Chapter 2 - Twenty-Four Years of LiesSarah hit the ground as bullets tore through the wooden bench behind her.
Hank fired twice from behind a stone planter.
“MOVE!”
Sarah grabbed the archive box and crawled toward the nearest tree.
Cutter disappeared into the smoke.
Men in dark jackets scattered between the parked cars.
Someone screamed.
Another gunshot shattered the windshield of the government sedan.
Vale lay on the pavement.
Motionless.
Sarah stared at him.
“He’s dead.”
Hank grabbed her shoulder.
“No time.”
“What happened?”
“You tell me.”
“I don’t know.”
“Then run first. Panic later.”
Hank pulled her through a narrow path leading away from the park.
They reached an old service road where Hank had hidden a second motorcycle.
Sarah climbed behind him.
The engine screamed.
They disappeared into the woods.
Ten minutes later, they stopped inside an abandoned garage.
Sarah jumped off.
“Hank.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
“You said you knew this could happen.”
“I knew someone was watching you.”
“You knew Vale was coming.”
“I knew he had to come.”
Sarah opened the box.
Inside the archive, beneath stacks of account books, was a photograph.
Frank Mitchell.
Hank.
And Robert Vale.
Standing together.
Sarah turned pale.
“You knew my father.”
Hank remained silent.
“You knew him.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Since before you were born.”
Sarah stared at him.
“And you never told me?”
“Your father made me promise.”
“You promised him.”
“I promised to keep you alive.”
“You lied to me for twenty-four years.”
Hank looked down.
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more than an excuse would have.
Sarah lifted the photograph.
“What was he doing with Vale?”
“Trying to destroy him.”
“But Cutter said Vale ordered his death.”
“He did.”
“Then why are they together?”
Hank walked to an old workbench.
“Because the man standing next to your father was not the Vale you think you know.”
Sarah followed him.
“What does that mean?”
“Robert Vale built two lives.”
“One public.”
“One private.”
Hank pulled out a map.
“The public Vale was a respected businessman. The private Vale controlled money moving through six states.”
Sarah studied the map.
Red lines connected ports, warehouses, banks and government offices.
“This is Cutter’s network.”
“No.”
Hank pointed to the lines.
“Cutter operated inside it.”
Sarah stared at him.
“So Cutter wasn't the boss.”
“Not even close.”
Sarah remembered Cutter's words.
I protected him.
A terrible thought entered her mind.
“Then what happened to my father?”
Hank hesitated.
“He discovered a transaction.”
“What transaction?”
“A payment.”
“To whom?”
Hank looked directly at her.
“Federal investigators.”
Sarah blinked.
“Vale was paying investigators?”
“No.”
He tapped a name on the map.
“The investigators were paying Vale.”
Sarah felt the room tilt.
Hank continued.
“Frank discovered that the government operation targeting Cutter was secretly controlled by Vale.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
He pointed to a date.
The date her father disappeared.
“That was the night Frank copied the records.”
Sarah’s fingers tightened around the archive.
“You said he was killed.”
“I said Vale ordered his death.”
“But you don't know that he died.”
Hank said nothing.
Sarah stared.
“You don't know.”
“I saw Frank after that night.”
Her eyes widened.
“Where?”
“Three days later.”
“Where?”
Hank looked toward the garage door.
“Alive.”
Sarah could not speak.
“Where was he?”
“He asked me to stay away from you.”
“Why?”
“Because someone was hunting him.”
“Who?”
Hank’s answer came quietly.
“Not Cutter.”
Sarah's heart pounded.
“Then who?”
Hank reached into his jacket and placed an old cassette tape on the table.
“Frank gave me this.”
Sarah stared at it.
“What is it?”
“The last thing he ever recorded.”
A sound came from outside.
A car door slammed.
Hank drew his weapon.
“Someone followed us.”
Sarah grabbed the cassette.
“How do we know it's not Vale?”
Hank looked toward the darkness.
“We don't.”
Then someone knocked three times on the garage door.
Pause.
One knock.
Sarah's blood turned cold.
Hank whispered:
“That was your father's signal.”
May you like
The door began to open.
THE SECOND ARCHIVE
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