Chapter 15 - The Man Who Wanted Out
Aaron Pike agreed to meet Sienna alone.
Of course she was not alone.
We put her in a borrowed sedan with a transmitter under the seat and a wire sewn into the lining of her jacket. Hsu’s team covered the location. Mason and I watched from a surveillance van two blocks away.
The meeting place was a twenty-four-hour laundromat.
Cheap fluorescent lights.
Rows of spinning machines.
Nobody there except a tired woman folding towels and an old man reading a newspaper.
Pike entered at 11:07 p.m.
Sienna’s breathing changed in our earpieces.
He sat across from her.
“You look terrible,” he said.
“You kidnapped me.”
“I kept you alive.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas wanted you dead after the trust transfer failed.”
Mason’s jaw tightened.
Sienna whispered, “Where’s my mother?”
“With Thomas.”
“Is she alive?”
“For now.”
“Why are you helping me?”
Pike looked toward the front windows.
“Because I’m next.”
He slid a key across the plastic table.
“Storage locker 318. Everything I saved is there.”
“What kind of everything?”
“Payments. Orders. Recorded calls. Your sister’s father investigating Northstar. Thomas arranging pressure on contractors.”
Sienna swallowed.
“And the plane?”
Pike looked down.
My heart stopped.
“What about the plane?” Sienna asked.
Pike rubbed his face.
“Thomas ordered a maintenance delay. He wanted General Bennett stranded overseas long enough to miss a hearing.”
“Did he sabotage it?”
“No.”
I exhaled.
Pike continued.
“But one of his contractors changed a component after the delay order. Thomas found out later.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know it happened?”
“Because Thomas killed the contractor.”
In the van, nobody spoke.
Sienna stared at Pike.
“Why would he kill him if Thomas wanted Dad stopped?”
“Because he wanted leverage, not a crash. A dead four-star general brings attention. Thomas hates attention.”
That did not clear him.
It made him different.
Maybe worse.
Pike suddenly looked toward the laundromat entrance.
The old man with the newspaper had stood up.
His hand disappeared inside his coat.
Hsu shouted over comms.
“Move, move!”
The lights went out.
A gunshot cracked through the laundromat.
Sienna screamed.
I ripped off my headset and reached for the van door.
Mason grabbed me.
“Wait.”
Another shot.
Then Hsu’s voice.
“Suspect down. Pike hit.”
We ran inside.
Pike was on the floor between two washing machines, blood soaking his shirt.
Sienna knelt beside him, crying.
He grabbed her sleeve.
“Locker,” he gasped.
Hsu pressed gauze against the wound.
Pike looked at me.
“You’re Olivia.”
“Yes.”
“Your father knew.”
“Knew what?”
His eyes struggled to focus.
“Thomas wasn’t the one inside the Army.”
My stomach dropped.
“Who was?”
Pike tried to answer.
Then his body went limp.
The paramedic pushed us back.
May you like
But before Pike’s eyes closed, he whispered one word.
“Ramirez.”
