Chapter 10 - hawthorne airfield
They went to Hawthorne.
Not because they trusted Adrian’s instructions, but because the background of his transmission revealed more than he intended.
Mara had recognized the sound beneath his voice.
A repeating metallic vibration.
Hawthorne’s western hangar stood beside an old wind-testing tower that produced the same rhythm whenever storms moved across the valley.
Adrian had recorded the message there.
Whether the hostages remained there was another question.
Rowan drove the maintenance vehicle through the outer service gate using Soren’s transfer authorization. The guard scanned the document and allowed them to pass without looking inside the rear compartment.
Mara, Elias, and Cross remained hidden behind equipment cases.
As they approached the western hangar, Cross received confirmation that part of Mara’s original contract had reached military legal command before the transfer was intercepted.
It was not enough to clear them.
It was enough to prevent Soren from closing the case without review.
Rowan parked beside the hangar.
“I will enter first.”
Elias stopped him.
“If they see you alone, they will know something changed.”
“They already know.”
“Then give them what they expect.”
Rowan placed a pair of loose restraints around Elias’s wrists. Cross did the same for Mara and herself. The locks remained open beneath their sleeves.
They entered the hangar in a line.
Adrian waited beside a white executive jet.
Victor Soren stood with him.
Rowan’s daughter sat inside a glass office at the far end. Mara’s mother was beside her, holding the child’s hand.
Both were alive.
Mara almost ran toward them.
Elias shifted slightly, blocking her path until they understood the room.
Six armed guards stood near the aircraft.
Two wore federal uniforms.
Four belonged to Vale Meridian.
Adrian noticed Elias’s movement.
“Still protecting her.”
Elias raised his restrained hands.
“You wanted us here.”
“I wanted the original contract.”
Cross held up the sealed evidence envelope.
“You release the hostages first.”
Soren laughed quietly.
“You are no longer an investigator.”
“I still know how evidence works.”
“Evidence works only when a court receives it.”
Mara studied the aircraft.
Its registration number belonged to a corporate jet currently recorded as flying over the Atlantic. Adrian planned to move everyone aboard an aircraft that officially could not be at Hawthorne.
Flight 714 had changed identities again.
Adrian approached her.
“You created a considerable problem.”
“You created it when you forged my signature.”
“I gave you a career.”
“You placed me beside the ledger because you believed my father had left me access.”
Adrian’s eyes changed.
Mara had guessed correctly.
“You did not know about Orion when you hired me,” she continued. “You knew only that my father protected something before he disappeared.”
Adrian stopped several feet away.
“Daniel believed information could control powerful people. He never understood that powerful people control information.”
“Is he alive?”
Her mother looked toward Adrian.
That movement answered before he did.
Mara turned.
“You knew?”
Tears filled her mother’s eyes.
“I knew he survived the crash.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because the first message he sent said they would take you if I did.”
Adrian watched them with satisfaction.
“He separated your family and still convinced you he was protecting you.”
Mara faced him again.
“Where is my father?”
“Bring me the contract.”
Cross gave the envelope to Mara.
Mara walked forward.
Elias watched every guard.
When Mara reached Adrian, she held out the contract.
He extended his hand.
She pulled it back.
“Show me Gabriel first.”
Adrian looked at Soren.
A side door opened.
Two guards brought in the real Gabriel Voss.
He was thinner than the man who had copied his appearance, and an old injury forced him to favor one leg. But the instant Elias saw him, he knew.
Gabriel looked at his brother’s supposedly restrained hands.
“You still pull the left cuff tighter when you are pretending to be captured.”
Elias’s expression almost broke.
“And you still talk too much.”
Adrian moved between them.
“The contract.”
Mara handed him the envelope.
Adrian opened it.
Inside were blank pages.
His face hardened.
Mara raised her open hands.
“The original was transmitted before we arrived.”
Soren drew his weapon.
Elias released his cuffs.
The hangar erupted into motion.
Rowan struck the nearest guard and ran toward the glass office. Cross drove Soren’s arm aside as he fired into the ceiling. Elias reached Gabriel while Mara moved behind the aircraft stairs.
Adrian seized her.
His hand closed around the same arm he had marked earlier.
This time Mara did not freeze.
She drove her heel against his foot, twisted exactly as Elias had shown civilian crews during safety training, and broke free.
Adrian reached inside his jacket.
He removed the black access card.
Mara realized what he intended.
The executive jet’s engines started remotely.
The hangar doors began to open.
Adrian ran toward the aircraft.
Soren forced Cross away and followed him.
The guards abandoned their positions.
Mara’s mother and Rowan’s daughter emerged from the glass office as Rowan broke the lock.
Elias helped Gabriel toward cover.
The jet began rolling.
Mara saw the original contract in Adrian’s hand.
He had taken it from Soren’s inner pocket.
Cross’s transmission had not carried the complete document because Soren already possessed the missing pages.
Adrian had brought the real contract to destroy it in front of her.
Now he was escaping with the only complete copy.
Mara ran after the aircraft.
Elias shouted her name.
She reached the boarding stairs just before they lifted.
Adrian looked down at her from the doorway.
“You should have come when I called you.”
Mara grabbed the rail.
Adrian kicked the release.
The stairs separated from the aircraft.
Mara fell onto the wet runway as the jet accelerated toward the open gate.
Elias reached her.
She pushed herself upright.
“The contract is on that plane.”
“So is Soren,” Cross said.
Gabriel watched the aircraft move toward the runway.
“No.”
He pointed toward the wind-testing tower.
A red warning light flashed at its base.
“That plane is not meant to escape.”
A timer appeared on the aircraft’s tail display.
Four minutes.
May you like
Adrian believed he was fleeing.
Someone else had turned Flight 714 into a trap.
