Chapter 4 - Winter Lantern
Operation Winter Lantern began with a convoy that disappeared.
Three trucks carrying humanitarian medical supplies vanished near a remote border region.
Richard had been a lieutenant colonel then.
He was assigned to recovery.
His team located one truck burned beside a road.
The other two were found forty miles north inside an abandoned industrial compound.
The supplies were gone.
Inside a warehouse, they found bodies.
Civilians.
Men.
Women.
Two teenagers.
All shot.
Thirty-seven people.
A survivor was discovered beneath a collapsed storage rack.
He had been shot twice.
His name was Anton Vale.
At least, that was the name on his documents.
Richard's team evacuated him.
Before Anton could be interviewed officially, military intelligence arrived.
Michael Mercer was with them.
Richard had met Michael twice before.
Quiet.
Educated.
Nothing like Daniel.
Michael ordered the survivor transferred.
Richard refused until he received written authorization.
The authorization arrived within twenty minutes.
Anton disappeared.
Three days later, Richard received instructions to classify the civilian deaths as collateral damage from local militia activity.
Richard refused.
He wrote his own report.
Then Daniel Mercer's missing logistics shipments appeared in the evidence chain.
Richard began connecting the crimes.
The stolen equipment.
The warehouse.
Daniel.
Michael.
Anton Vale.
But somebody higher up buried the investigation.
Claire listened while Richard spoke.
Nathan sat across from them.
Neither interrupted.
Finally Claire asked, "What did you bury?"
Richard looked at her.
"Evidence."
"Where?"
"I didn't trust military channels."
"So you hid it."
"Yes."
"What?"
"A field ledger. Photographs. Shipment codes. Names."
"Where is it?"
Richard hesitated.
"I don't know."
Nathan laughed in disbelief.
"You don't know where you hid evidence this important?"
"I gave it to Katherine."
Richard's late wife.
Emily's mother.
"She moved it without telling me where."
"Why?"
"Because somebody searched our house."
Claire leaned forward.
"When?"
"Seventeen years ago."
"And Katherine never told you?"
"She said the less I knew, the safer Emily would be."
Nathan looked toward the drive.
"My mother knows about this?"
"Emily believed she did."
Nathan stood abruptly.
"I'm calling her."
Richard caught his wrist.
"No."
"That's my mother."
"Exactly."
Nathan pulled free.
"You don't get to command everyone anymore."
Richard stood.
"Your dead father was photographed three months ago."
Nathan froze.
Richard lowered his voice.
"Your wife was tortured last night. Your mother met repeatedly with a man tied to the message carved into Emily's back. Until we understand why, you don't warn anyone."
Nathan looked shaken.
Before he could answer, Claire's phone rang.
She stepped away.
Richard watched her expression change.
"What?"
Claire slowly lowered the phone.
"Security found something at the hospital."
Richard's stomach tightened.
"What?"
"A man tried to enter Emily's floor using a maintenance badge."
"Where is he?"
"He ran."
"Description?"
Claire looked at Richard.
"Male. Early sixties. Gray hair."
Nathan whispered, "My father?"
Claire continued.
"Security got one clear frame."
She turned the phone.
Nathan stared.
His knees nearly buckled.
Charles Cole.
Older.
Alive.
Walking through the hospital corridor.
Nathan looked at Richard.
"My father is alive."
Richard said nothing.
Nathan's phone rang.
The name on the screen appeared.
MOM.
All three stared at it.
Nathan answered on speaker.
"Evelyn?"
His mother was crying.
"Nathan, sweetheart, you need to leave Richard Hayes immediately."
Nathan looked at Richard.
"Why?"
"Because he is the reason your father had to disappear."
Richard's jaw tightened.
Nathan whispered, "Dad is alive."
Silence.
Then Evelyn Cole said something none of them expected.
"Yes."
Nathan closed his eyes.
"You knew?"
"Yes."
"Where is he?"
"Nathan, listen to me. Richard Hayes cannot be trusted."
Richard stepped toward the phone.
"Evelyn."
Her breathing stopped.
Richard continued.
"Where is Charles?"
Evelyn's voice became cold.
"You still don't understand, Colonel."
"Explain it."
"You spent seventeen years believing you hid evidence from the Mercer brothers."
Richard waited.
Evelyn spoke again.
"But you didn't hide anything from them."
A door slammed somewhere on her end.
She gasped.
"Evelyn?" Nathan said.
Her voice changed to panic.
"They're here."
"Who?"
"Don't come home."
"Evelyn."
The line crackled.
Then a man spoke.
Not Evelyn.
"Colonel Hayes."
Richard recognized the voice.
Older.
But unmistakable.
Michael Mercer.
May you like
"You should have stayed buried."
The call ended.
