Chapter 6 - The Falcon’s Shadow
Nora searched the encrypted folders for references to Victor’s government contacts.
Most names had been replaced by codes.
Raven Six.
North Gate.
Silver Parish.
Blue Falcon.
The first three appeared only occasionally.
Blue Falcon appeared everywhere.
He approved payments, selected targets, and supplied confidential information about federal contract investigations.
He also knew details about Nora.
One message contained her address.
Another listed her medical appointments.
A third described the route she usually drove between her townhouse and Ellie’s school.
Victor had not merely stolen money.
He had been reporting on Nora.
“When did you tell him about me?” she asked.
Victor’s eyes shifted toward the door.
“Tell who?”
“Blue Falcon.”
“I don’t know anyone by that name.”
Nora opened a message sent six months earlier.
Lantern’s mother remains suspicious. Former service history confirmed. Continue family pressure. Avoid direct action unless exposure is imminent.
Lena read the message twice.
“Lantern is me.”
Nora nodded.
“Blue Lantern was our private code,” Lena said. “How did they know it?”
Victor said nothing.
The answer came to Nora gradually.
The code had been spoken aloud only once after Lena became an adult.
It happened at her wedding reception.
Lena had been nervous before the ceremony. Nora took her aside and reminded her that marriage did not remove her right to leave an unsafe situation.
“You can still send Blue Lantern,” Nora had said.
At the time, someone had been standing near the doorway.
A distinguished man in his late fifties with silver at his temples.
He had introduced himself as Adrian Vale, one of Victor’s earliest investors.
He later became known to the family as Uncle Adrian.
He attended holidays.
He sent Ellie expensive birthday presents.
He often asked Nora questions about her years at the school.
Nora had found him familiar, but his face was older, heavier, and altered by cosmetic surgery.
Now she understood why his voice had always unsettled her.
“Adrian Vale,” she said.
Victor’s expression revealed the truth.
Lena shook her head.
“No. Adrian helped us buy this apartment.”
“He helped Victor build his company,” Nora said.
“He was at the hospital after Ellie was born.”
“I remember.”
“He knows where she goes to school.”
“I know.”
Lena’s fear returned.
“Is Ellie safe?”
Evelyn immediately called the officer assigned to check the sleepover location.
After a tense thirty seconds, she received confirmation.
Ellie remained safely inside the home with her friend’s parents. A patrol unit had been positioned nearby without alarming the children.
Lena exhaled.
Nora searched for Adrian Vale’s photograph.
The image appeared beside corporate records showing that he held no official role in Hale Strategic Consulting.
His background was almost perfectly clean.
Too clean.
He had no verified employment before the age of fifty-three. His educational history led to institutions that had no record of him. His passport had first been issued twelve years earlier.
Nora enlarged the photograph.
She focused on the left ear.
Faces could be altered.
Ears were much harder to disguise.
A small notch cut across the upper cartilage.
Adrian Voss had possessed the same mark.
Nora felt the past opening beneath her feet.
“He survived,” she whispered.
Victor looked toward the black briefcase beside the dining table.
Nora followed his gaze.
“What’s inside?”
“Business documents.”
“Open it.”
“No.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“Then wait for the police.”
Victor’s confidence suddenly returned.
“You haven’t called them.”
Nora checked the time.
She had sent a silent emergency signal when she connected the encrypted drive.
May you like
“Not directly,” she said.
Distant sirens began to rise from the street below.
