircraft.”
Shaw closed her eyes.
May you like
Daniel’s recording continued.
“Tell her who Director Seventeen is.”
