Chapter 9
Elena’s blood ran cold.
“Why would Voss return to Camp Vora?”
Sterling looked almost amused.
“Because there’s one thing Daniel Mercer hid that none of you have found.”
“What?”
“You think I’m giving away my only bargaining chip?”
Elena stepped closer.
“You participated in financial coercion, retaliation, destruction of evidence, escape from military custody, and possibly conspiracy.”
Sterling’s face tightened.
“Possibly.”
“You are not negotiating from strength.”
“I am if Voss gets there before you.”
Elena stared at him.
Sterling finally said, “There’s an archive room underneath Building Twelve.”
“What’s in it?”
“Original contracting files.”
“Those are digitized.”
“Not the old off-book files.”
Elena’s pulse changed.
“Daniel’s copies?”
“Some.”
“Why weren’t they destroyed?”
“Rourke wouldn’t let anyone destroy the originals.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
Elena understood immediately.
Corrupt men sometimes kept proof against one another.
Mutually assured destruction.
“Voss is going there to burn them.”
Sterling nodded.
“Now you understand.”
Elena turned toward the MP commander.
“Secure Building Twelve immediately.”
The commander grabbed his radio.
Sterling called after her.
“General.”
She turned.
“Ask yourself why Voss knew Pike had failed at the bank before anyone announced it.”
Elena stared.
“What are you saying?”
“You still have someone inside your team.”
The warning hit hard.
Elena looked at every investigator around her.
Any of them could be compromised.
She switched channels and contacted Colonel Hale directly through the medical center.
He answered weakly.
“Ward?”
“Hale, I need you to listen carefully.”
“What happened?”
“Lock down Building Twelve without using normal command communications.”
Silence.
Then Hale said, “Why?”
“Voss may be heading there.”
Hale’s breathing changed.
“I know the room.”
“Can you secure it?”
“I’m in a hospital bed.”
“Tell me who can.”
Hale thought.
“Chief Warrant Officer Nolan.”
“Do you trust him?”
“With my life.”
“That’s not enough.”
Hale understood.
“Daniel trusted him too.”
Elena stopped.
“Nolan knew Daniel?”
“He was a young supply specialist back then.”
“Call him personally. Nobody else.”
She hung up.
At Camp Vora, Leo sat with William Mercer and Rachel while an investigator copied Daniel’s death report.
Leo could barely process the existence of his grandfather.
“You let me think you were dead.”
William looked ashamed.
“I know.”
“For eighteen years?”
“I watched from a distance.”
“That is not better.”
“No.”
“Did you come to my graduations?”
William hesitated.
Leo’s eyes widened.
“You did.”
“Yes.”
“Which ones?”
“High school.”
Leo remembered an old man standing near the back of the auditorium.
He had thought nothing of him.
“My Army swearing-in?”
William looked down.
“Yes.”
Leo stood.
“You watched me join the same institution you thought helped destroy Dad?”
William’s eyes filled.
“Your father loved the Army.”
Leo laughed bitterly.
“It ruined him.”
“No.”
William stood too.
“Men inside it betrayed him. That is not the same thing.”
Leo looked toward the line of soldiers giving statements.
William continued.
“Daniel believed an institution is only as honorable as the people willing to correct it.”
Leo’s face softened slightly.
“He said that?”
“Many times.”
Rachel wiped her eyes.
A siren suddenly sounded outside.
Not the normal installation alarm.
A security lockdown tone.
Mason burst through the door.
“Leo.”
“What?”
“Building Twelve.”
Leo’s stomach dropped.
“What about it?”
“Someone saw Voss.”
Rachel grabbed his arm.
“You stay here.”
Leo looked at the old report.
Then toward the door.
“No.”
“Leo.”
“If that building has my father’s records, I’m not hiding.”
William stepped between them.
“You are not your father.”
Leo stared.
William’s eyes were firm.
“That isn’t an insult. Daniel made his choices. You get to make yours.”
Leo’s jaw tightened.
“I am.”
He ran.
Mason followed.
Building Twelve sat on the older side of Camp Vora.
By the time Leo reached the outer perimeter, military police had surrounded it.
He was immediately stopped.
“Private, back.”
“My commanding general knows I’m involved.”
“Back.”
Then Chief Warrant Officer Nolan appeared.
He was in his fifties with a shaved head and a limp.
He saw Leo.
“Mercer?”
“Dawson.”
Nolan smiled sadly.
“Not today.”
Leo’s throat tightened.
“You knew my father?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s Voss?”
“Inside.”
Mason cursed.
Nolan lowered his voice.
“He entered through an old service tunnel.”
“Is he alone?”
“We don’t know.”
Elena’s convoy arrived.
She exited before the vehicle fully stopped.
“Status?”
Nolan answered.
“Power is cut to the basement. One possible suspect. Thermal camera shows movement near the archive.”
Elena saw Leo.
Her face hardened.
“I told you—”
“I know.”
She looked at Rachel arriving behind him with William.
“This family does not follow instructions.”
William gave a humorless smile.
“Runs in the blood.”
Elena did not have time to argue.
A muffled explosion shook Building Twelve.
Windows rattled.
Smoke began rising from a ventilation shaft.
“No,” Nolan whispered.
Elena shouted.
“Move!”
Fire crews rushed forward.
Inside the basement, Voss had ignited the first row of records.
Smoke filled the archive.
Military police entered from two sides.
Leo watched helplessly from behind the barrier.
Then he remembered Sterling.
“General!”
Elena turned.
“Sterling said Rourke kept originals as insurance.”
“Yes.”
“So would he keep them where Voss could easily burn them?”
