Chapter 15 - Northwatch
At 3:14 a.m., Reed received a federal search warrant for Northwatch Annex. Three law-enforcement vehicles and a medical unit assembled beyond the county road closure. Mara was ordered to stay with the family protection team.
“You're a witness, not an arresting officer,” Reed told her.
“I'm also the person who knows my brother's voice.”
“We'll call you when we find him.”
Mara held his gaze. “You better.”
Reed's team approached the gate with lights flashing. A private guard challenged them, then stepped aside when shown the warrant. Inside, the corridors were cleaner than the outside suggested. Fresh paint covered older signs. New security cameras watched every turn.
Over a radio, Reed described two empty dormitories, a locked records room, and a freight elevator leading below ground. Then static swallowed his words.
Naomi sat beside Mara in the command van. “They're jamming the signal.”
A guard burst from the building shouting that the lower level had been evacuated. Reed refused to accept it without a search. Minutes later the radio returned.
“Bennett,” Reed said, breathless. “We found holding rooms. Blood on one mattress, restraints on the frame. Nobody here.”
“Is there another exit?” Mara asked.
“We're checking.”
Liang studied the annex diagram and pointed to the cooling system. “The old transfer tunnel. It connects to the river road.”
Mara leaned over the map. Daniel had once sketched the same layout on a napkin when he suspected supply theft at Fort Gray. A hidden exit ran beneath the loading dock.
She grabbed the microphone. “Agent Reed, check the loading dock foundation. There's a freight ramp below it.”
A burst of gunfire cracked through the radio, followed by a shouted order to get down. Mara went cold.
Then Reed spoke, voice strained. “We have an officer wounded. Two vehicles just broke through the rear gate.”
Mara watched the map as their tracking signal split in two directions. One truck headed for the highway. The other moved toward the river.
On her prepaid phone, an incoming video call appeared. Daniel's face filled the screen. His lips were split, but he was alive.
May you like
She remembered walking through an airport after her last deployment and seeing families press against barriers, waving flowers and homemade signs. At the time she'd watched a little boy leap into his mother's arms and thought about the reunion Daniel would never have. She had not let herself picture him alive since the funeral; hope had felt like disloyalty to the dead. Now she held a live image of his face in her mind and found that hope could be just as painful as grief. In the command van, Naomi passed her a bottle of water. Mara couldn't swallow. Liang sat on the opposite bench, knees still from long practice but hands shaking slightly. The man who'd seemed untouchable in the training hall looked suddenly old. “You kept your promise,” Mara told him. “Not yet,” he said. “Not until your brother walks into daylight.”
“Don't follow the trucks,” he said. “They're the distraction.”
