Chapter 3 - A Name Behind the Smile
Raymond's expression answered before his mouth did.
"I meet hundreds of people," he said. "I can't remember every investor."
"Then remember this one," I said, taking the photograph. "The man with the silver watch."
"I said I don't know him."
Price studied me. He had orders to extract me, not investigate my relatives. I knew the look because I'd worn it myself: the moment when a mission becomes personal and therefore dangerous.
"Colonel, we have a transport window," he reminded me.
"Two minutes," I said.
I turned to Raymond. "Seven months ago Marcus disappeared after his unit met a source in a border town. Three people knew that meeting location. Last month you told Victoria you were flying there to meet an investment partner."
Victoria made an outraged sound. "You've been spying on my husband?"
"No. You've been telling everyone about his business trips at dinner."
My mother's mug rattled on its saucer. "Maybe this is a misunderstanding."
"That's what I hope," I said.
Raymond's phone lit up. He tilted the screen away. I caught two words in the notification: PAYMENT HOLD.
Price's security officer, Sergeant Owens, saw it too. "Sir, please put the phone on the hood."
"You need a warrant."
"You aren't being arrested," Owens said. "We're securing a potentially compromised site. You may refuse; we'll document it and move our people."
Raymond shoved the phone into his pocket, suddenly less certain of himself. I looked past him, toward the porch camera Marcus had installed when the neighbor's packages kept vanishing. Its little blue light was dark. It should have been blinking.
"Dad," I asked, "who disconnected the cameras?"
Harrison's face turned a blotchy red. "Raymond said the subscription was a waste of money."
"And who gave him the password?"
My father didn't answer.
Price touched his earpiece. His posture changed. "Colonel, we just received another packet. The voice transmission came from a relay registered to a shell company."
"Which one?"
He looked directly at Raymond. "Fairmont Strategic Holdings."
Raymond stopped breathing for half a second.
"That's my company," he said.
Then every phone on the driveway sounded a shrill emergency alert. Price listened to his radio, and the color drained from his face.
May you like
"Security team," he barked. "Move the colonel. Now. Someone just triggered the garage door remotely."
