Chapter 2 - THE SILVER LIGHTER

Norah stared through the dense pine branches. The cold wind bit at her cheeks, but the chill spreading through her chest had nothing to do with the weather.

Hal Prescott.

The man who had complained about her arriving two minutes late, who had mocked her for fixing the register, who had sat in his cheap office counting diner receipts. He was standing over Dale with the practiced ease of a cartel executioner.

"Hal was Elias’s inside man," Sebastian whispered, kneeling beside her in the wet dirt. His dark eyes analyzed the tactical layout of the clearing. "He wasn't running a diner. He was running a listening post. Watching you."

Norah’s stomach churned violently. Every conversation, every late shift, every time she had brought Leo into the diner for pancakes on a Sunday morning—Hal had been watching, reporting back to the men who murdered her husband.

"Norah!" Hal’s voice echoed across the clearing. He kicked Dale maliciously in the ribs. Dale let out a wet, agonizing groan. "Elias doesn't want to kill you! He just wants the boy's compass and the key! Bring them out, and I'll let the old man live!"

It was a lie. Norah knew it. She had heard enough hostage negotiations on her dispatch headset to recognize the pitch of a man who intended to leave no witnesses.

"I'm going to draw his fire," Sebastian murmured, his voice calm, devoid of fear. He handed Norah the brass key. "When he turns his weapon on me, you run to the SUV. The keys are in the ignition. You take the boy and you drive."

"He'll kill you," Norah whispered, grabbing Sebastian’s sleeve.

"I have survived worse men than a diner manager," Sebastian said smoothly.

Before Norah could argue, a sharp, electronic chirp cut through the quiet of the woods.

It came from Hal’s pocket.

Hal frowned, keeping his rifle leveled at Dale. He reached into his jacket with his free hand and pulled out a burner phone. He put it on speaker.

"Prescott," Hal barked.

The voice that echoed out of the phone speaker froze the blood in Norah’s veins.

It wasn't Elias.

It was a voice Norah hadn't heard in three years. A voice that belonged to a man she had trusted with her life. A voice that had guided her through her very first day as a police dispatcher.

"Do you have them, Hal?"

It was Captain Miller. Her former commanding officer at the precinct.

Norah pressed a hand over her mouth to stop a scream.

"We have the old man," Hal replied. "Cole and the woman are hiding in the trees. They're cornered."

"Elias is getting impatient," Captain Miller’s voice crackled through the cheap speaker. "Listen to me carefully, Hal. Mark Vance was a fool. He tried to double-cross the precinct and Elias. But Norah is smart. If she has the compass, she’ll figure out how to open it."

Norah’s mind reeled. Captain Miller. He was dirty. The police force wasn't just turning a blind eye to Elias; they were actively running his operations.

"Just smoke them out," Miller ordered coldly. "Burn the woods if you have to. Leave the boy alive until you have the key. Then bury them all."

The line went dead.

Hal dropped the phone back into his pocket. He aimed the rifle directly at Dale’s head. "Time's up, Norah!"

"Wait!"

Norah didn't think. The pure, blinding rage of betrayal shattered her fear. She stood up, stepping out from the tree line, holding her hands in the air.

Sebastian cursed silently, raising his pistol, but he didn't have a clear shot without hitting Dale.

Hal smiled, a greasy, satisfied look. "There’s my best waitress. Bring me the compass."

"I don't have it," Norah lied smoothly, her voice ringing with the exact, measured calm she used to talk down suicidal callers on the dispatch line. "It's in the SUV."

Hal’s eyes darted toward the armored car. "Then get it."

"You know I can't do that, Hal," Norah said, taking a slow step forward. "Because the second I open that door, you shoot me. And then you have to figure out how to break ballistic glass before Sebastian puts a bullet in your spine."

Hal hesitated. He glanced toward the dark woods where Sebastian was hiding, a flicker of genuine fear crossing his face.

"What do you want, Bellamy?" Hal snapped, his grip tightening on the rifle.

"I want a trade," Norah said. She kept walking. Slow. Steady. Drawing his focus entirely onto her. "I give you the locker key. You let Dale get up and walk to the car."

"The locker key?" Hal sneered. "Elias wants the memory card in the compass."

"The card is encrypted, Hal," Norah said. She was ten feet away now. She could see the sweat on Hal’s forehead. "Without the cipher key in the locker, the card is useless. Miller knows that. Elias knows that. If you shoot me, you'll never find the locker."

She held up her empty left hand, keeping her right hand tucked slightly behind her hip.

Hal lowered the rifle by a fraction of an inch, calculating.

It was the only mistake he would ever make.

"Drop it!" Hal barked.

"Okay," Norah said.

She whipped her right hand forward. She didn't throw a key.

She threw the heavy, tarnished silver lighter Sebastian had given her.

It struck Hal square in the bridge of the nose with a sickening crunch.

Hal screamed, stumbling backward, his hands flying to his bleeding face. The rifle discharged wildly into the dirt.

Before Hal could recover, Sebastian exploded from the tree line.

He didn't shoot. He moved with the terrifying, silent speed of a predator. He crossed the distance in two strides, grabbed the barrel of the rifle, twisted it violently out of Hal’s grip, and drove the butt of the weapon directly into Hal’s jaw.

Hal hit the concrete like a sack of wet cement, completely unconscious.

Silence rushed back into the clearing.

Norah fell to her knees beside Dale. The old man was gasping, pressing a bloody hand to his chest.

"Dale, stay with me," Norah pleaded, pressing her jacket against his wound.

"Locker... 1044..." Dale wheezed, his eyes losing focus. "Take him down, Norah. Take them all down."

Dale’s eyes rolled back, and his head slumped against the concrete.

Norah let out a choked sob.

Sebastian knelt beside her. He pressed two fingers to Dale’s neck.

"He's alive," Sebastian said, his voice entirely devoid of panic. "The bullet missed his lung. But he needs a doctor now. Not a hospital. One of my people."

Sebastian stood up, hauling Hal’s unconscious body up by the collar.

"What are you doing?" Norah asked, panicked.

"We need the cipher from the bus terminal," Sebastian said, his eyes burning with a dark, lethal fire. "But Elias and Miller have a head start. It’s time we send them a message."