Elena stopped.
William looked at Leo.
“He wouldn’t.”
Nolan heard.
“There’s another room.”
Everyone turned.
“Where?”
“Old command bunker.”
Elena stared.
Nolan pointed beneath the building.
“Below the archive.”
“How do we access it?”
“A mechanical hatch behind the records cage.”
Elena called the tactical team.
“Find the lower bunker.”
Minutes felt like hours.
Then the radio crackled.
“Lower access located.”
Another voice.
“Movement inside.”
Elena’s pulse quickened.
“Voss?”
“Negative identification.”
A burst of shouting came through the radio.
Then gunfire.
Rachel grabbed Leo.
The radio went silent.
“Team One?”
Nothing.
“Team One, respond.”
Finally:
“Suspect down.”
Elena exhaled.
“Identify.”
A pause.
“Not Voss.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Who?”
“Male, approximately forty. No identification.”
Nolan whispered, “He sent someone else.”
Leo looked at Elena.
“Then where is Voss?”
Elena turned toward the installation map.
Her eyes moved.
If the archive fire was a diversion…
Then Voss had another target.
Her face changed.
“The hospital.”
Leo froze.
“Hale.”
They ran.
At the medical center, Colonel Hale was alone when the door opened.
He looked up expecting a nurse.
Instead Edwin Voss walked in.
No weapon visible.
No hurry.
Hale’s face went still.
“Edwin.”
Voss closed the door.
“You look terrible.”
“I’ve had worse days.”
“I remember.”
Hale’s eyes hardened.
Voss walked toward the bed.
“Where is Daniel’s key?”
“Gone.”
“To Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“And the contents?”
“Also gone.”
Voss sighed.
“You always were disappointing.”
Hale looked at him.
“Daniel said the same thing.”
Voss smiled.
“But Daniel is dead.”
“And you’re afraid of him eighteen years later.”
The smile disappeared.
Voss reached beneath his jacket.
Hale watched.
“You know what’s funny?”
Voss paused.
“Daniel forgave me.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. He was sentimental.”
“No.”
Hale shook his head.
“He understood something you never did.”
“What?”
“That a man can change right up until the moment he chooses not to.”
Voss pulled out a pistol fitted with a suppressor.
Hale did not move.
“So this is your moment, Edwin.”
Voss raised the weapon.
The door burst open.
Leo hit him from the side.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Voss slammed against the wall.
Leo grabbed his wrist.
Voss struck him across the face.
Leo fell.
Hale ripped the IV from his arm and swung the metal pole.
It hit Voss’s injured wrist.
The pistol dropped.
Elena entered with MPs.
“Down!”
Voss froze.
Six rifles aimed at him.
He slowly raised his hands.
Leo pushed himself up.
Blood ran from his lip.
Voss looked at him.
For the first time they were face to face.
“You’re Daniel’s boy.”
Leo stared back.
“You remembered me.”
Voss smiled faintly.
“Your father made himself difficult to forget.”
Leo wanted to hit him.
He didn’t.
Instead he asked, “Did you send my father to die?”
The room went silent.
Voss looked at Hale.
Then Elena.
“You should ask Thomas.”
Leo stepped closer.
“I asked you.”
Voss’s expression changed.
“Your father had opportunities to walk away.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“He kept pushing.”
“Did you change his patrol route?”
Voss said nothing.
Leo’s voice cracked.
“Did you send him into that attack?”
Voss looked almost tired.
“Orders came from above me.”
Rachel entered just in time to hear it.
She stopped.
“Who?”
Voss looked at her.
“Rachel.”
She shook.
“Who gave the order?”
Voss slowly turned toward Elena.
“Thomas Rourke.”
Nobody moved.
Elena asked, “Will you state that formally?”
Voss laughed.
“You think he’ll let me reach a courtroom?”
“He doesn’t control this room.”
“He controls more than you think.”
Elena stepped closer.
“Then help us prove it.”
Voss looked at Leo.
Something in his face shifted.
Maybe exhaustion.
Maybe fear.
Maybe eighteen years of knowing exactly what kind of man stood above him.
Finally he said, “There’s an account.”
Elena’s eyes narrowed.
“Where?”
“Cayman Islands.”
“Whose?”
“Richard Rourke’s foundation.”
Rachel whispered, “The senator.”
Voss nodded.
“The military contracts funded it through shell vendors.”
“How much?”
“Over thirty million.”
Everyone went still.
“And Thomas?”
“Approved the vendors.”
“Sterling?”
“Collected smaller cash payments and intimidated anyone who asked questions.”
Hale looked disgusted.
“All these years.”
Voss laughed bitterly.
“You think corruption stays small?”
He looked at Leo.
“It starts with three thousand dollars from an emergency fund.”
Leo remembered Hale’s story.
Voss continued.
“Then someone realizes nobody noticed.”
His face emptied.
“So they take more.”
Elena signaled the MPs.
They cuffed him.
As they led him away, Voss stopped beside Leo.
“Your father could have lived.”
Leo’s eyes burned.
Voss continued.
“He only had to stay quiet.”
Leo looked directly at him.
“Then he wouldn’t have been my father.”
Voss was taken away.
For the first time, Leo felt no fear.
Only grief.
And something that felt almost like pride.
Elena’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“Yes.”
She listened.
Then looked at everyone.
“What?” Rachel asked.
Elena lowered the phone.
“Federal agents just executed a warrant on Senator Richard Rourke’s foundation office.”
Leo’s heartbeat quickened.
“And Thomas?”
May you like
Elena’s face tightened.
“General Rourke has disappeared.”
