Chapter 8 - THE LAST TARGETDaniel Reeve hadn't been abducted.
Security footage showed him leaving the hospital under his own power at 1:14 a.m., shoulder bandaged, wearing stolen scrubs beneath a janitor's jacket.
He stole a car ten minutes later.
Then disappeared.
Mara watched the footage twice.
“He's going after Mercer.”
Ortiz nodded.
“Likely.”
Cole stood beside her.
“Can you blame him?”
“Yes,” Mara said.
Cole looked at her.
“That doesn't mean I don't understand.”
Three years hunted.
Friends dead.
Life destroyed.
Daniel didn't want justice anymore.
He wanted an ending.
Those were not always the same thing.
Ortiz spread maps across a conference table.
“Mercer's known residences are covered. Airports alerted. Financial accounts frozen.”
“He won't use any of them,” Mara said.
“Where would he go?”
Mara thought.
Mercer had compromised Black Lantern because Meridian paid him.
But men rarely risked everything for money alone after already becoming powerful.
There had to be contingency.
Records.
Leverage.
Insurance.
“Meridian archive.”
Ortiz frowned.
“We don't know where it is.”
“Daniel might.”
Cole nodded.
“He spent three years investigating.”
Mara examined Reeve's files.
One location appeared repeatedly.
A decommissioned radio station in the mountains.
Meridian Logistics had purchased the surrounding land through a subsidiary five years earlier.
“Here.”
Ortiz immediately deployed federal agents.
Mara reached for her jacket.
“You're staying.”
“No.”
“You're a witness, not an assigned investigator.”
“Daniel will talk to me.”
“He shot at government facilities.”
“No. Mercer staged one explosion and blamed Daniel.”
Ortiz hesitated.
Mara pressed.
“If agents surround him, he'll assume Mercer reached them.”
Cole added, “She's right.”
Ortiz looked at him.
“You're definitely not coming.”
Cole nodded.
“Understood.”
Mara looked at him suspiciously.
He smiled.
“What? I'm learning.”
Twenty minutes later, Cole was hiding in the rear compartment of Briggs's truck.
When Mara discovered him at a road checkpoint, she stared for a full five seconds.
Cole climbed out.
“You said I was learning. Not that I'd graduated.”
“You are exhausting.”
“So I've heard.”
There wasn't time to argue.
They drove into the mountains with Ortiz's team.
Rain began.
Of course.
Mara hated rain.
It pulled her backward three years.
Rotor blades.
Blood.
Eli's weight against her shoulder.
His voice fading.
She forced herself into the present.
The radio station stood on an isolated ridge.
No lights.
No vehicles.
They approached on foot.
Ortiz ordered her agents to hold perimeter.
Mara entered with Cole.
Inside, old broadcasting equipment gathered dust.
A staircase led underground.
They descended.
At the bottom they found modern servers.
Dozens.
Meridian's archive.
And Daniel Reeve.
He stood beside the main terminal holding a pistol.
General Mercer sat on the floor across from him.
Hands tied.
Blood on his lip.
Alive.
Mara stopped.
“Daniel.”
Reeve looked at her.
“You shouldn't have come.”
Cole saw Mercer.
His entire body tightened.
This was the man whose betrayal had led to Eli's death.
Mercer looked at him.
“Maddox.”
Cole stepped forward.
Mara blocked him.
“No.”
“He killed Eli.”
“Not like this.”
Mercer laughed softly.
Reeve struck him with the pistol.
“Quiet.”
Mara kept her voice steady.
“Daniel, put it down.”
“You know what he did.”
“Yes.”
“He sold our route.”
“Yes.”
“He had Eli killed.”
Mara looked at Mercer.
“Did you?”
Mercer said nothing.
Reeve kicked him.
“Answer.”
Mercer slowly lifted his head.
“I ordered compromised personnel contained.”
Cole's fists tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Mercer looked at him.
“Your brother discovered information he wasn't supposed to discover.”
Cole lunged.
Mara caught him.
Mercer smiled.
That smile almost broke Cole.
“He's baiting you,” Mara said.
“I don't care.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don't!”
“You will tomorrow.”
Cole froze.
Mara stared into his eyes.
“You will care tomorrow. And next year. And every day after. Don't let him decide who you become.”
Cole breathed hard.
Slowly, painfully, he stepped back.
Mercer's smile vanished.
Daniel watched.
“You always know what to say, Captain.”
“No.”
Mara looked at him.
