Chapter 18 - The Last Name
Miriam disconnected the evidence server from the network.
“Too late,” she said. “Some files are gone.”
Jax stared at the surviving list.
“How many?”
“Seven deleted.”
“Can you recover them?”
“Maybe.”
Hannah came over while Eli sat beside Aaron’s stretcher.
“I made a copy.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What?” Jax asked.
She reached into the hem of her jacket and pulled out a tiny memory card sealed in plastic.
“I knew Cole had people everywhere. I wasn’t trusting one copy.”
Miriam took it like it was gold.
“Where did you learn this level of paranoia?”
Hannah looked at Jax.
“Family.”
The backup contained the complete ledger.
The seven deleted names reappeared.
The last name on the list made Miriam sit down.
Deputy Director Stephen Vale.
Her former supervisor.
The man who had signed Jax’s relocation papers.
The man who had informed them Cole was dead.
Miriam’s face went blank.
“He built the whole cover story.”
Jax understood the scale now.
Cole had not escaped justice by luck.
He had been protected.
Hannah pointed toward the tunnel. “And if Cole gets to Vale first?”
“He’ll disappear again,” Miriam said.
An agent approached. “Tunnel team found an exit. Vehicle tracks heading south.”
Jax asked, “Where?”
“County airport road.”
Cole was running.
Miriam issued the alert through an outside federal channel that Vale did not control.
They had maybe twenty minutes before Cole reached the private airfield.
This time Jax did not leave his family behind without a word.
He knelt beside Eli.
“I need to help them stop Cole.”
Eli looked toward his father.
Aaron, pale but conscious, nodded.
“Go,” he said. “Finish it.”
Hannah caught Jax’s hand.
“Come back.”
“I will.”
Jax rode with Miriam and two agents to the airfield.
They arrived as a small twin-engine plane began taxiing.
A black sedan blocked the service road.
Cole stood beside it.
And next to him was a tall man in a federal windbreaker.
Stephen Vale.
Miriam stepped from the vehicle.
Vale smiled as if greeting an old colleague.
“Miriam,” he said. “Put the gun down.”
She raised it instead.
Cole laughed.
Then Vale pointed his own weapon—not at Miriam.
May you like
At Cole.
And pulled the trigger.
