Chapter 17 - Midnight at the Airstrip
Torres ordered the surveillance teams to remain hidden until they could safely separate Lily from the adults.
Nathan watched through binoculars, every instinct urging him to run across the runway.
Marcus held Lily's wrist loosely enough that she could walk but firmly enough that she could not leave.
Whitcomb argued with him near the plane.
Their voices carried in fragments through a concealed microphone.
Marcus wanted cash and a clear route out of the state.
Whitcomb wanted the original records Sarah had stolen.
Neither man trusted the other.
Then Lily deliberately dropped her knitted hat.
Marcus bent to retrieve it.
Lily stepped backward toward the edge of the hangar where a security officer waited behind a support beam.
The officer whispered her name.
She froze, then recognized the three-star signal Sarah had taught her.
He showed her the sign with his fingers, and Lily ran toward him.
A spotlight snapped on at the far end of the runway.
Marcus turned.
'Get back here!'
The security team secured Lily and moved her behind an armored vehicle while state troopers blocked the airstrip exits.
Marcus tried to flee toward the plane but was stopped near the stairway.
Whitcomb dropped the black folder and raised his hands.
Nathan barely noticed the arrests.
He was running toward his niece.
When Lily saw him, her face crumpled.
'Uncle Nathan?'
He fell to his knees and wrapped his coat around her.
'You're coming home.'
She held his neck so tightly he could hardly breathe.
Then she pulled away and whispered that a man had promised to hurt Mommy if she told the truth.
Nathan said the man couldn't decide that anymore.
Lily shook her head.
'It wasn't Daddy.'
Nathan went still.
'Who was it?'
She pointed past the police vehicles to the woman standing beside the command trailer.
May you like
Victoria Kane.
