Chapter 10 - My Father’s Grave Was Empty
Thomas Hale died in a construction accident twenty-four years earlier.
Closed casket.
I remembered the funeral.
My mother shaking.
The flagless coffin.
The rain.
I remembered believing death was permanent.
Apparently my childhood had been built by professional liars.
Keene obtained an emergency exhumation order.
The coffin contained concrete.
No body.
I stared at the report.
“My mother knew?”
“We don’t know.”
She died six years after him.
Or after his disappearance.
Cole waited at my farm for exactly seventeen minutes before leaving.
He knew federal agents were watching.
He wanted us to follow.
We didn’t.
Instead we examined the challenge coin.
The hidden key unlocked one of Voss’s drives.
A video appeared.
My father.
Older than when he supposedly died.
“Clayton, if you ever see this, I failed.”
I could not move.
Thomas explained that he had worked as an engineer for Cole Dynamics.
He discovered Nathan Cole intended to privately sell military guidance architecture.
Thomas copied ownership records and source documentation.
Cole threatened our family.
So my father disappeared.
“You abandoned us.”
The video continued as if answering me.
“I told your mother I was dead because grief was safer than hope.”
I stood and walked away.
Keene paused the video.
“No.”
I turned.
“Play it.”
Thomas eventually contacted Voss.
Years later, when I entered the Navy, Voss recognized my name.
That explained everything.
Why he watched me.
Why he trusted me.
Why he distrusted me.
My father’s history had followed me into uniform.
Then Thomas said:
“Black Cedar was supposed to retrieve the final ledger and end Cole’s network.”
It failed.
Voss hid the evidence.
Thomas disappeared again.
“Where are you now?” I whispered.
The recording answered only with coordinates.
Same coordinates Walter had given me.
Keene looked at me.
“It could be a trap.”
“It is.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Cole knows about them.”
Still, we went.
Not alone.
Federal teams surrounded an abandoned grain facility before I entered.
Inside stood Voss.
Real this time.
Older.
Scarred.
Alive.
I stopped ten feet away.
“You destroyed my marriage.”
“Hello, Clayton.”
I hit him too.
Apparently reunions were becoming predictable.
He accepted it.
Then said:
“Your father is alive.”
“Where?”
“Cole has him.”
“Since when?”
“Three days.”
“Why?”
Voss looked at the coin.
“Because Thomas is the only person who knows the second half of the encryption.”
“And the first?”
“You.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Then Voss’s expression changed.
“But Cole doesn’t actually need the ledger anymore.”
“Why?”
“He needs you to believe he does.”
“For what?”
Voss looked toward Keene.
“Because Clayton Hale isn’t the target.”
Everyone froze.
“Then who is?”
May you like
Voss pointed directly at Agent Mara Keene.
“She is.”
