Chapter 7 - FALCON RIDGEThey wanted me to stay behind.
I refused.
Major Patel threatened to have me physically restrained.
General Caldwell suggested that would only waste manpower.
Marcus said nothing because he knew there was no world in which I let someone else rescue Kyle from a situation created partly because of me.
Falcon Ridge sat forty miles west, buried behind pine forest and a forgotten access road.
The communications station had been decommissioned almost fifteen years earlier.
Three concrete structures.
Two collapsed radio towers.
Underground cable tunnels.
Perfect for someone who wanted to disappear.
At 3:18 A.M., surveillance drones located one vehicle.
At 3:26, thermal imaging showed two people inside the central structure.
Possibly three.
At 3:41, Victor called.
He demanded Sarah’s laptop.
He wanted me to deliver it.
Of course he did.
Patel muted the call.
“No.”
“I can wear a vest.”
“No.”
“He wants me.”
“Exactly.”
“He’ll kill Kyle.”
“We don’t know that.”
I stared at her.
“Yes, we do.”
Caldwell stood nearby.
He looked at Patel.
“Can you build a controlled exchange?”
She hated the idea.
So did I.
But ten minutes later, that became the plan.
They gave me a replica laptop bag.
Body armor beneath a jacket.
Microphone.
Tracker.
Marcus adjusted the earpiece.
“If I say down, you hit the ground.”
“Yes, Mom.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
He stared at me.
“You don’t have to prove anything.”
“I know.”
That mattered.
Years earlier, I might have done it to prove I was brave.
Tonight I did it because Kyle deserved to come home.
I walked alone up the cracked road.
Moonlight cut through the trees.
The building appeared ahead.
Door open.
One light inside.
Victor Shaw stepped into view.
He looked ordinary.
That surprised me.
Late fifties.
Gray hair.
Glasses.
Khaki jacket.
The kind of man nobody would remember passing in an airport.
Kyle sat behind him with his wrists bound.
Blood marked his lip, but he was upright.
“Emily,” Victor said.
“Let him go.”
“The laptop.”
“First I see Kyle.”
“You see him.”
“I see a shape.”
Victor laughed.
“You are your mother’s daughter.”
My hand tightened around the bag.
“You knew her.”
“Very well.”
“Did you kill her?”
Kyle looked at me sharply.
Victor smiled.
“Is that what Diane said?”
“Answer me.”
“Sarah was inconvenient.”
My pulse hammered.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning she believed rules protected honest people.”
“You poisoned her?”
Victor’s expression revealed nothing.
“Your mother had a medical event.”
“Caused by you?”
“Prove otherwise.”
I wanted to kill him in that moment.
That frightened me.
Not because the feeling existed.
Because it felt so calm.
Marcus’s voice came through my earpiece.
“Emily. Stay with us.”
I breathed.
“Why target me overseas?”
Victor’s smile faded.
“You found something.”
“I didn’t know you existed.”
“Not consciously.”
“What does that mean?”
“Two years ago, you reviewed procurement irregularities in a communications contract.”
I remembered.
Routine audit.
Overpriced components.
Missing equipment.
I had flagged it.
Then deployed before the investigation concluded.
“That contract belonged to one of your shell companies.”
“Very good.”
“So you thought I knew.”
“I thought curiosity might run in the family.”
He nodded toward the bag.
“Laptop.”
“Kyle first.”
“No.”
“Then no deal.”
His hand disappeared into his jacket.
Marcus said, “Weapon.”
I froze.
Victor removed a phone instead.
He tapped the screen.
A red timer appeared.
Five minutes.
“What’s that?”
“Insurance.”
Kyle shouted, “He wired the building!”
Victor struck him.
I took one step forward.
“Don’t.”
“Laptop.”
“Where are the explosives?”
“Everywhere you don’t want them.”
Patel’s voice in my ear:
“Bomb team confirms possible devices. Keep him talking.”
I held up the bag.
“Why does the laptop matter?”
Victor’s eyes followed it.
“Sarah copied things she didn’t understand.”
“Such as?”
“Names.”
“What names?”
“People who prefer privacy.”
“Government?”
“Government is a temporary job title.”
Four minutes.
Kyle tugged at his restraints.
I saw something near his boot.
A broken cable tie.
He was working one hand free.
Good.
Victor stepped closer.
“Put the bag down.”
I did.
“Kick it.”
I kicked it halfway.
He frowned.
“Closer.”
“No.”
Three minutes.
Victor looked impatient.
“Do you know what Diane hated about you?”
“Don’t care.”
“You reminded Robert of Sarah.”
That struck harder than I expected.
“She knew he loved you in a way he could never love Kyle.”
Behind him, Kyle’s face hardened.
Victor smiled at my reaction.
“She spent years trying to erase Sarah from that family.”
“And you helped.”
“I helped where useful.”
Two minutes.
Kyle’s right hand came free.
I kept my eyes on Victor.
“What happens if the timer hits zero?”
“We find out whether military construction really was better in the eighties.”
Patel whispered, “We need to move.”
Then Victor heard something.
A branch.
A boot.
He turned his head.
Kyle lunged.
Everything happened at once.
Kyle tackled Victor.
Victor drew a pistol.
I ran forward.
A shot cracked.
Kyle screamed.
I slammed into Victor.
The pistol skidded away.
He hit me across the injured arm.
White pain blinded me.
I fell.
Marcus and the tactical team surged from the tree line.
Victor grabbed the phone.
Forty seconds.
He raised his thumb.
“BACK OFF!”
Everyone froze.
Kyle lay against the wall clutching his shoulder.
Victor smiled.
“You people never learn.”
Twenty seconds.
Patel shouted, “Victor, stop!”
I looked at the phone.
Then the wiring running from the timer box on his belt.
One detail was wrong.
No signal indicator.
No transmitter icon.
I remembered bomb-awareness training.
“You’re bluffing.”
His eyes changed.
Ten seconds.
Marcus shouted, “Emily!”
I kicked Victor’s knee.
His thumb hit the screen.
Zero.
Nothing happened.
Marcus slammed him to the floor.
Agents cuffed him.
Bomb technicians rushed inside.
Kyle laughed weakly.
“I knew you’d come.”
I crawled to him.
“You idiot.”
“You came too.”
“Yeah.”
“So we’re both idiots.”
I laughed through tears.
Then Victor began laughing.
Everyone looked at him.
His cheek pressed against the concrete.
“You think that was the bomb?”
Patel crouched beside him.
“What?”
Victor looked directly at me.
“The timer wasn’t for this building.”
My stomach dropped.
“Where?”
His smile widened.
“Ask your father.”
Forty miles away, my father was sitting in a secure military facility with Diane.
May you like
And in that same moment, according to the security footage we would watch later, Diane looked at the clock.
Then she smiled.
