Chapter 24 - DAVID'S PLAN
Leah hated the photograph.
Not because someone had taken it.
Because someone had chosen her.
David Hale had known who she was.
Known where she worked.
Known Carver would underestimate her.
Marcus paced the gym office.
“So he used Leah.”
Daniel stood near the cage.
“Looks that way.”
Leah looked at her father.
“You're being very calm.”
“No.”
He turned.
“I'm being useful.”
The investigator arrived with another discovery.
David Hale had withdrawn money from a dormant account two months before Leah was attacked.
Then nothing.
But the withdrawal location mattered.
West Virginia.
Near an abandoned training complex once leased by Keystone.
Site Five.
Daniel looked at Marcus.
“You stay here.”
Marcus laughed once.
“No.”
“You have a business.”
“You have a habit of walking into places where people hate you.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Almost.
They went with federal agents.
Site Five sat behind rusted fencing.
Concrete.
Broken windows.
Weeds through asphalt.
The building had been officially empty for eleven years.
Inside, dust covered everything.
Except one hallway.
Fresh footprints.
They followed them underground.
A steel door waited at the end.
No lock.
Daniel opened it.
A small room.
Table.
Battery lantern.
Canned food.
Medical supplies.
Someone had been living there.
Recently.
Leah saw the wall first.
Photographs.
Carver.
Voss.
Dustin.
Marcus.
Daniel.
Leah herself.
Red lines connected names and dates.
At the center:
HALCYON.
Then a voice came from behind them.
“You took long enough.”
Agents spun.
Weapons raised.
An older man stood in the doorway.
Thin.
Gray beard.
Hands visible.
Daniel recognized him from the credential photograph.
Older now.
But unmistakable.
David Hale.
Leah whispered.
“My God.”
David looked at Daniel.
Then at the guns.
“I'd appreciate it if nobody shot me.”
Daniel stared.
“You sent the envelope.”
“Yes.”
“You called Leah.”
David's face changed.
“Yes.”
Daniel stepped toward him.
“My daughter ended up in a hospital.”
David didn't move.
“I know.”
Daniel stopped inches away.
“You better have a very good reason for still breathing.”
David looked directly at him.
“I do.”
Then he glanced at the wall.
“Jeremy Voss isn't running Halcyon.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
David continued.
“And neither was Carver.”
He pointed at a photograph Daniel hadn't noticed.
A man standing beside Voss in 2009.
Face partially turned away.
David said one name.
“Colonel Nathan Vale.”
Daniel stopped breathing for half a second.
He knew the name.
May you like
Everyone from 2009 did.
Nathan Vale had signed the order shutting the original program down.
