Chapter 4 - the man wearing elias’s face
The distance between the lounge and the final hangar was less than half a mile.
In the storm, it felt much farther.
Cross ordered the aviation officers to secure the terminal while Elias and Mara followed her through the service tunnel beneath the runway. The tunnel had been built for fuel crews decades earlier and was supposedly no longer in use.
Mara knew otherwise.
She had seen maintenance charges assigned to it every month.
Elias walked beside her.
“Are you able to continue?”
“Yes.”
“That was not a command.”
“I know.”
Rainwater had soaked the lower part of her coat before they reached the tunnel entrance. She folded her arms, hiding the marks Adrian had left.
Elias noticed but did not mention them again.
He knew that protecting her did not mean deciding for her.
Cross unlocked the tunnel with an emergency aviation key.
The lights inside were already on.
Someone had expected them.
They descended the concrete stairs and entered a narrow passage beneath the runway. Pipes ran along the ceiling. Old warning signs hung from rusted chains.
Mara removed the incomplete printout from inside her coat.
Cross stopped.
“You told Adrian you didn’t have it.”
“I told him the printer failed.”
“You kept the page.”
“I kept half of it.”
Elias examined the document.
Only the upper portion had printed. It listed Flight 714’s routing codes and a reference to a program named ORION LEDGER.
At the bottom edge, half of an authorization number remained visible.
Elias recognized the format.
“This clearance was issued from my former command office.”
“Could someone there have copied your seal?” Mara asked.
“The seal was physical. It required two verification codes.”
“Who had them?”
“Me and my deputy.”
Cross looked at him.
“Who was your deputy six years ago?”
Elias did not answer immediately.
The tunnel seemed to grow colder.
“My brother.”
Mara remembered the photograph.
The man with Elias’s face.
“What is his name?”
“Gabriel Voss.”
“Where is he now?”
“He died during an evacuation mission five years ago.”
Cross’s expression changed.
“Was his body recovered?”
“No.”
The answer echoed down the tunnel.
A metallic sound came from somewhere ahead.
Elias raised one hand, signaling them to stop.
The service door at the far end stood slightly open. White light spilled through it.
Cross drew her weapon but kept it lowered.
They approached slowly.
Beyond the door was a storage area connected to the final hangar. Empty equipment racks lined the walls. A single gray flight jacket hung from a hook.
Elias lifted it.
There was a name patch inside.
G. VOSS.
Mara looked from the jacket to him.
“Could he be alive?”
“I watched his aircraft disappear from radar.”
“That isn’t the same as watching him die.”
Another sound came from the hangar.
They moved to the observation window.
The black aircraft remained in place, but Adrian was no longer beside it. Mechanics in unmarked uniforms were removing boxes from the cargo compartment.
At the far side of the hangar stood the man from the photograph.
His back was turned.
Elias touched the intercom control.
“Gabriel.”
The man stopped.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then he turned.
Mara felt the air leave her lungs.
He looked like Elias, but time had altered him. His hair was longer. A pale line crossed his right cheek. His eyes carried a tiredness that did not belong to the commander standing beside her.
Elias pressed the intercom again.
“Gabriel, face the glass.”
The man looked directly at him.
There was no recognition in his expression.
He raised one hand.
The mechanics abandoned the boxes and ran toward a side exit.
Cross opened the service door.
“Federal aviation investigation. Nobody moves.”
The man did not obey.
He took a black device from his pocket and pressed a button.
Every screen in the hangar activated at once.
Security recordings appeared across them.
The lounge.
Mara’s office.
The service tunnel.
Adrian had been watching their movements the entire time.
A distorted voice filled the hangar.
“Commander Voss, you should have allowed Adrian to recover the employee.”
Elias stared at his brother.
“Did you authorize Flight 714?”
The man’s eyes shifted toward the black aircraft.
The distorted voice answered for him.
“Gabriel Voss has not authorized anything in five years.”
Mara moved closer to the glass.
“What did you do to him?”
The screens changed.
A live image appeared.
Adrian stood inside another room, holding the original manifest.
Behind him was a wall covered with flight routes.
“I warned you,” Adrian said. “Mara does not understand what she found.”
Cross searched the room for the source of the transmission.
“Where are you?”
Adrian smiled.
“Not where you think.”
The black aircraft’s engines began to turn.
Elias looked back toward Gabriel.
His brother placed both hands against the cockpit window.
For the first time, emotion broke through his empty expression.
He formed two words without sound.
May you like
Not me.
Then the hangar doors slammed shut.
