Chapter 6 - The Colonel Comes Home
Travis drew his pistol first.
Nicole moved before he aimed.
She struck his wrist, turned the weapon away, and drove her elbow into his chest. The pistol hit the floor.
Harper reached for his own gun.
Nicole kicked the chair beside Evelyn. It slid across the concrete and struck Harper’s knees.
Victor stepped backward.
Within seconds, Travis lay gasping, Harper’s wrist was twisted behind his back, and Nicole held the recovered pistol against the floor between them.
She did not fire.
“Cut her loose,” she ordered.
Harper laughed through clenched teeth.
“You came alone.”
“No.”
Boots thundered upstairs.
Major Reed entered with six military investigators and two federal agents.
Travis stared.
“You brought the Army into a police station?”
Nicole corrected him.
“I brought witnesses.”
Reed cut Evelyn’s restraints.
Nicole knelt beside her mother and examined the bruises.
“Hospital.”
“I’m fine.”
“You have blood in your hair.”
“I had blood in my hair when you were born. I survived that too.”
Despite herself, Nicole smiled.
One of the federal agents placed Harper in restraints.
Victor remained calm.
“You have no jurisdiction over me.”
Agent Laura Chen approached.
“We have federal warrants involving weapons trafficking, conspiracy, kidnapping, and obstruction.”
Victor looked at Nicole.
“You moved quickly.”
“You made it easy.”
“No. I made it visible.”
Nicole studied him.
“What does that mean?”
Victor said nothing.
Travis struggled against the investigator holding him.
“My father owns this town.”
Evelyn stood unsteadily.
Nicole supported her.
Agent Chen displayed the warrant.
“Your father’s property is being searched now.”
Victor’s calm expression flickered.
“What property?”
“All of it.”
Harper began laughing.
Everyone turned.
“You think that matters?” he said. “The warehouses are empty. The accounts are clean. By sunrise, Kane will look like a victim of government harassment.”
Nicole looked at Victor.
“He’s right, isn’t he?”
Victor adjusted his sleeve.
“You came home with soldiers and warrants. Very dramatic. But evidence disappears. Witnesses forget. Courts require more than suspicion.”
Reed entered the adjoining evidence room and returned carrying a small digital recorder.
“We found this taped beneath the interrogation table.”
Harper stopped laughing.
Reed pressed play.
Victor’s voice filled the basement.
“Daniel returned to Bellhaven many times.”
Then Harper’s voice:
“You have Daniel’s ledger.”
Then Travis:
“We don’t need the book. We need the key.”
Nicole looked at Evelyn.
Her mother smiled.
“I placed it there while Travis was busy hitting me.”
Victor’s eyes hardened.
“You planned to be captured?”
“I planned to make arrogant men speak.”
Agent Chen led Victor toward the stairs.
Before leaving, he looked at Nicole.
“Ask Marcus Hale what happened at Site Seven.”
Nicole’s expression did not change.
Victor continued.
“Ask him why your father begged Nathaniel to take him alive.”
Nicole stepped closer.
“Where is Daniel?”
Victor smiled.
“You have twelve hours before Bellhaven burns its history.”
The investigators took him upstairs.
Harper followed.
Travis resisted until Reed pushed him against the wall.
“You can’t treat me like this.”
Reed looked at him.
“You assaulted a seventy-five-year-old woman in front of witnesses.”
“They won’t testify.”
Caleb appeared at the basement entrance.
“I will.”
Travis froze.
Caleb’s eyebrow was bandaged. General Hale stood behind him.
Evelyn looked at Hale’s hands.
When he saw Nicole, he saluted with his right hand.
Nicole returned the gesture but remained cautious.
Hale looked at her mother.
“I’m sorry.”
“For losing me or for keeping my husband’s secrets?”
“Both.”
Nicole said, “What is Site Seven?”
Hale’s face changed.
“Who mentioned it?”
“Victor.”
Hale glanced at the federal agents.
“This is not the place.”
“It became the place when my mother was chained to a chair.”
Hale lowered his voice.
“Site Seven was a classified containment facility beneath an abandoned missile complex.”
“Containment for what?”
“Evidence, personnel, and recovered assets connected to unauthorized weapons transfers.”
“Was my father held there?”
“For six weeks.”
Evelyn gripped Nicole’s arm.
“You knew?”
“I learned years later.”
“What happened to him?”
“The site was evacuated after a fire.”
“Was a body found?”
“No.”
“Then why did you let us believe he was dead?”
Hale looked directly at Nicole.
“Because I received a message in Daniel’s voice telling me never to contact you again.”
“Do you still have it?”
“Yes.”
“Play it.”
Hale removed an old encrypted device from his coat.
Daniel’s voice emerged.
“Marcus, they know Nicole’s sequence. If Evelyn learns I survived, both of them will be taken. Let them bury me.”
The message ended.
Evelyn wiped tears from her face.
Nicole asked, “When was that recorded?”
“Eleven years ago.”
Seven years after Daniel disappeared.
Agent Chen returned down the stairs.
“We have a problem.”
“What?” Nicole asked.
“Victor Kane’s convoy never reached federal detention.”
Reed turned sharply.
“How?”
“The transport route was changed by an authenticated military order.”
“Whose authorization?”
Chen handed Nicole a tablet.
The order carried General Hale’s credentials.
Everyone looked at him.
Hale stared at the screen.
“I did not issue that.”
A radio crackled upstairs.
An officer shouted for assistance.
Nicole ran outside.
The street was empty except for a damaged transport van.
Its rear doors stood open.
Victor, Travis, and Harper were gone.
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On the side of the vehicle, someone had painted a message in fresh red letters:
WELCOME HOME, NICOLE.
