Chapter 6 - WHAT CELESTE WAS RUNNING FROM
Ryker used the chair leg to break the narrow observation window beside the door.
The glass was reinforced, but the frame was old.
After three strikes, the metal bent.
Fresh air entered through the gap.
The hiss from the ventilation system stopped.
It had not been poison.
It was a sedative vapor designed to leave them unconscious for several minutes.
Long enough for Flight 406 to depart.
Ryker reached through the broken frame and unlocked the door from the outside.
The gate seating area had changed.
Passengers were standing in line.
The first-class section was nearly empty.
The twins were gone.
Darius lay behind the gate desk, disoriented but conscious. A disposable cup rested near his hand.
“Coffee,” he muttered. “Someone replaced it.”
Ryker helped him sit up.
“Where are Owen and Lily?”
“Lucien showed the agent documents claiming he was their father.”
Celeste rushed to the boarding door.
It had not yet closed.
Ryker followed her onto the jet bridge.
Halfway down, they encountered Mason and three airport police officers coming from the aircraft.
“The children aren’t on board,” Mason said.
Ryker stopped.
“What?”
“We searched first class and the forward cabin. Lucien boarded, placed Celeste’s suitcase in the overhead compartment, then exited through a service door before the passenger count.”
“Where does the service door lead?”
“Baggage level.”
Celeste turned back toward the terminal.
“He used the flight as a distraction.”
Ryker radioed airport security.
“Seal every vehicle exit, cargo tunnel, and private runway. Suspect is traveling with two five-year-old children.”
A response came immediately.
A maintenance van had passed through a restricted door beneath Gate 17 four minutes earlier.
Its authorization belonged to Victor Hale.
The van was heading toward Hangar 9.
Ryker, Mason, Darius, Celeste, and the police descended to the service level.
They found Victor Hale inside the van near a loading area. His wrists were bound with plastic ties, and his airport badge had been removed.
Lucien had forced him to provide access credentials.
“Hangar 9,” Hale gasped. “He has a medical aircraft waiting.”
Ryker looked toward the runway map.
Hangar 9 stood beyond the commercial terminal near a private strip. An aircraft could leave without appearing on the departure board if its flight clearance had been filed under emergency medical status.
“What registration?” Ryker asked.
Hale gave them the number.
Darius checked it.
The aircraft was registered to the Sloan Global Foundation.
Margaret Sloan’s foundation.
Ryker called the attorney.
She answered on the first ring.
“Mr. Vale?”
“Where are you?”
“In the conference room.”
“Stay there.”
“What happened?”
“An aircraft registered to your foundation is waiting at Hangar 9.”
“That is impossible. The foundation owns no aircraft.”
“Someone used your identity.”
Margaret became quiet.
“Simon Kessler helped establish the foundation fifteen years ago.”
Another dead man.
Every path led back to Kessler.
Ryker ordered airport police to detain Margaret for protective questioning, then drove toward Hangar 9 in Hale’s operations vehicle.
Celeste sat beside him.
“You still haven’t answered me,” Ryker said. “Who told you I arranged Adrian’s death?”
“Simon.”
Ryker looked at her.
“You saw him after the yacht explosion?”
“Not in person. He contacted me through encrypted calls. He said he had survived but Adrian had not.”
“You believed him?”
“He knew everything about the trust, the yacht, and your argument.”
“Because he arranged them.”
Celeste pressed her hands together.
“Simon told me you wanted full control of Orpheus. He showed me transfers from Vale Meridian to the yacht engineer.”
“Fabricated.”
“I know that now.”
“Do you?”
She turned toward him.
“I was wrong about you. But you were wrong about me too.”
“You forged Adrian’s trust.”
“Simon brought me the papers. He said Adrian had signed them before the trip.”
“You became sole trustee.”
“And I never touched the children’s inheritance.”
“You blocked me from seeing them.”
“Because I believed you killed their father.”
Ryker could not forgive her, but he understood how efficiently Simon had built the lie.
He had turned Adrian against Ryker.
Celeste against Ryker.
Ryker against Adrian.
Every person who might have protected the children had been isolated from the others.
The operations vehicle reached Hangar 9.
A white medical aircraft waited with its engines running.
The hangar door was opening.
Lucien stood near the stairs holding Owen’s hand.
Lily was several feet behind him, refusing to move.
The teddy bear lay on the ground between them.
Lucien pulled Owen toward the aircraft.
Owen twisted away.
Ryker stopped the vehicle and stepped out.
“Lucien.”
The man looked over.
He did not appear surprised.
“You are persistent.”
“Let the children go.”
“They are the only people who can open what Adrian hid.”
“You already have the bear.”
“One key is missing.”
Ryker understood.
The teddy bear Owen carried was not the one containing the second key.
Adrian had anticipated that someone might search the toys.
He had hidden one key inside the newer bear left at the house and placed only a recorder inside the older bear Owen loved.
Lucien had taken the wrong toy.
Celeste stepped from the vehicle.
“I gave you what you asked for. Leave them here.”
Lucien smiled.
“You gave me a recording and a child’s toy.”
“I believed it was the key.”
“That is why Adrian never trusted you.”
Celeste flinched.
Ryker moved closer.
“Adrian trusted her enough to protect the children for twenty-two months.”
Lucien’s eyes narrowed.
“You do not know what Adrian trusted.”
“No. But I know what you fear.”
Ryker held up the metal cylinder recovered from the new bear.
Lucien’s attention shifted to it instantly.
“The real key,” Ryker said. “Let Owen and Lily walk to me.”
Lucien released Owen.
The boy ran toward Lily instead of Ryker. He grabbed his sister’s hand, and together they moved toward Celeste.
For one moment, it appeared Lucien might honor the exchange.
Then the aircraft door opened.
A man stepped into view.
Older.
Thinner.
Supported by a cane.
A pale scar crossed his jaw.
Ryker stared at him.
Unlike Lucien, this man wore his watch on his right wrist.
May you like
Adrian Hart looked down from the aircraft stairs.
“Don’t give him the key, Ryker.”
