Chapter 14 - EVERYONE HAD BEEN WATCHINGDaniel couldn't breathe.
“My mother?”
Hale nodded.
“She thought she could expose us.”
“What happened to her?”
“She made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“She trusted the wrong police officer.”
Daniel stared at Hale.
“You.”
Hale shrugged.
“She was eliminated.”
Daniel's hands shook.
“You've been around me my entire career.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed to know whether you remembered.”
“Remember what?”
Hale looked at Eli.
“Children remember more than adults think.”
Eli suddenly spoke.
“Red door.”
Everyone turned.
Hale frowned.
Eli continued.
“Mom said the red door was where bad men kept the names.”
Daniel looked at the files.
The red door.
Not a location.
A symbol.
A record system.
Hale's control changed.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
Daniel noticed.
“You never expected Elena to keep evidence.”
Hale looked at Aaron.
“You.”
Aaron smiled bitterly.
“I copied everything.”
Lena pulled a drive from her jacket.
“I uploaded it.”
Hale aimed his gun.
“You won't survive.”
“Maybe not,” Lena said. “But thousands of people already have copies.”
Hale's eyes widened.
Outside, sirens intensified.
This time they weren't his people.
State police had arrived.
Federal agents followed.
Hale grabbed Eli and backed toward the exit.
Daniel stepped forward.
“Victor.”
Hale stopped.
“You spent twenty years teaching criminals how to disappear.”
Daniel's voice dropped.
“But you forgot one thing.”
“What?”
“Children talk.”
Eli pointed at Hale.
“You were there.”
Hale stared.
The boy continued.
“You were the man with the red watch.”
Hale looked at his wrist.
A red-faced watch.
The exact one visible in dozens of old photographs.
The evidence room doors burst open.
Agents stormed inside.
Hale dropped his weapon.
Eli ran.
Daniel caught him.
The boy buried his face in his chest.
Hale was arrested.
The files were seized.
The network began collapsing.
But there was one final question.
If Hale was only the Director...
Who had created him?
Two days later, Daniel sat in a hospital room beside Elena.
She was recovering.
Eli slept in the chair beside her.
A federal investigator entered.
“We found the original ledger.”
Daniel looked up.
“And?”
“The first payment.”
“Who made it?”
The investigator hesitated.
Then placed a photograph on the table.
Daniel looked down.
His face went pale.
The name on the payment was not Victor Hale.
It was not Adrian Voss.
May you like
It was not Aaron Mercer.
It was someone no one expected.
