Chapter 4 - The Bait
Price ordered Brennan not to go.
"It's a trap," she said through the secure phone.
"Of course it is. The question is what kind."
"The kind designed to kill you."
Brennan studied the note. Garrett wanted her frightened and impulsive. If Ortiz was alive, delay placed her in greater danger. If Ortiz was dead, the meeting existed to frame Brennan.
"Can you place a tactical team outside the depot?"
"Voss controls base response. Any deployment will reach him."
"Then don't deploy one."
Brennan retrieved two miniature cameras Price had supplied. One went inside a cracked wall sensor in Depot Seventeen. The other disappeared behind a corroded ventilation grille. Both transmitted to a receiver hidden beyond the perimeter.
She also made a choice Price hated. She placed the copied ledger in a sealed case inside her vehicle, exactly where Garrett could find it.
"You're handing them evidence," Price said.
"I'm handing them evidence with a tracker."
At 0200 Friday, Brennan entered Depot Seventeen. Ortiz sat tied to a chair beneath the overhead crane, bruised but conscious.
"I'm sorry," Ortiz whispered. "They used my daughter."
"You have nothing to apologize for."
Garrett emerged between shelves. Marcus, Cole, and Travis followed.
Garrett demanded the ledger. Brennan said it was somewhere safe. He showed her photographs of Daniel, Ortiz's daughter, and Price entering the weather station.
"There is no safe," he said. "There is only what we permit you to keep."
Brennan moved closer to Ortiz, placing herself within view of both hidden cameras.
"You stole Navy technology," she said loudly. "You assaulted Daniel Brennan. You kidnapped Chief Ortiz. Captain Voss protected you."
Marcus glanced toward Garrett. It was the involuntary reaction she needed.
Garrett understood too late that she was building a record. He ordered Travis to cut the cameras. Travis killed the depot's official feed and announced the room clean.
Then Garrett attacked.
Brennan threw him into a shelf and struck Cole in the throat. She nearly reached Ortiz before Marcus caught her from behind. Four against one became what four against one always became eventually.
They drove her to the floor. Garrett kicked her until pain flooded her vision.
"Tomorrow they'll find restricted guidance modules in your vehicle," he said. "Your career is finished."
Brennan saw the hidden camera blinking.
She smiled.
May you like
"Because you finally did it where I could prove it."
The lights went out.