“I spent three years learning what I should've said.”
Reeve's weapon remained trained on Mercer.
“You left me.”
“Yes.”
That surprised everyone.
Mara continued.
“I left you.”
“You thought I was dead.”
“I accepted that too quickly.”
“You searched.”
“Not long enough.”
Shaw had told her it wasn't her fault.
Official reviews cleared her.
Her own team told her there had been no alternative.
But command wasn't about pretending every decision had been perfect.
Sometimes healing required admitting what couldn't be repaired.
“I failed you, Daniel.”
His face trembled.
Mara continued.
“But killing him won't undo that.”
“No.”
“It won't bring Eli back.”
“No.”
“It won't give you three years back.”
“I know.”
“Then what does it give you?”
Daniel stared at Mercer.
“Silence.”
Mara understood.
The running.
The paranoia.
Waking at every sound.
Seeing betrayal everywhere.
He didn't want revenge because he hated Mercer.
He wanted revenge because he was tired.
“Give me the weapon.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I'm done running.”
“So stop.”
“They'll bury this.”
“Not anymore.”
“They always do.”
“Daniel.”
Mara stepped closer.
“I won't.”
His eyes met hers.
“You promise?”
“Yes.”
“You promised we'd all come home from Black Lantern.”
The words cut deep.
Mara didn't look away.
“I did.”
“And we didn't.”
“No.”
“Why should I believe you now?”
Mara had no clever answer.
So she gave him the truth.
“You shouldn't believe promises because someone sounds certain.”
She slowly extended her hand.
“Believe the evidence.”
She pointed toward the servers.
“Mercer's records. Reeve's files. Inspector General outside. Twenty-four operators who saw enough to testify. Shaw. Me. Cole.”
Cole stepped forward.
“And me.”
Daniel looked at him.
Cole's voice softened.
“My brother came back for you.”
Reeve's face changed.
“He shouldn't have.”
“That's not your decision.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Cole continued.
“If Eli died saving you, don't make his last choice meaningless.”
Silence.
Then the pistol lowered.
Mara breathed.
One inch.
Two.
Daniel's fingers loosened.
Then Mercer moved.
Fast.
He slammed his shoulder into Reeve's injured side.
Daniel screamed.
The pistol fell.
Mercer grabbed it.
Mara pushed Cole aside.
Gunshot.
The bullet struck metal.
Mara tackled Mercer.
They hit the floor.
Mercer was stronger than his age suggested.
He drove an elbow into Mara's shoulder.
She lost grip.
He tried to bring the weapon around.
Mara trapped his wrist.
For one absurd instant, she remembered the training room.
Maddox laughing.
Everyone watching.
Strength against leverage.
Mercer pushed harder.
Mara shifted her hips.
Turned.
Used his momentum.
The general hit the concrete floor.
The pistol slid away.
Cole grabbed it.
Mercer tried to rise.
Mara locked his arm behind his back.
Exactly as she had done to Cole.
Except nobody laughed this time.
Federal agents rushed downstairs.
Ortiz handcuffed Mercer.
He looked at Mara.
“You think this changes anything?”
“Yes.”
“You think institutions care about one dead soldier?”
Mara's expression hardened.
“No.”
She looked toward Cole.
“People do.”
Mercer was taken away.
Daniel surrendered voluntarily.
Before agents escorted him out, he stopped beside Mara.
“What happens to me?”
“I don't know.”
“You always say that.”
“Because it's true.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Then looked at Cole.
“Your brother was scared.”
Cole stiffened.
Daniel continued.
“But not for himself.”
“He told Mara he wasn't.”
“He wasn't scared of dying.”
Reeve swallowed.
“He was scared you would spend the rest of your life trying to become him.”
Cole looked down.
Daniel was led away.
Outside, dawn began rising beyond the mountains.
Mara and Cole stood near the old radio tower.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Finally Cole said, “He was right.”
“Who?”
“Eli.”
“About what?”
“I've been trying to become him.”
Mara looked toward the sunrise.
“No.”
Cole waited.
“You've been trying to become the version of him you invented after he died.”
Cole stared.
Mara continued.
“The real Eli made mistakes. Told terrible jokes. Snored like farm machinery. Once forgot half his ammunition on a training mission and blamed the helicopter crew.”
Cole laughed.
“He did?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds more like him.”
“He wasn't a legend.”
Mara looked at Cole.
“He was your brother.”
May you like
Cole nodded slowly.
For the first time in three years, that seemed enough.
