Chapter 6 - THE TRAPAvery didn't confront Colonel Vale.
Suspicion wasn't evidence.
She refused to become exactly what the saboteur wanted: someone reacting emotionally to partial information.
Instead, she created a lie.
Only four people heard it.
Vale.
Briggs.
Rourke.
And Major Mercer.
Avery told each of them that investigators had recovered a surviving drive from the warehouse fire.
That part was false.
Then she changed one detail for each person.
To Vale, she said the drive would be transported to Washington.
To Briggs, she said it was going to Fort Adams.
To Mercer, she said it would remain at Grafton.
To Rourke, she said civilian investigators were collecting it that night.
Four versions.
One leak would reveal the source.
Briggs smiled when she explained afterward.
“Old trick.”
“Old tricks work.”
“And if nobody takes the bait?”
“Then we learn something anyway.”
At 10:43 p.m., Avery's phone vibrated.
A secured perimeter sensor detected movement near the civilian access road.
A black SUV stopped beside a vehicle marked as a federal evidence transport.
The transport was fake.
So was the drive.
Avery watched through night optics from eighty yards away.
Three masked men exited the SUV.
Not soldiers in uniform.
They moved professionally.
One carried a cutting tool.
Another watched the road.
The third approached the evidence vehicle.
Briggs whispered beside Avery.
“Which story did they hear?”
Avery's jaw tightened.
“Rourke's.”
They moved.
Military police sealed both ends of the road.
Floodlights activated.
“ON THE GROUND!”
Two men surrendered instantly.
The third ran.
Briggs pursued.
Despite Avery's instructions, Rourke appeared from the darkness at the opposite end of the road.
He tackled the fleeing man.
Hard.
Too hard.
By the time Avery reached them, the suspect was unconscious.
Rourke stood.
“Got him.”
Avery stared at him.
“What are you doing here?”
“Heard the radio traffic.”
“You weren't assigned to this operation.”
“I came to help.”
Briggs walked up.
“Funny timing.”
Rourke looked at him.
“You accusing me of something?”
Avery stepped between them.
“Yes.”
Rourke's expression changed.
“Excuse me?”
“The attackers came because of information only you received.”
“That proves nothing.”
“It proves the information traveled from you to them.”
“I told Pierce.”
Avery froze.
Briggs stared.
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“You know where Pierce is?”
Rourke nodded.
“He contacted me.”
“Why didn't you report that?”
“He said he was afraid.”
“Of whom?”
“Vale.”
Avery's pulse quickened.
Rourke continued.
“Pierce thinks Vale is running the sabotage.”
That was exactly the suspicion Avery had considered.
Too convenient.
“Where is Pierce?”
“I don't know.”
“Show me the communication.”
Rourke handed over his phone.
No call.
No message.
“Encrypted app,” he explained. “It deletes automatically.”
Briggs laughed without humor.
“Of course it does.”
Avery looked toward the unconscious suspect.
“Wake him.”
Medical personnel cleared the man after several minutes.
His name was Curtis Hale.
Former military contractor.
He refused to answer questions.
The second suspect was more cooperative.
His name was Joseph Pike.
He had been paid $15,000 to intercept the vehicle.
“By whom?” Avery asked.
“Don't know.”
“How were you contacted?”
“Encrypted messages.”
“What were you supposed to recover?”
“A hard drive.”
“Why?”
“No idea.”
“Who told you it would be here?”
Pike hesitated.
“Guy called Shepherd.”
Avery noticed Rourke's shoulders tighten.
“Have you met Shepherd?”
“No.”
“He ever use another name?”
“No.”
“What happens after you get the drive?”
“We leave it at a drop.”
“Where?”
Pike gave the location.
An abandoned roadside motel thirty miles away.
Avery assembled a small team.
Vale insisted on coming.
That worried her.
Rourke also wanted to come.
Avery refused.
That worried Rourke.
At 0200, they approached the motel.
One room had lights on.
Room 12.
The door stood slightly open.
Briggs entered first.
Avery followed.
No shooter.
No trap.
One man sat tied to a chair.
Captain Harlan Pierce.
Alive.
His face was bruised.
His hands were bound.
Avery cut him loose.
Pierce could barely speak.
“They took me.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“What happened?”
“Someone used my access card. Then grabbed me near my quarters.”
“Why didn't they kill you?”
Pierce looked terrified.
“They wanted my login.”
“For what?”
“The old Hamilton files.”
Avery felt the entire case shift again.
“What did you tell Danner four years ago?”
Pierce closed his eyes.
“The truth.”
“What truth?”
“I believed him.”
“Then why did the investigation disappear?”
“Because my commander ordered me to stop.”
“Who commanded you?”
Pierce looked toward Colonel Vale.
Everyone turned.
Vale stood completely still.
Pierce's voice cracked.
“Colonel Nathan Vale.”
Briggs took one step away from Vale.
Avery didn't.
She looked directly into the colonel's eyes.
“Is that true?”
Vale's face seemed to age ten years.
“Yes.”
Briggs reached for him.
Avery blocked him.
“Why?”
Vale spoke slowly.
“Because four years ago, I was ordered to bury the investigation.”
“By whom?”
Vale stared at Avery.
“General Marcus Thane.”
Nobody spoke.
Everyone knew the name.
Thane wasn't merely a general.
He was scheduled to become one of the most senior commanders in the joint structure within weeks.
Avery understood why Danner had disappeared.
Why records vanished.
Why Vale had brought her secretly.
He hadn't recruited her because he trusted the system.
He had recruited her because he no longer did.
Vale lowered his head.
“I obeyed the order four years ago.”
Avery's expression hardened.
“And people got hurt.”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“Why reopen it now?”
Vale looked at Pierce.
“Because Danner wasn't the only person I failed.”
Then he looked back at Avery.
“And I finally decided I was more afraid of becoming the man Thane wanted me to be than of destroying my career.”
Avery wanted to believe him.
May you like
Then gunfire erupted outside the motel.
And the lights went out.
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