Chapter 14 - The Last Fight
We escaped the facility before the charges detonated.
Walter disappeared.
Again.
My farm became the center of everything.
Federal agents reached it first.
The alternator was gone.
Security footage showed one person entering the barn.
Trent Larson.
I stared at the screen.
“No.”
Keene called him.
No answer.
Then a video arrived.
Trent sat inside his gym.
Walter stood behind him.
The alternator rested on a table.
“Bring the coin,” Walter said.
“Or the kid dies.”
Trent shouted:
“DON’T!”
Walter struck him and the video ended.
I looked at Voss.
“No weapons visible.”
“He’ll have them.”
“I know.”
“You’re not going alone.”
“I know.”
This time the old habits had evolved.
We built a plan.
Walter wanted the coin.
We gave him a duplicate.
I entered the gym wearing the same gray shirt from the tavern.
Trent was tied near the ring.
Walter smiled.
“Appropriate.”
“What?”
“This began on a fighting mat.”
“No.”
I held up the coin.
“It began before I was born.”
Walter released Trent.
“Send him over.”
“Coin first.”
“No.”
Walter laughed.
“You finally learned to negotiate.”
“From people who lied to me.”
Trent stumbled toward me.
Then Walter noticed the coin.
Wrong scratch pattern.
His expression changed.
“Fake.”
He reached inside his coat.
Trent moved first.
He slammed into Walter.
A gun skidded across the floor.
I grabbed Trent and pulled him clear.
Walter recovered fast.
Faster than a man his age should.
He attacked me.
Not like Trent.
No showmanship.
No wasted motion.
For the first time since leaving the Navy, I was fighting someone who understood exactly what I understood.
Stay small.
Watch his hips.
Let him believe he has already won.
Walter smiled as if he could hear the same voice.
“Voss taught you well.”
“No.”
I blocked him.
“Life did.”
He drove me backward.
I stumbled.
He followed.
Exactly what I wanted.
His weight shifted.
I trapped the arm.
Turned.
Dropped him.
Federal agents flooded the gym.
Walter laughed from the floor.
“You think arresting me ends anything?”
“No.”
Keene cuffed him.
Then Thomas entered carrying the real alternator.
He opened its casing.
Inside was a narrow titanium capsule.
The final ledger.
Walter’s face changed.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
Thomas handed it to Keene.
She unlocked the first file.
Names appeared.
Defense executives.
Military officers.
Politicians.
Then she stopped.
“Clayton.”
“What?”
“There’s a file on you.”
My blood chilled.
“What does it say?”
She opened it.
One photograph appeared.
Me.
Age seventeen.
Standing beside my father.
Except I had no memory of that photograph being taken.
Below it was a document signed by Thomas Hale.
Voss read over Keene’s shoulder.
Then looked at my father.
“You never told him?”
Thomas went pale.
“Told me what?”
Nobody answered.
I stepped toward him.
“Dad.”
His eyes filled.
“Clayton… you didn’t join the Navy by accident.”
The gym became silent.
“What does that mean?”
Thomas looked at the ledger.
“Walter didn’t start watching you after Black Cedar.”
May you like
He swallowed.
“He chose you before you ever enlisted.”
