Chapter 12 - The Man Who Started It
Olivia stared through the bars at the blond corporal. Mud streaked his uniform. He had come with a bolt cutter and a military police escort who waited on the lake road.
“Paige is safe,” he said. “Agent Shaw got her out. Hale told me about the tunnel before Voss arrested him.”
“Why are you here?” Olivia asked.
“Because I helped put you in danger. I can't undo it, but I can carry somebody out.”
Maya checked the escort's credentials before opening the gate. Briggs took Ellen's weight when she stumbled. Olivia could have hated the feel of his hands near her mother. Instead she watched carefully, and when he supported Ellen gently she said nothing.
They reached the roadside as sirens approached. Shaw stepped from an unmarked vehicle. “The drive's secure,” she said. “We have warrants for Voss and Kessler.”
“Voss is in the pumping house,” Maya replied. “He has armed men.”
A tactical team headed toward the tunnel entrance. Olivia sat beside Ellen in the ambulance and brushed damp hair from her face.
“Why keep you there?” she asked.
“Because I knew something they didn't,” Ellen replied. “I knew who signed the first authorization.”
“Kessler.”
Ellen shook her head. “A name above hers.”
Shaw leaned closer. “Do you have proof?”
Ellen reached inside her coat and withdrew a folded scrap of paper covered in tiny writing. “I took it out of a shredder basket. I've been hiding it in the hem of my pillow.”
It listed procurement transfers, meeting dates, and an initial that appeared again and again: R.B.
Ben's face tightened. “Robert Bell.”
“The deputy defense secretary?” Maya asked.
“He was deputy then,” Ben said. “Now he's chairing tomorrow's security demonstration.”
Shaw took the scrap in a gloved hand. Before she could speak, her phone vibrated. She read a message twice and looked up.
“The ceremony isn't tomorrow anymore,” she said.
Olivia's stomach dropped.
May you like
“Bell moved it to tonight. First guests arrive in forty minutes.”
THE MARK THEY TRIED TO ERASE •
