Chapter 7 - The Price of Silence
Mara stared at the dead phone. Her first instinct was to turn the truck around and drive straight toward her parents' house. Naomi took the keys out of the ignition before she could move.
“Give them back.”
“No.”
“That's my mother.”
“And that's exactly why they called you.”
Liang sat on the curb, holding an ice pack against his cheek. “If they wanted her dead, they wouldn't bargain. They need the evidence intact.”
“That's supposed to comfort me?”
“No. It's supposed to help us think.”
Mara paced between the pumps. They had evidence, but no safe person to hand it to. Rourke controlled the post police. Meridian employed half the security contractors on base. Anyone could be listening.
Naomi turned her tablet toward Mara. “The flash drive contains encrypted folders. One is labeled LANTERN. The other is labeled HOMECOMING.”
Mara knew the second word. Daniel had written it on every letter he'd sent from overseas. Coming home was his promise to their mother.
A security video opened. It showed Daniel inside a warehouse, alive, arguing with a civilian executive. The audio was rough.
“People will get hurt,” Daniel said. “You can't bury civilian records inside military orders.”
The executive replied, “We already buried you.”
The file ended.
Naomi identified the man from a contract database: Warren Vale, chief operating officer at Meridian Logistics. His company had received millions in defense contracts while Daniel supposedly lay dead.
Mara called the number that had threatened her.
“I have the drive,” she said. “Proof of life first.”
A video arrived seconds later. Ellen sat in a chair, pale but unharmed, holding a card with today's date.
“Mom?” Mara whispered.
Ellen looked toward someone off-camera. Then she spoke loudly and clearly: “Remember the bluebird, sweetheart.”
The video cut.
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Mara felt cold all over. Their family had no bluebird tradition. But Daniel used to hide notes in a carved wooden bluebird above their kitchen door. If Ellen mentioned it now, she was telling Mara something was hidden there.
The next message contained an address and a deadline: MIDNIGHT. COME ALONE.
