Chapter 7 - TWO MOTHERSGunfire exploded in the corridor.
Daniel pushed Olivia to the floor.
Rex lunged.
The lights returned.
The second woman was gone.
Only a dark hallway remained.
Daniel checked Olivia.
“You okay?”
She nodded.
“Where's Rex?”
Daniel turned.
The dog's leash had been torn loose.
“Rex!”
Nothing.
His heart stopped.
The best-trained partner he'd ever had had vanished into darkness.
Olivia looked at him.
“They took him.”
“No.”
Daniel shook his head.
“They didn't.”
A faint bark echoed somewhere below.
Daniel smiled grimly.
“He's tracking.”
They followed the sound.
Down another staircase.
Through a storage corridor.
Then into an old baggage sorting room.
Rex stood beside a metal table.
On it was a woman's handbag.
Daniel recognized it.
Olivia's.
He looked at her.
“You said you lost this.”
“I did.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
Daniel opened it.
Inside was a passport.
Olivia Hart.
But the photograph wasn't Olivia.
It was another woman.
Daniel's expression hardened.
The passport had been created years earlier.
The identity was fake.
“Who are you?”
Olivia began to cry.
“My real name is Sarah.”
Daniel waited.
“I met Nathan when we were both trying to expose them.”
“Expose who?”
“The Meridian Group.”
Daniel recognized the name.
A private security contractor.
They handled airport screening equipment and infrastructure.
“They own half the contracts in this terminal,” Olivia said.
“What does Eli have to do with them?”
“They thought Nathan stole something.”
“What?”
“A list.”
“Names?”
“No.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Locations.”
Daniel frowned.
“Locations of what?”
“Safe houses.”
The room went silent.
“People were being moved between airports,” she continued. “Nathan discovered the system. When he tried to expose it, they took him.”
“Why didn't you go to police?”
“I did.”
Daniel stared.
“Nobody believed me.”
Sarah looked at him.
“Because Meridian had people inside the police.”
Daniel remembered Vance.
Suddenly the entire case made sense.
But one question remained.
“Where's Eli?”
Sarah hesitated.
“There's something I never told Nathan.”
Daniel's voice hardened.
“What?”
“Eli isn't only a witness.”
Rex growled.
Sarah continued.
“He knows a code.”
“What code?”
“The code Nathan hid in the airport's emergency system.”
Daniel stared.
“A child knows a security code?”
“He doesn't know what it means.”
“Then how?”
Sarah looked toward the ceiling.
“He memorized the numbers from Nathan's phone.”
“Where is that phone?”
“In the backpack.”
Daniel went still.
“But the backpack was taken.”
Sarah nodded.
“Exactly.”
A radio came alive.
Vance's voice.
“You're looking in the wrong building.”
Daniel grabbed the radio.
“Where's the boy?”
“Ask Sarah.”
Daniel turned.
Sarah's face had gone pale.
“What?”
Vance laughed.
“Tell Daniel where Eli really came from.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
Then whispered:
“Eli isn't seven.”
Daniel stared.
“What did you say?”
“He's been seven for three years.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What?”
Sarah looked toward Rex.
“He was one of the children they moved through this airport.”
Daniel felt a cold pressure in his chest.
Then a security monitor flickered on.
Eli appeared.
He was standing alone.
Behind him was a digital clock.
00:30.
A voice spoke off-camera.
“Tell Officer Brooks the truth.”
Eli looked into the camera.
And for the first time, he didn't look afraid.
He looked angry.
May you like
“Sir,” he whispered.
“They took my real mother.”
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