Chapter 14 - Fifteen Minutes

We listened in a small conference room with no windows. The agent reminded us that the recording was evidence, not a complete history. Then she pressed play.

Wind hissed against a microphone. Jonah's voice came through, younger and clearer than any memory I had kept.

"Gate Three release confirmed," he said. "Water rising on the south approach. Recommend hold convoy."

A man's voice answered over a speaker. Mercer's. "Negative. Keep moving. We have a clearance."

Jonah said, "Sir, county dispatch says the release is active."

"And I'm telling you it is not. You want to argue, Sergeant, do it when we're home."

A click. Then Jonah, speaking quietly into his recorder: "Nine twenty-one. Warning repeated. Colonel Mercer overrode recommendation."

Leah covered her mouth. I watched her shoulders tighten but she did not cry.

The next segment came from the river. My own voice sounded harsh and distant. "Castillo's clear. Rope ready. Tell Brody to stay out."

Then the water. Someone yelling for Tillman. Brody shouting that he couldn't feel his legs. Jonah's voice once more, barely audible.

"Captain, don't come in."

I stared at the table. There he was again, alive for another few seconds.

The agent paused the recording before the final section. "There's more, and it may be difficult to hear."

Leah gripped my hand. "Play it."

Jonah coughed. "Erin, look at me. You get out. You hear?"

My voice: "Not without you."

A metallic crash almost swallowed the next words. Then Jonah said, "Tell Caleb—" He stopped himself. Caleb had not been born yet; Jonah only knew there was a baby coming. "Tell my kid I wasn't scared to be his dad."

Leah broke. I put an arm around her and we sat there while the room held a grief that had waited six years.

At the very end, after the water noise faded, another voice spoke, close to the microphone. It was my father.

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"I have the bag," he said. "Wade, I heard the tape. You told me the wrong thing."

And Mercer answered, "Then you know exactly what happens if it ever gets out."