Chương 9
Keene pressed the radio button.
“What happened?”
“We found a second door.”
Mara stared at Building 119.
“Where does it go?”
“Stairwell, service side.”
“Secure it.”
“Ma’am, it’s already open.”
Keene swore and began moving.
Mara followed.
This time nobody told her not to.
They had gone perhaps twenty yards when a military police vehicle accelerated around the far corner.
It stopped hard beside them.
An officer jumped out.
“Agent Keene, Gate Seven recovered exterior footage.”
“Thomas?”
“No.”
“Mercer?”
The officer held up a tablet.
“Both.”
He played the video.
A black government sedan sat outside the gate.
Mercer was behind the wheel.
Thomas occupied the passenger seat.
They were not fighting.
They were talking.
At 4:31, Thomas opened the door and got out.
Mercer followed.
The two men stood beside the car for almost a minute.
Then Thomas shoved Mercer against the hood.
Mercer did not retaliate.
Thomas pointed back toward the installation.
Even without sound, Mara could see him shouting.
Mercer said something.
Thomas froze.
Then Mercer reached into his jacket and handed him a folded piece of paper.
Thomas read it.
His knees seemed to weaken.
He caught the car door.
After several seconds, he climbed back into the passenger seat.
Mercer returned to the driver’s side.
The sedan pulled away.
“Where did they go?” Keene asked.
“Traffic camera caught them heading east.”
“Destination?”
“Unknown.”
Mara watched the video again.
“Back up.”
The officer did.
“Stop.”
Thomas was holding the paper.
His hand had shifted just enough to expose one corner.
Something was printed there.
Not words.
A symbol.
An eagle above a vertical blade.
Evelyn whispered, “Oh God.”
Mara looked at her.
“You’ve seen that somewhere else.”
Evelyn’s face had gone white.
“Not the medal.”
“Where?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Mom.”
“In Daniel’s apartment.”
“When?”
“The night after he came to see you.”
“What was it on?”
“A folder.”
“What folder?”
“I don’t know.”
“You opened it.”
Evelyn looked away.
Mara stepped in front of her.
“You opened it.”
“There were photographs.”
“Of what?”
“Men.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t know them.”
“Mercer?”
“No.”
“Shaw?”
“I don’t remember.”
Mara caught the wording.
“You remember somebody.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“There was one photograph I recognized.”
“Who?”
Evelyn opened them again.
“Thomas.”
Mara felt Caleb shift behind her.
“Doing what?”
“He was standing outside a building.”
“What building?”
“I didn’t know then.”
Evelyn turned toward Building 119.
“But I know now.”
The second-floor curtain moved again.
Mara looked up.
This time she saw a face behind the glass.
Only for a second.
Then it disappeared.
“Keene.”
The agent followed Mara’s gaze.
“Second floor.”
Security personnel moved immediately.
Mara heard boots inside the building.
A shout came from somewhere above.
Then another.
The radio exploded with overlapping voices.
“Movement east corridor.”
“Service stairs.”
“Stop.”
“Show me your hands.”
A door slammed inside.
Caleb moved Mara backward.
She resisted until he said, “Not negotiable, ma’am.”
A man burst through the service exit.
He was perhaps sixty, thin, wearing maintenance coveralls and running badly.
Two officers brought him down before he reached the pavement.
His glasses skidded across the concrete.
He did not fight once they had him.
He only twisted his head toward Mara.
For one impossible moment, his face changed when he saw her.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
“Daniel’s girl,” he said.
Mara went cold.
Keene approached him.
“Who are you?”
The man ignored her.
His eyes stayed on Mara.
“You have his eyes.”
Evelyn made a broken sound.
Keene crouched beside him.
“Name.”
The man smiled against the pavement.
“Ask General Shaw.”
Then he looked at Mara again.
“And if you want Thomas alive, don’t let Mercer take him back to Jordan.”
Keene’s expression did not change, but three officers moved between Mara and the man on the pavement.
“Who is Mercer taking to Jordan?”
The man laughed once.
It came out as a cough.
“You think I’m answering questions while my face is being ground into concrete?”
Keene looked at the officer kneeling across his shoulders.
“Sit him up.”
They pulled him against the wall.
A plastic restraint tightened around his wrists.
Up close, he looked older than Mara had first thought, with sunken cheeks and a pale scar disappearing beneath his left ear.
His maintenance coveralls carried a stitched name patch that read HARRIS.
Keene crouched again.
“Is that your name?”
“Today.”
“Try again.”
He looked past her at Mara.
“Captain Velez.”
“Look at me,” Keene said.
“I am looking at the person who matters.”
“That’s going to become a problem for you.”
“Most things do eventually.”
Mara stepped around the officer blocking her.
Caleb caught the back of her borrowed sweatshirt.
“Ma’am.”
“He knows me.”
“That does not make approaching the restrained mystery man an excellent idea.”
She stopped several feet away.
The stranger smiled faintly.
“Same temper.”
“Whose?”
His smile vanished.
Mara felt Evelyn move behind her.
“Daniel’s?”
The man studied Mara’s face.
“No.”
The answer unsettled Evelyn visibly.
Mara noticed.
“Then whose?”
Keene cut in.
“You can have this conversation after he identifies himself.”
The man leaned his head against the wall.
“Elias Grant.”
Keene glanced at an officer, who immediately moved away with the name.
“What were you doing inside Building 119?”
“Waiting.”
“For Thomas?”
“No.”
“Mercer?”
“No.”
“Mara?”
Grant looked at her again.
“For whoever came looking.”
“That is a conveniently broad category.”
“I’ve had twenty-eight years to broaden it.”
Mara heard the number.
“So you knew Daniel.”
Grant’s eyes narrowed.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“We worked together.”
“For whom?”
Grant looked at Keene.
“I’d like an attorney.”
Keene stood.
“Of course.”
Mara almost shouted.
Grant had offered precisely enough to create questions and then retreated behind a right nobody could reasonably deny him.
He saw her frustration.
“Good,” he said.
“What?”
“You’re angry.”
Caleb stepped closer.
“Careful.”
Grant ignored him.
“Daniel got frightened near the end.”
Mara stared at him.
“You just asked for an attorney.”
“I’m making an observation.”
“Then observe quietly.”
That produced the faintest smile.
May you like
“Definitely his daughter.”
Evelyn turned away.
