Chapter 6 - Logan slammed into the front door.It didn't move.
“Open it!”
He hit the electronic panel.
Nothing.
Daniel checked his phone.
“No signal.”
I examined the ceiling.
“Sprinklers.”
“What?”
“Old buildings have emergency overrides.”
Logan looked around.
“Where?”
“Basement.”
We found the stairwell behind a wooden panel.
The basement was enormous.
Too enormous.
A second building existed beneath the mansion.
Concrete walls.
Steel doors.
Industrial wiring.
Daniel stopped.
“This isn't a house.”
“No.”
I ran my fingers over the wall.
This was an old operations room.
Someone had built it decades ago.
At the far end, a projector activated.
Images appeared.
Military documents.
Names.
Dates.
Coordinates.
Then my own photograph.
Logan stepped closer.
“That's you.”
I stared at the image.
Under my name was a classification.
FIELD COMMANDER
Then another line.
STATUS: COMPROMISED
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
Daniel read it.
“That's not possible.”
A second image appeared.
My former commanding officer.
Colonel Adrian Cole.
Then Marcus Reed.
Thomas Vale.
Anthony Briggs.
All connected by red lines.
Then one final name.
GRANT WHITMORE
Logan stared.
“My father?”
I didn't answer.
Another file opened.
A bank transfer.
Twenty million dollars.
The recipient account belonged to a shell company.
But the destination was clear.
A Whitmore holding group.
Logan backed away.
“No.”
Daniel whispered, “That's the money.”
“What money?”
“The operation.”
Logan shook his head.
“My father didn't.”
I looked at him.
“Maybe he did.”
“No.”
“You don't know him.”
“Yes, I do.”
He looked furious.
“You've known him for twenty years?”
“No.”
“Then don't pretend you know what he's capable of.”
I stared at Logan.
“Everyone says that until the evidence becomes impossible to ignore.”
A steel door slammed behind us.
Logan turned.
Nobody.
Then a voice echoed through the basement.
“Claire.”
Adrian Cole.
We all froze.
He stepped from the shadows.
Older than the photograph.
Alive.
Holding no weapon.
He looked at me.
“I've been waiting.”
Daniel raised his gun.
Cole smiled.
“You still point first.”
Daniel's finger tightened.
“You're supposed to be dead.”
“I was.”
“For nineteen years.”
“Officially.”
I stepped between them.
“Where is Evan?”
Cole looked at me.
“Alive.”
“Take me to him.”
“Not yet.”
I stepped closer.
“You don't get to decide.”
“Yes.”
His eyes sharpened.
“Because if I wanted him dead, he'd already be dead.”
Logan stepped forward.
“Why was my father in those files?”
Cole turned to him.
“You really don't know?”
“No.”
“Your father didn't create the system.”
Cole's eyes moved toward me.
“He inherited it.”
I looked at Daniel.
“Explain.”
Cole answered.
“Twenty years ago, a group of military contractors discovered a way to manipulate classified intelligence for profit.”
He pointed at the files.
“Routes. Targets. Missions.”
“Soldiers?”
“Disposable.”
I clenched my jaw.
“You sold information.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Cole looked at Daniel.
Daniel lowered his gun.
Cole said:
“Someone on our team.”
The room went silent.
“Who?”
Cole looked directly at me.
“You.”
Logan's eyes widened.
Daniel looked shocked.
I didn't move.
Cole continued.
“Your identity was used to move the money.”
“Impossible.”
“You were the commander.”
“So?”
“So your credentials authorized the transfers.”
I stepped forward.
“Someone stole my credentials.”
Cole nodded.
“Exactly.”
“Who?”
Cole's face darkened.
“We never proved it.”
“Then why blame me?”
“Because three days before the convoy ambush, your access key was used.”
Daniel suddenly spoke.
“I found that access key.”
I turned.
“What?”
He looked at Cole.
“In Marcus's notebook.”
Cole nodded.
“Exactly.”
Daniel pulled the notebook from his pocket.
He flipped it open.
One page had been folded.
A line was written in Marcus's handwriting.
The Colonel isn't the traitor. Look at the witness.
Daniel looked at Logan.
Logan went pale.
“What witness?”
Cole stared at him.
“You.”
Logan's face twisted in confusion.
“I wasn't born.”
Cole said:
“No.”
Then he pointed toward the ceiling.
“You were.”
Everyone stared.
Cole continued.
“Your mother was the witness.”
Logan stopped breathing.
“My mother died.”
“No.”
Cole's eyes hardened.
“She disappeared.”
Then the building shook.
An explosion rocked the mansion.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Cole shouted:
“DOWN!”
The lights vanished.
May you like
And in the darkness, we heard a scream.
Logan's scream.
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