Chapter 17 - The Captain's Last Order
Dad's chair was empty.
He'd stepped outside the interview room six minutes earlier, escorted by an officer with a temporary badge. The officer was now missing too.
Chloe stared at the security footage. "He walked out willingly."
"He thought he could bargain," Torres said.
A call came through on the emergency line. Dad's voice sounded thin, with a vehicle engine roaring behind him.
"Harper, don't come. He wants the drive."
Then Grant spoke. "Your father has one chance to tell us where the final backup is."
The line went dead.
The drive's data had already been duplicated onto secured evidence servers. But Grant didn't know that. I asked Torres to let me speak if he called again.
"You are not going to trade yourself for him," she said.
"No. I'm going to make him think I might."
Grant called nine minutes later. I told him I had a backup hidden in my mother's old house. I described a locked box in the attic, down to the faded brass latch.
It was a lie built from details Dad would recognize. As a child, I'd hidden birthday presents in that box. Grant had never been inside our house. If Dad heard the description, he'd understand I was signaling a trap.
"Bring it to the old naval warehouse," Grant said. "No police."
"You know that's not happening."
"Then your father dies."
I heard Dad shout in the background. "Harper, don't let him make you choose!"
Grant struck him. The sound was small, sickening, unforgettable.
Chloe grabbed my hand. Her nails bit into my palm, but I didn't pull away.
"We get him back," I told her. "Then we tell the truth about all of it."
A location ping appeared on Torres's monitor. Ben had planted a tiny transmitter in Dad's phone before the questioning, just in case Kessler reached him.
The signal placed Grant at a warehouse near the waterfront.
Then a second signal flashed on the map: Kessler's tracker, moving away toward the airport.
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"They're splitting up," Torres said. "We can only reach one in time."
THE SCARS THE ADMIRAL REMEMBERED
