Chapter 7 - samantha’s first lie
Adrian returned home shortly before dawn.
The police had moved Samantha to an interview room at the local station. She sat behind a glass partition with Detective Bell beside her.
Adrian took the chair across the table.
Samantha looked as though she had aged years since the rain began.
“I need to know everything,” Adrian said.
“You won’t believe me.”
“I believed you for eleven years.”
The words hurt more than shouting would have.
Samantha folded her hands.
“Four years ago, a man approached me outside Chloe’s preschool. He said Adrian Samson was being considered for an operation that would change national security.”
“Atlas did not exist.”
“He called it Atlas.”
“What else did he say?”
“He knew you would eventually be assigned to transport Dr. Vale.”
Adrian sat back.
“That assignment depended on events no one could have predicted.”
“He predicted them.”
Samantha explained that the man never gave his name. He used encrypted calls and met her in public places where cameras were absent or malfunctioning. He claimed to represent a secret oversight division investigating corruption inside the military.
He told her Adrian might unknowingly be working for compromised commanders.
“He said I could protect you by reporting changes in your schedule,” Samantha continued.
“When did he begin paying you?”
“After my mother’s investment failed.”
“So the debt came later.”
“Yes.”
Adrian’s eyes hardened. “You did not begin because you were desperate. You began because you chose to spy on me.”
Samantha looked down.
“That was my first lie.”
“What was the second?”
“I told him about Chloe’s tablet.”
Adrian went still.
“He wanted a device inside the house that you would not inspect. I said Chloe used an old tablet for games.”
“That tablet called me tonight.”
“I know.”
“Did they access its camera?”
“I don’t know.”
Adrian stood abruptly.
Detective Bell raised a hand. “Colonel.”
He forced himself to remain beside the table.
Samantha continued quickly.
“The man said the tablet would only collect background audio. I removed the program months ago.”
“Or you thought you did.”
“I never let him enter Chloe’s room.”
“You let him enter her life.”
Samantha’s eyes filled with tears, but Adrian did not allow emotion to change the questions.
“What did he look like?”
“Tall. Gray hair. Sometimes he wore glasses. His voice was calm.”
“Did you see any identification?”
“Once. A government badge.”
“What agency?”
“The symbol was covered.”
“Did he have a ring?”
“No.”
“Why did Voss obey him?”
“I don’t know.”
Detective Bell placed photographs on the table. They showed officials connected to Northstar Aeronautics, military intelligence, and defense oversight.
Samantha studied each face.
She stopped at the photograph of Deputy Defense Director Warren Hale.
Hale was known publicly as a reformer. He had testified before Congress about military transparency and defense contractor accountability.
Samantha touched the image.
“That might be him.”
“Might?” Adrian asked.
“He looked older in person. His hair was different.”
Bell leaned closer. “Are you certain enough for us to investigate?”
Samantha nodded.
Adrian studied Hale’s photograph.
He had met the deputy director only once, during a ceremony two years earlier. Hale had shaken his hand and asked a peculiar question.
How does it feel to raise a child while serving a country that may ask everything from you?
At the time, Adrian had assumed it was polite conversation.
Now the memory felt rehearsed.
An officer entered the room.
“Detective, we found something on the child’s tablet.”
Adrian followed the officer to the digital forensics lab.
A technician displayed a hidden application.
“It transmitted audio, location data, and selected images to an external server,” she said. “Someone activated it remotely tonight.”
“Where is the server?”
“We traced the latest connection to a government network.”
“Which building?”
The technician enlarged the result.
The address belonged to the Department of Defense administrative complex in Washington.
Adrian’s phone vibrated.
A new image appeared on the screen.
It showed Chloe asleep at the neighbor’s house less than five minutes earlier.
The photograph had been taken from outside the bedroom window.
Below it was a message.
May you like
THE KEY WAS NEVER IN YOUR SAFE.
IT IS WITH YOUR DAUGHTER.
