Chapter 9 - The Dead Man on the Screen
Evelyn reached toward the monitor as if she could touch him.
Daniel Turner looked twenty years older than the photograph on her kitchen wall. His hair was gray, his face thin, and a scar crossed his forehead.
But it was him.
His eyes.
His posture.
The slight tilt of his head when listening.
“Daniel,” she whispered.
The man on the screen looked directly toward the camera.
His lips moved.
No sound played.
Nicole moved to the controls.
“The feed is muted.”
Hale examined the system.
“It’s internal. We may be able to open audio.”
Nicole connected a field device.
Static burst through the speakers.
Then Daniel’s voice filled the room.
“Nicole?”
She stopped breathing.
He could see them.
“Dad.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Evelyn stepped beside Nicole.
“Daniel, where are you?”
His face changed when he saw her.
“Evie.”
No one had called her that since his disappearance.
Tears ran down Evelyn’s face.
“You are alive.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For which part?”
“All of it.”
The timer continued counting down.
One hour, fifty-three minutes.
Nicole forced herself to focus.
“Where is the truck taking you?”
“Transfer Point Lazarus.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. They kept me drugged until the tunnel.”
“Who has you?”
Daniel glanced offscreen.
“Wexler controls the transfer. Nathaniel controls Wexler.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Nathaniel would be nearly one hundred.”
“He is.”
“How?”
“Medical intervention. Experimental treatments. He’s weak, but alive.”
Hale asked, “Why are they moving you now?”
Daniel saw him.
His expression hardened.
“Marcus.”
Hale stepped closer.
“I tried to find you.”
“You stopped looking.”
“I received your messages.”
“I sent no messages.”
Silence followed.
Hale looked as though someone had struck him.
“Then who—”
“Nathaniel.”
Nicole said, “Dad, what is the sequence?”
Daniel’s attention returned to her.
“A biometric mnemonic key.”
“I need more than that.”
“It activates a command archive created by Nathaniel. Financial records, military contacts, intelligence assets, blackmail files. Enough to destroy the network.”
“And the people?”
Daniel’s eyes darkened.
“Some operatives underwent conditioning. The sequence can initiate or interrupt programmed responses.”
Nicole remembered childhood games. Nathaniel repeating colors, objects, numbers.
“Did he condition me?”
“He tried.”
“Did it work?”
“I don’t know.”
Her stomach tightened.
Daniel continued.
“I discovered what he was doing and took you away. That is when I began documenting the network.”
Evelyn wiped her face.
“Victor said you thought I signed a transport authorization.”
“I did.”
“You believed I was involved.”
“For three days.”
“You left without asking me.”
“I was ashamed.”
“Not ashamed enough to stay gone for eighteen years.”
Daniel looked away.
“They threatened Nicole.”
“They always threatened Nicole. You let me bury an empty coffin.”
“I believed distance would protect you.”
Evelyn’s voice broke.
“It did not.”
The timer dropped below one hour, forty-five minutes.
Nicole said, “We will discuss this when you are free. Tell me how to stop the transfer.”
Daniel looked toward something beyond the camera.
“The truck will pass Junction Four. There’s a manual floodgate.”
Hale opened the tunnel map.
“Junction Four is beneath the river.”
“If the gate opens, the lower tunnel floods,” Daniel said. “The truck will stop before entering.”
“Can you escape?”
“My restraints are electronically controlled.”
Nicole asked, “What releases them?”
“Your sequence.”
Hale shook his head.
“Do not enter it into this system. It may activate the command archive.”
Daniel nodded.
“He’s right.”
“Then give me another option.”
“There is one.”
A loud noise sounded near Daniel.
He turned.
A masked guard approached.
The audio cut off.
The screen remained active.
The guard struck Daniel and pulled a hood over his head.
Evelyn cried out.
The feed ended.
Nicole looked at Hale.
“What is the other option?”
“He didn’t say.”
“The truck reaches Junction Four in less than two hours.”
Hale studied the tunnel map.
“There’s an access route from the old dam.”
“Distance?”
“Thirty minutes by vehicle if the roads are clear.”
“They aren’t.”
“We can use the tunnels.”
Nicole contacted Reed.
This time, he answered.
“We found three possible exits,” he said. “One near the airport, one beneath Kane’s quarry, and one at the river dam.”
“Send teams to all three.”
“Wexler issued orders placing you under arrest.”
“Are you following them?”
“No.”
“Then ignore anything else he sends.”
Reed hesitated.
“There’s more. Federal command received evidence that you sold classified information overseas.”
“Fabricated.”
“I know. But the financial transfers appear under your service number.”
“They’re preparing to blame the entire network on me.”
“Yes.”
Agent Chen came onto the channel.
“Nicole, Victor Kane released a recorded statement. He claims you returned to Bellhaven to intimidate witnesses and conceal your father’s criminal operation.”
Evelyn whispered, “He turned Daniel into the villain.”
Nicole looked at the wall of photographs.
“They built this narrative for years.”
Hale nodded.
“If the network is exposed, they need a believable architect.”
“A missing military contractor and his colonel daughter.”
“Exactly.”
The screen flickered again.
A new message appeared.
COLONEL TURNER, REPORT TO THE DINER ALONE.
Beneath the words was a live image of Caleb tied to a chair.
A masked man stood behind him.
Nicole checked the library security feed on her device.
Federal officers lay unconscious near the entrance.
Agent Chen was no longer responding.
Evelyn stared at the image.
“How did they take him?”
Hale looked toward the tunnel entrance.
“Someone inside the protection team betrayed us.”
Nicole’s device received another message.
BRING THE LEDGER.
COME ALONE.
OR THE BOY DIES AT 10:00.
The transfer timer showed 1:31 remaining.
The clock gave her forty-three minutes to save Caleb.
She could pursue Daniel.
Or return to the diner.
Evelyn picked up the ledger.
“We save the child.”
Nicole looked at the screen showing her father.
Then at Caleb.
“They know I’ll choose him.”
“Then disappoint them later.”
Nicole took the ledger.
At the bottom of the final page, she noticed a line written in Daniel’s handwriting.
The words had been concealed beneath a fold.
WHEN TWO LIVES BECOME THE CHOICE, FOLLOW THE ONE THEY THINK YOU ABANDONED.
Nicole understood.
The kidnappers expected her to go to the diner.
Which meant Daniel’s transfer route contained the greater secret.
She looked at Hale.
“You go to Junction Four.”
“And Caleb?”
“I’ll bring him home.”
May you like
Evelyn stepped beside her.
“We’ll bring him home.”
