Chapter 3 - The Man Beneath the Station
The flashlight lowered.
General Marcus Hale stepped into the room.
He wore civilian clothes and carried no visible weapon.
Evelyn kept the revolver aimed at his chest.
“You were in the photograph,” she said.
“I know.”
“You knew Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Nathaniel Turner was alive.”
Hale’s face tightened. “I suspected it.”
Nicole’s voice came through the phone.
“You told me my grandfather died in 1996.”
“That was the official record.”
“You signed documents confirming it.”
“I was a lieutenant following orders.”
“Bad answer, General.”
Hale looked at the phone.
“You have every right to be angry.”
“I have the right to know whether you helped bury my father.”
“I tried to save him.”
Evelyn’s finger rested against the trigger.
“Then explain.”
Hale slowly raised his hands.
“Daniel contacted me eighteen years ago. He had evidence that decommissioned weapons components were being sold through contractors. He believed his father controlled the network.”
“Believed?” Evelyn said. “He named him.”
“Daniel had documents, but no direct proof Nathaniel was giving the orders. We planned to move him into protective custody.”
“You failed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Someone inside my unit leaked the extraction route.”
Nicole’s voice hardened. “Who?”
“I never found out.”
A sound came from the tunnel behind the maintenance room.
Hale turned.
“We need to move.”
“You led them here?” Evelyn asked.
“No. I tracked the officers who searched your home.”
“So did someone else.”
Hale crossed to the steel cabinet and pressed a latch behind it. A narrow passage opened.
“Daniel built two exits. This leads beneath the freight yard.”
Caleb stared. “How many secrets did this town have?”
“Enough to fill a cemetery,” Hale said.
They entered the passage.
Evelyn kept the revolver pointed toward Hale’s back.
The tunnel narrowed, forcing them to move in single file. Water dripped from overhead pipes.
Behind them, the hidden door crashed open.
Voices echoed.
“Police! Come out with your hands visible!”
Chief Harper’s voice.
Hale whispered, “They won’t announce themselves unless they want witnesses to believe this is legal.”
Caleb stumbled.
Evelyn caught him.
Nicole remained connected by phone, listening from thousands of miles away.
“How soon can you get here?” Evelyn asked.
“I’ve already requested transport.”
“Requested?”
“I’m in the middle of an operation.”
“Then finish it.”
“Mom.”
“I’ve waited eighteen years for answers. I can wait a few more hours.”
A bullet struck the tunnel wall behind them.
Caleb cried out.
“Move!” Hale ordered.
They reached a rusted ladder.
Hale climbed first and pushed open a metal hatch.
Rain poured into the opening.
They emerged behind a row of abandoned freight cars.
A sedan waited beside the tracks.
Hale opened the doors.
“Get in.”
Evelyn did not move.
“How did you know we would come here?”
“I placed a silent sensor inside the depot years ago.”
“You monitored us?”
“I monitored the room.”
“For whom?”
“For Daniel.”
She studied his face.
He seemed older than the man in the photograph, but the guilt in his eyes looked fresh.
Chief Harper’s men emerged from the depot.
Hale pulled Evelyn into the car.
Caleb jumped into the back seat.
The sedan accelerated over the muddy service road as police vehicles turned onto the tracks behind them.
Nicole asked, “Where are you taking them?”
“A secure federal property outside the county.”
“Send me the coordinates.”
“I can’t transmit them over an open line.”
“You had no problem listening to my mother through one.”
Hale’s jaw tightened.
“Colonel Turner, your current assignment is connected to this case.”
Nicole became silent.
“What do you know about my assignment?”
“You’re investigating missing guidance modules from a military storage facility in Eastern Europe.”
Evelyn looked at the phone.
Nicole had never mentioned that.
Hale continued.
“Those modules passed through Bellhaven before they left the country.”
“How?”
“Inside agricultural machinery shipped by Kane International.”
Victor Kane’s company had expanded far beyond construction during the past decade. Newspapers praised him as a local businessman who created jobs.
Nicole said, “My command believes the theft began overseas.”
“Your command is wrong.”
“Or compromised.”
“Yes.”
The police vehicles gained on them.
Hale turned onto a narrow road through the forest.
A truck appeared ahead, blocking both lanes.
Caleb gripped the seat.
“It’s Kane’s truck.”
Hale braked hard.
Police vehicles stopped behind them.
Armed men emerged from the trees.
Evelyn counted six in front and four behind.
Chief Harper stepped from his car.
He raised a loudspeaker.
“Marcus Hale, exit the vehicle. You are under arrest for kidnapping.”
Hale laughed without humor.
“Predictable.”
Evelyn looked at him. “Do you have a plan?”
“I had one before they blocked the road.”
“That is not reassuring.”
Nicole’s voice sharpened.
“General, open the glove compartment.”
Hale frowned. “Why?”
“Dad’s map showed an emergency transmitter installed in the vehicle used for depot evacuations.”
“This isn’t the same car.”
“The transmitter was not installed in the car. It was installed in the road.”
Hale looked through the windshield.
Nicole continued.
“Press the green button beneath the glove compartment.”
Evelyn found it.
Nothing happened.
Chief Harper approached.
Then the forest erupted with noise.
Metal barriers rose from beneath the road, separating Harper from the sedan. Smoke canisters launched from hidden tubes. Thick white clouds swallowed the officers.
Hale stared at Evelyn.
“Daniel built that?”
Nicole answered.
“My father planned for betrayal.”
Hale drove through the smoke and around the truck.
They escaped north.
Twenty minutes later, they reached an unmarked farmhouse.
Hale led them inside and locked the reinforced door.
Evelyn placed the ledger on the table.
“We need to decode the entries.”
Hale turned the pages.
His expression changed when he reached the final section.
“What is it?” Evelyn asked.
“These dates continue after Daniel disappeared.”
She looked down.
He was right.
The same handwriting appeared for another seven years.
Nicole whispered, “Then Dad wrote them.”
Hale nodded.
“Which means Daniel was alive long after Bellhaven declared him dead.”
Caleb pointed to the last page.
A recent entry had been written in different ink.
The date was only six days old.
May you like
Beside it were three words:
EVELYN IS NEXT.
