Chapter 14 - The Locked Yard

Smoke climbed over the old runway. Fire crews arrived at the fenced storage yard to find a small electrical fire in a portable office, not an exploding truck. Someone had already cut power to the security system.

Truck 214 stood beside the fence with its engine cold. There was no sign of Navarro.

"This is our chance to preserve the vehicle," Chen said. "Nobody enters until the scene is documented."

Mara stood outside the tape, listening to firefighters call measurements and locations. Waiting was harder than fighting, but she waited.

An investigator recovered a uniform sleeve button from the office floor, a printed access log and a cheap prepaid phone. The phone held a draft message: I LEFT ON MY OWN. STOP LOOKING FOR ME.

"Someone was making Navarro write it," Turner said.

Inside a locked metal cabinet, they found a second phone and a stack of inspection reports. The most recent report had been signed by a mechanic named Celia Brooks, who was on emergency leave.

Mara called the number on Celia's record. A man answered and said she'd left town. Her personnel file showed she was recovering from surgery at the base medical center.

"Two false stories in the same hour," Mara murmured.

At the hospital Celia lay awake with a bandaged wrist. When she saw Chen's badge, she gripped the bedrail.

"I filed the safety report," she said. "Harlan made me sign a new version. Then they told me my leave papers were missing."

"Did you see Navarro?" Mara asked.

Celia nodded. "Last night. They brought him to the yard to make him change his statement. He refused."

"Who took him away?"

"A civilian driver. Gray pickup. He had a scar across his chin."

Mara showed her the old photograph of Adam's maintenance team. Celia pointed to a man in the background.

"That's him."

The caption identified the man as James Whitlock.

Chen's phone rang. She listened, then looked sharply at Mara.

"Whitlock just boarded a private plane," she said. "And the passenger manifest lists one additional person: Eli Navarro."

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The plane was cleared for departure.